Birzeit University memorial destruction aims to crush Palestinian memory

What the report says

Israeli forces demolished a stone memorial at Birzeit University near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank during a dawn raid on Monday, replacing it with a planter holding a fig sapling. Al Jazeera reported that soldiers, backed by 10 military vehicles and a bulldozer, removed the Martyrs’ Monument, which listed students and alumni killed by Israeli forces. The university said the raid was the fifth on campus since the start of 2026 and the 28th since 2002.

The monument, erected in the 1990s, had become a focal point for remembrance on campus. University officials condemned its destruction as a violation of international law and an attack on education and Palestinian memory. Students later gathered at the site to protest, with some saying the move was meant to intimidate them and discourage political activity. A university media officer said soldiers had photographed the monument during a previous brief incursion days earlier.

The report framed the demolition as part of a wider pattern of pressure on Palestinian institutions and public symbols in the West Bank. It cited other memorials and landmarks that have been damaged or removed in recent years, including in Jenin and other locations. The article also said Israeli authorities have increasingly targeted universities, where Palestinian political and student activism has long played a visible role.

For families of those named on the monument, the loss was personal as well as symbolic. One woman interviewed by Al Jazeera said her brother’s name had been added to the memorial after he was killed in 2021, and that the demolition felt like another act of grief.