They said the students went on the rampage on Monday, destroying furniture and setting fire to several administration offices and classrooms.

According to the sources, the rioters then attacked university president Hani Nijem's office while he was inside.

Nijem, who was appointed just last week, was forced to hide for nearly three hours as the students tried, unsuccessfully, to break down the door of his office.

Palestinian Authority policemen who rushed to the scene battled for hours with the protesters before rescuing Nijem from his office. At least five students were injured during the confrontation and taken to hospital...

Tensions on the campus have been running high since unidentified gunmen murdered professor Yasser al-Madhoun, one of the teachers, late last year.

Last week, the Arab-American University in the Jenin area suspended studies for several days after a group of gunmen kidnapped and beat the library director.

In the meantime, it seems that at least one official of the World Bank is beginning to come to his senses. AFP, 2005_03_02, reports in an article entitled, Money cannot fix Palestinian woes before real reform: World Bank:

International financial aid will not improve life for Palestinians until fundamental political reform is undertaken by their government, a World Bank official said.

"You cannot substitute donor assistance and money for a fundamental change in the policy environment," Nigel Roberts, the organization's country director for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, told a press conference...

Palestinian personal income collapsed by 40 percent in real terms (taking into account inflation) over the past four years during the Intifada, or resistance, while disbursement of foreign donor aid doubled from 500 million dollars to one billion dollars per year, he said.

"If that doesn't show you how limited the impact of large sums of donors' assistance can be in a lousy policy environment, then nothing will," he said.