Birzeit University

Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank reopened Thursday after a four-month closure of the Palestinian institution ordered by the Israeli army after its troops killed a university student in violent clashes. Classes resumed immediately for the 3,000 students at the university's two campuses north of Jerusalem, and officials said they will try to make up lost time by October. Birzeit is a traditional focal point for protests against 20 years of Israeli occupation.

Birzeit University's class of 2001 seems so full of promise as the young men and women, in long black gowns and mortarboards, parade onstage to receive their diplomas. Their parents, bursting with pride, wave from the audience, weep with joy and crane to snap photographs of the momentous event. Outside the walls of the Palestinian university campus, a devastating Israeli siege has West Bank villages in a vise-like grip.

Supporters of the Palestine Liberation Organization swept student council elections Thursday at Birzeit University, defeating Islamic fundamentalists in a contest viewed as a forerunner to voting that would precede Palestinian self-government on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In a stinging defeat for the Palestine Liberation Organization, hard-line opponents of the agreement with Israel on Palestinian self-government swept the student council elections at Birzeit University, traditionally a political barometer, as sentiment against the accord continued to grow in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In a stinging defeat for the Palestine Liberation Organization, hard-line opponents of the agreement with Israel on Palestinian self-government swept the student council elections at Birzeit University, traditionally a political barometer, as sentiment against the accord continued to grow in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

An American professor from Birzeit University in the Israeli-occupied West Bank went on trial on charges he incited anti-Israeli demonstrations, the army said. Roger Heacock, 44, of Philadelphia, denied the charges in an Israeli military court and said he was arrested when he inadvertently was caught up in a group of Palestinian women protesting conditions in Lebanon.

Israeli military authorities Friday ordered the partial closing for two months of the occupied West Bank's second-largest university after the seizure of what they called "inciteful literature" during a midnight raid a week earlier. The shutting down of Birzeit University, about 10 miles north of Jerusalem in a village of the same name, was the first action of its kind by the national unity coalition of Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres since it took office last September.

Israel will permit the largest Palestinian university to reopen after a four-year closure spanning the Arab revolt, which has of late sagged significantly. In making the announcement Monday, Israeli officials and Palestinian spokesmen gave no date for the opening of the campus of Birzeit University, the last of six campuses that had been closed by the Israeli army on the grounds that they were nests of anti-Israeli violence.

Birzeit University's class of 2001 seems so full of promise as the young men and women, in long black gowns and mortarboards, parade onstage to receive their diplomas. Their parents, bursting with pride, wave from the audience, weep with joy and crane to snap photographs of the momentous event. Outside the walls of the Palestinian university campus, a devastating Israeli siege has West Bank villages in a vise-like grip.

Supporters of the Palestine Liberation Organization swept student council elections Thursday at Birzeit University, defeating Islamic fundamentalists in a contest viewed as a forerunner to voting that would precede Palestinian self-government on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel will permit the largest Palestinian university to reopen after a four-year closure spanning the Arab revolt, which has of late sagged significantly. In making the announcement Monday, Israeli officials and Palestinian spokesmen gave no date for the opening of the campus of Birzeit University, the last of six campuses that had been closed by the Israeli army on the grounds that they were nests of anti-Israeli violence.

Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank reopened Thursday after a four-month closure of the Palestinian institution ordered by the Israeli army after its troops killed a university student in violent clashes. Classes resumed immediately for the 3,000 students at the university's two campuses north of Jerusalem, and officials said they will try to make up lost time by October. Birzeit is a traditional focal point for protests against 20 years of Israeli occupation.

An American professor from Birzeit University in the Israeli-occupied West Bank went on trial on charges he incited anti-Israeli demonstrations, the army said. Roger Heacock, 44, of Philadelphia, denied the charges in an Israeli military court and said he was arrested when he inadvertently was caught up in a group of Palestinian women protesting conditions in Lebanon.

Israeli military authorities Friday ordered the partial closing for two months of the occupied West Bank's second-largest university after the seizure of what they called "inciteful literature" during a midnight raid a week earlier. The shutting down of Birzeit University, about 10 miles north of Jerusalem in a village of the same name, was the first action of its kind by the national unity coalition of Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres since it took office last September.