Forwarded from Dismantle Damon
Occupation Raided Birzeit University On 6 January 2026
Glory To The Palestinian Student Movement
On 6 January 2025, the occupation raided Birzeit University north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
Military forces, with 20 army jeeps, stormed the campus, firing ammunition and gas bombs at crowds, as at least 8,000 students were trapped inside the university.
According to medical and local sources, more than 40 students were wounded during this attack, including 9 by live bullets. The raid took place few minutes before a student mobilization held in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Zionist prisons.
Hundreds of Palestinian students are imprisoned by the occupation forces, including several Palestinian female students incarcerated in the colonial Damon prison. Among them are activists involved in student organizations, all banned by the genocidal Zionist regime. This repression of the student movement is carried out jointly by the security services of the collaborating Palestinian Authority and the colonial army, which launch raids on campuses to arrest hundreds of Palestinian students each year.
At least 8 female students are currently imprisoned in Damon prison. Two of them, Ruba Dar Nasser, student at Birzeit University, and Tasneem Odeh, student at Al-Quas University, were arrested before the Toufan Al-Ahrar exchange deal of January 2025. Massa Ghazal and Ibaa Al-Aghbar, students at An-Najah University, Mays Nazzal, student at Al-Quds Open University, Nadine Al-Daghameen, student at Hebron University, Salam Kassab and Layan Nasir, students at Birzeit University are also facing harsh detention conditions in Damon prison. Dr. Manal Badrasawi, a lecturer in Nutrition and food technology department at An-Najah University is also held in Damon.
In Gaza, the educational system is the target of deliberate and planned destruction by the Zionist army during the genocidal offensive: all 12 universities in Gaza were bombed. 85% of primary and secondary infrastructure was destroyed, more than 20 000 children, more than 10 000 students, about a hundred university deans, and more than 400 teachers were murdered by the occupation.
This is not an isolated incident, but part of a broader, systematic assault on higher education institutions across Palestine. The repeated raids on Birzeit, like the destruction of universities in Gaza, are calculated attempts to crush academic freedom, break the spirit of students and faculty, and erase the foundations of Palestinian intellectual and cultural life.
Birzeit University students have paid the ultimate price for their political activity. On Palestinian Martyrs' Day, we honor the memory of Birzeit University students: Baraa Mali, murdered defending his village Deir Jarir, on 23 November 2025, Aysar Safi, who was murdered by the occupation forces on 15 May 2024 in Ramallah, Thater and Jawad Abdul Rahman Rimawi, murdered on 29 November 2022, and all the Palestinian students who have been martyred by the occupation.
We also pay tribute to Ahed Mtair, a student at the Polytechnic University of Hebron, martyred on 15 January 2024, murdered by occupation forces during a raid. Her sister, Sumoud, has been incarcerated in Damon for 3 months.
Palestinian universities are vital spaces for shaping collective national identity and facilitating the production of knowledge that sustains the Palestinian struggle for liberation. Layan Kayed, freed prisoner and student activist at Birzeit University wrote in 2022 that "the student movement has been able to build a common base of political resistance against colonialism, derived from the shared belief in the rights of the Palestinian people as an indigenous colonialized people." This is why the occupation aims to control and dismantle these institutions.
Glory To The Palestinian Student Movement
On 6 January 2025, the occupation raided Birzeit University north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
Military forces, with 20 army jeeps, stormed the campus, firing ammunition and gas bombs at crowds, as at least 8,000 students were trapped inside the university.
According to medical and local sources, more than 40 students were wounded during this attack, including 9 by live bullets. The raid took place few minutes before a student mobilization held in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Zionist prisons.
Hundreds of Palestinian students are imprisoned by the occupation forces, including several Palestinian female students incarcerated in the colonial Damon prison. Among them are activists involved in student organizations, all banned by the genocidal Zionist regime. This repression of the student movement is carried out jointly by the security services of the collaborating Palestinian Authority and the colonial army, which launch raids on campuses to arrest hundreds of Palestinian students each year.
At least 8 female students are currently imprisoned in Damon prison. Two of them, Ruba Dar Nasser, student at Birzeit University, and Tasneem Odeh, student at Al-Quas University, were arrested before the Toufan Al-Ahrar exchange deal of January 2025. Massa Ghazal and Ibaa Al-Aghbar, students at An-Najah University, Mays Nazzal, student at Al-Quds Open University, Nadine Al-Daghameen, student at Hebron University, Salam Kassab and Layan Nasir, students at Birzeit University are also facing harsh detention conditions in Damon prison. Dr. Manal Badrasawi, a lecturer in Nutrition and food technology department at An-Najah University is also held in Damon.
In Gaza, the educational system is the target of deliberate and planned destruction by the Zionist army during the genocidal offensive: all 12 universities in Gaza were bombed. 85% of primary and secondary infrastructure was destroyed, more than 20 000 children, more than 10 000 students, about a hundred university deans, and more than 400 teachers were murdered by the occupation.
This is not an isolated incident, but part of a broader, systematic assault on higher education institutions across Palestine. The repeated raids on Birzeit, like the destruction of universities in Gaza, are calculated attempts to crush academic freedom, break the spirit of students and faculty, and erase the foundations of Palestinian intellectual and cultural life.
Birzeit University students have paid the ultimate price for their political activity. On Palestinian Martyrs' Day, we honor the memory of Birzeit University students: Baraa Mali, murdered defending his village Deir Jarir, on 23 November 2025, Aysar Safi, who was murdered by the occupation forces on 15 May 2024 in Ramallah, Thater and Jawad Abdul Rahman Rimawi, murdered on 29 November 2022, and all the Palestinian students who have been martyred by the occupation.
