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blot remains ours. There is no possibility of blurring the fact that bthey and we are part of the same people, and the fact that they blive in Israel does not make them less Palestinian.” bIn his newspaper interview, Bir Zeit President Nasir added: b“The destiny of the Arab College at Bir Zeit is to be the nucleus baround which is built the Palestinian state.” Indeed, the Arab bstudents being trained in the Jewish universities of Israel see bthemselves in the same light. They are the seed of the future b“Palestine” leaders in that area of “Palestine conquered in b1948.” They give leadership and examples to high school stu- bdents and are the PLO leaders of tomorrow. bThe irony is that the most extraordinary rise in Arab bbrazenness has taken place under the supposedly tough Begin bgovernment. Maariv reporter Yosef Tzuriel commented on this bas long ago as April 27, 1978: “The rise of the Likud to power bcreated a certain amount of tension in the first months among bArabs of Israel and the territories who expected a firmer policy bagainst them. But after a short while it became clear that the new gov- bernment was as liberal as its predecessor, if not more so.” bThe last two years have seen an inevitable rise in Arab stu- bdent hostility toward the state. After winning the elections for bleadership of the Arab students at Hebrew University, the PNM bopened an office in the student dormitories on Stern Street, bhanging out an eye-catching sign: “Progressive National Move- bment.” How a group such as the PNM was allowed to run for boffice or its members remain as students rather than be prose- bcuted for sedition would seem difficult to explain. Bear in mind, bhowever, that this is a university that allowed an Arab student, bFares Saur, a member of a terrorist group that planted a bomb bin the school cafeteria, to continue his studies after finishing his bjail sentence. The school explained that the criteria for accep- btance to the university were purely academic. bIn its publication Tachadi for December 1978 the PNM bwrote of its opposition to “any settlement with a recognition of bthe Zionist entity in any part of Palestine.” The student author bcalled for a war “beginning with leaflets and demonstrations band concluding with armed military struggle.” Above all, the bPNM made this point crystal-clear: “The struggle is not limited bto the ‘occupied territories.’ We must widen it to all parts of the bArab motherland.” bThe PNM, running for control of the Arab student body, b
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