BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – More than 30 students have been protesting at Birzeit University's Campus since last Sunday against the administration’s decision to raise tuition fees, said Abdul-Salam Haniyeh, a spokesman of the Fatah-affiliated student movement.

Haniyeh highlighted that late Friday one of the protesters, Adham Halayqa, was hospitalized after he fell ill.

The Fatah youth movement in the West Bank has called on the administration to solve the ongoing crisis between the administration and the student senate, since the decision to raise tuition fees.

The movement said in a statement that it would continue to support their representatives refusing to pay extra tuition “to burden the students and their families with the university’s financial troubles.”

Meanwhile the university’s vice president for financial affairs, Adel al-Zagha, told reporters in Ramallah that Birzeit University faced the same problem every year.

“When we can get past this yearly crisis without raising tuition, it is only by good luck, which can’t be guaranteed every year. Last year we had a budget deficit of 4 million Jordanian Dinars, and we expect it to reach 6 million next year if we don’t raise tuition.”