We also pay tribute to Ahed Mtair, a student at the Polytechnic University of Hebron, martyred on 15 January 2024, murdered by occupation forces during a raid. Her sister, Sumoud, has been incarcerated in Damon for 3 months.
Palestinian universities are vital spaces for shaping collective national identity and facilitating the production of knowledge that sustains the Palestinian struggle for liberation. Layan Kayed, freed prisoner and student activist at Birzeit University wrote in 2022 that "the student movement has been able to build a common base of political resistance against colonialism, derived from the shared belief in the rights of the Palestinian people as an indigenous colonialized people." This is why the occupation aims to control and dismantle these institutions.
Forwarded from Dismantle Damon
Occupation Imprisons Birzeit University Graduate Layan Nasir For The 3rd Time In 5 Years
Layan Sami Wadi' Nasir was born on 20 May 2000 and is from the city of Birzeit, north of Ramallah. She is a graduate of Nutrition and Business Management from Birzeit University.
Layan was imprisoned for the first time in 2021, on charges related to her student activism within the framework of the Democratic Progressive Student Pole, a left-bloc student organization which was banned by a military order issued in August 2020.
On 7 July 2021, occupation forces stormed her home in the occupied West Bank town of Birzeit under pretext of detaining her for a short interrogation. She was handcuffed, blinded by a mask covering her eyes, along with one for her mouth and transported to “Ofer” military camp, then to “Hasharon” prison.
Lawyer Hassan Abbadi wrote this in August 2021, after visiting her in Damon prison:
Unfotunately, none of these activities can take place today, since books and radio are confiscated and the soldiers constantly raid the cells and torture the prisoners.
Layan was arrested for the second time on 7 April 2024, when she was 24 years old, during a raid into the town of Birzeit.
The arrest was carried out by about 20 Zionist soldiers who stormed her house at dawn, and she was placed under administrative detention on 15 April 2024, and detained in Damon prison. She was released through the Jalameh checkpoint near Jenin, on 5 December 2024, together with her comrade Layan Kayed, who had been arrested on the same day in Ramallah.
On 10 September 2025, she was taken away during a court hearing in “Ofer” prison, after the occupation forces issued a verdict sentencing her to 8 months in prison.
According to other prisoners' testimonies, at the end of last year Layan was in room 3, together with Suheir Zaaqig, Fidaa Assaf, Salam Awwad, Salam Kassab, Reham Musa, Karam Musa and Tasneem Odeh.
Prisoner Hanan Barghouti told lawyer Hassan Abbadi that Layan and her room mates made her a cake on the day of her birthday (13 October) and managed to send it to her room despite the extreme repression the prisoners faced on that day in Damon.
Layan Nasir is imprisoned for the 3rd time right now. Her total time spent in zionist jails will be around 18 months if she is actually released in May 2026, having spent respectively 2 and 8 months in the first and second detention, and being sentenced to 8 more months now.
Her strength and resolve are an inspiration to students organizations and activists all over the world.
Layan Sami Wadi' Nasir was born on 20 May 2000 and is from the city of Birzeit, north of Ramallah. She is a graduate of Nutrition and Business Management from Birzeit University.
Layan was imprisoned for the first time in 2021, on charges related to her student activism within the framework of the Democratic Progressive Student Pole, a left-bloc student organization which was banned by a military order issued in August 2020.
On 7 July 2021, occupation forces stormed her home in the occupied West Bank town of Birzeit under pretext of detaining her for a short interrogation. She was handcuffed, blinded by a mask covering her eyes, along with one for her mouth and transported to “Ofer” military camp, then to “Hasharon” prison.
Lawyer Hassan Abbadi wrote this in August 2021, after visiting her in Damon prison:
"Considering her arrest as a summer samp, a mandatory tax in the country of a million prisoners, she uses time to read, exercise, and learn Hebrew and Spanish. Isolated from the world, the radio is the only link to the outside."
Unfotunately, none of these activities can take place today, since books and radio are confiscated and the soldiers constantly raid the cells and torture the prisoners.
Layan was arrested for the second time on 7 April 2024, when she was 24 years old, during a raid into the town of Birzeit.
The arrest was carried out by about 20 Zionist soldiers who stormed her house at dawn, and she was placed under administrative detention on 15 April 2024, and detained in Damon prison. She was released through the Jalameh checkpoint near Jenin, on 5 December 2024, together with her comrade Layan Kayed, who had been arrested on the same day in Ramallah.
On 10 September 2025, she was taken away during a court hearing in “Ofer” prison, after the occupation forces issued a verdict sentencing her to 8 months in prison.
According to other prisoners' testimonies, at the end of last year Layan was in room 3, together with Suheir Zaaqig, Fidaa Assaf, Salam Awwad, Salam Kassab, Reham Musa, Karam Musa and Tasneem Odeh.
Prisoner Hanan Barghouti told lawyer Hassan Abbadi that Layan and her room mates made her a cake on the day of her birthday (13 October) and managed to send it to her room despite the extreme repression the prisoners faced on that day in Damon.
Layan Nasir is imprisoned for the 3rd time right now. Her total time spent in zionist jails will be around 18 months if she is actually released in May 2026, having spent respectively 2 and 8 months in the first and second detention, and being sentenced to 8 more months now.
Her strength and resolve are an inspiration to students organizations and activists all over the world.