Reason for visiting Birzeit University, Palestine

Bruce Hawkins

March 4-22, 1999

In June 1998 I went to a talk by my friend Max Pepper, who has been assisting the Institute for Public and Community Health at Birzeit for a number of years. He was at that time very discouraged about the prospects for justice for Palestinians.

I asked him if he thought I could be of any use to the physics department, and he said he would give them my resume next time he went and find out. Eventually there was an exchange of email with Wa'el Qara'n, the chair of the department.

Beyond that, I had no fixed expectations, but hoped to be useful. I reviewed Birzeit's web site and had a sense that they are struggling, which turned out to be correct. They are Palestine's flagship university, but have been suffering from declining funding, most of which comes from the European Union, but of late has been channeled through the Palestinian Authority, which divides it equally according to enrollment among the different Palestinian University, so that it is becoming increasing difficult for Birzeit to maintain its flagship status.