On April 24, two Palestinian software development companies came to Bir Zeit University, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, to offer jobs to Palestinian students. The companies were invited to campus as part of the university’s Annual Hiring Day — an event aimed at helping students find jobs with major Palestinian firms.
The event, however, turned ugly when students protested against the presence of the representatives of the two companies on campus. The protesters expelled the company representatives from the university premises after accusing them of engaging in “normalization” with Israel. In other words, the students attacked, humiliated and expelled Palestinian companies that came to offer them jobs at a time when the Palestinian economy is facing a crisis and thousands of young Palestinians remain unemployed.
The first company is ASAL Technologies, a Ramallah-based software and IT services outsourcing firm founded in 2000. ASAL Technologies is the largest Palestinian information and communications technology company that supplies international companies with talented Palestinian professionals. The second company, also based in Ramallah, is EXALT, a software development center specialized in web services, backend/API development and mobile apps.
The students who expelled the companies’ representatives from campus said they were acting on instructions from the anti-Israel movement for boycotting Israel. According to the students, the two Palestinian companies are guilty of cooperating with Israelis, especially Mellanox Technologies, an Israeli multinational supplier of computer networking products.
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