A Report on Army Actions at Birzeit University on November 21, 1984

Birzeit Public Relations Office, December 1984.

Newspapers around the world reported the killing of Birzeit student Sharaf Khalil Hassan Tibi by Israeli soldiers on November 21, 1984. On that day, army gunfire mortally wounded Sharaf and he later died en route to the hospital.

However, the facts of how Sharaf Tibi was killed and the implications of his death received far less attention. Today's tragedies, of course, often become yesterday's headlines, but the lessons of these tragedies should not also be consigned to oblivion, lest the tragedies repeat themselves. In the case of the killing of Sharaf Tibi and related events on that day, Birzeit University is convinced that the practices of the army deserve especially serious scrutiny and criticism. Without this scrutiny, the names of other young people in the occupied territories will inevitably be added to the sad roll call on which Sharaf s name is inscribed.