A Student's Eyes
Written by Youssef Arrouss
A Student's Eyes
It was November 14th, 2002 - almost one year after the September 11 attacks by al-Quaeda upon the United States. At sunrise, the intense red and orange hues of the sky were as beautiful as everyday. It was so warm and bright that many birds were chirping at the edge of our orange tree in the garden. I took my morning coffee and headed for Iben Tofeil University, one of the oldest universities in Morocco. I arrived there very late because of the transportation problem. When I got into the campus, most students were in their classes. The students' agitation and professors' lectures could be clearly heard from the outside. Through the window, I could see my classmates already in their places and Mr. Boudali, our composition professor, delivering his lecture. I opened the door and got in. The professor saw me and said very politely: "You're late, so go to your place quickly."
In the classroom, there was a huge crowd of students. In fact, it was the first time that almost all the students happened to be in the classroom at the same time, especially in the morning classes. The crowd surprised not only me, but also the professor, whose face was obviously carrying a number of questions, one of which was "Why have all these students attended my class this morning?" It was a clear sign that something was going on, but I did not know what was exactly. While I was still wondering about it, Achraf, an active member of the student union, mounted his chair, and, in a trembling tone which he had never used with us, said 'Our brothers are under siege in Palestine . This will bring a lot of shame on us if we don't support them" .Indeed, these words were like a thunderclap to us. In a minute, all students, including me, hurried outside the university; hundreds of them had already taken to the streets. They did it in support of Palestinian people who were under siege. As a matter of fact, the crisis started when Hamas and its proxies had launched a number of rockets at Israel. These rockets purposefully targeted northern Israeli cities. The rockets left 10 Israeli civilians dead and 50 injured. Of the dead, 6 were women, all were aged between 14 and 32 and four were teenage sisters. The Israeli army placed Palestine under total siege to take revenge.
In the beginning, it seemed like a peaceful rally of reasonably well-informed people expressing their opinions; many students held up placards and yelled out their convictions and pleas. Others were chanting a couple of memorable slogans like "Stop the siege ", and "Don't kill our brothers in Palestine." Emotions were running high as a group of protesters chanted slogans like, "Palestine is the heart and soul of Moroccan people!" Or "Palestine was and will always remain an Arab country." I talked first to the student who had the " Stop the siege " placard. He told me, very fervently, what the protest was all about and what he meant by his placard. He said "I can't go to Palestine to support people there, so I wrote this message on this placard to express my opinion about what is going in Palestine right now".
Policemen were standing a few steps away from them, watching the protestors, but the arrival of a countless number of armed policemen in vehicles with mounted guns caused a change in the crowd. Students seemed to become more confused, and some started addressing their concerns directly to the police, as if they were the real cause behind every single problem in Palestine.
Understanding what was going on, I walked past the protestors and headed towards Hassan II Street, the main road that goes past the University , where some students were standing as viewers very far away from the protest . In fact, these students had never taken part in any protests .I placed myself among the so-called coward students to watch the combat that was about to start.
The trouble started when a student , one of the major supporters of the Palestinian cause in the university , went to a police officer and started yelled at his face, which made the later very upset and ordered some policemen to arrest him . Immediately after this, fights between students and policemen broke out. Students were severely pushed and beaten. Even female students were unmercifully grabbed by their hair. Students jumped over the fence and fled back to the University. Soon, organizers lost control and rioting started; protestors moved recklessly through town, throwing stones and glass bottles, breaking store windows and everything they encountered.
While I was trying to walk away from the scene with another student to avoid troubles with the police, some policemen rushed at us, one of them hit me brutally even if I was not involved in the protest, but during riot time everyone is guilty. Moments later, as one of the student was holding his camera ,trying to take some pictures , a crazed, blood-thirsty soldier came running up and assaulted him with his gun - hit him with it very savagely.
When I got back home and heard that university students had started a riot again, I could only shake my head in sorrow. On the day that followed the protest, I heard that more than 20 students were seriously wounded, and more than 100 students were detained. I was shocked by the behavior of Policemen who were disrespectful and aggressive from the beginning to the end.
