Within the context of conscious efforts to support and protect the Palestinian right to education and to foster Palestinian academic presence in the West, Geography Department lecturer Saed J. Abu-Hijleh organized a speaking tour in several British universities and institutions in the cities of London, Newcastle, Durham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dundee. The tour was sponsored by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in England and Scotland and involved the support of a large number of British academics and activists who helped in organizing it.
Mr. Abu-Hijleh delivered a series of lectures focusing on the political geography of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Palestinian statehood, the Palestinian right to education and the spectrum of Israeli violations of that right especially those hindering the development of Palestinian higher-education institutions.
Mr. Abu-Hijleh spoke at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) on ‘The Political Geography of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict and Future Prospects’ and signed, on behalf of An-Najah Student Union Council, a twinning agreement with LSE Student Union. He met with the officers of the LSE Student Union and discussed the different potential activities and joint programs with An-Najah Student Council. The following activities were suggested: videoconferencing on different topics including the universal right to education; joint radio programs; publishing of LSE Student Union activities in the newsletter of An-Najah Student Council Union and vise versa; fundraising and advocacy to secure scholarships for An-Najah students to pursue their higher education at LSE.
At the University of Manchester, Mr. Abu-Hijleh spoke on 'The Political Geography of Palestinian Statehood' and met with the Palestine Society of the University of Manchester Student Union (Action Palestine) which recently passed a motion to twin with An-Najah Student Council. It was agreed that the two student unions will exchange letters of intent to officiate the twinning agreement and several potential joint activities were discussed.
The program at Newcastle University was organized by An-Najah University friend and supporter Mr. Tom Storrie who is a Former Principal of Colleges of Further and Higher Education in the UK and who has been cooperating with An-Najah Human Rights Center the past couple of years, and Professor Esteban Castro, Senior Lecturer of Sociology at the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology of Newcastle University. Two lectures were delivered: the first on 'The political Geography of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict', and the second on 'Islamic Liberation Theology and the search for social justice and citizenship in the Middle East.' These lectures were a follow up on the successful videoconference on (Citizenship and Social Justice) that was held between An-Najah and Newcastle University in April, 2007, which was cosponsored by the British Council, in which Mr. Abu-Hijleh presented a paper entitled (The Concepts of Citizenship and Social Justice: The Relevance to Palestine and Palestinians).'Palestinian's Right to Education' was the topic of the lecture delivered at the Institute of Middle East and Islamic Studies of Durham University. The program there was organized and sponsored by the Durham Palestine Educational Trust in coordination with Mr. Tom Storrie.
While visiting Durham, Mr. Abu-Hijleh met with Mr. David Baker, Director of International Relations, and discussed with him the potentials of forging academic cooperation with An-Najah University in different fields.
In Scotland the program was organized by Mr. Keith Hammond, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, and long time supporter of the Palestinian right to education. Two lectures were delivered at the Department of Adult and Continuing Education (DACE) of the University of Glasgow:

1) ‘Education as Resistance: A Palestinian Pedagogy’, chaired by Prof. Kathy Maclachlan.

2) ‘Palestinian Universities under Occupation’, chaired by Prof. Keith Hammond.
Capturing the essence of living under the Israeli military occupation Mr. Abu-Hijleh read from his forthcoming book “Words of a Palestinian Dinosaur” at a poetry reading in the prestigious Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh. The poetry reading was entitled 'Readings from my father's land of Palestine' that also featured the participation of two other Palestinian poets from exile, Mr. Iyad Hayatleh and Mr. Ghazi Hussein.
The next station in the speaking tour was the city of Dundee which has strong and old twinning relationship with Nablus. There, Mr. Abu-Hijleh met with the members of the Nablus-Dundee Twinning Association and conducted another poetry reading at the Wighton Centre of the Library of Dundee entitled 'Palestinian Geography of Body and Soul.’ The program in Dundee was organized by An-Najah graduate and now PhD candidate at Dundee Mr. Nehad Khanfar.
During the visit Mr. Abu-Hijleh also met with the steering committee members of the British Committee for Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) and provided them with information compiled by the Right to Education Campaign at An-Najah University and information he compiled personally during his teaching time at An-Najah the past 7 years including the names and academic positions of lecturers and professors from An-Najah who were still in Israeli jails. It is worthy to note that, on May 30th, 2007, BRICUP was successful in passing a resolution in the UK University and College Union (UCU) calling for a nation-wide discussion in the UK on the issue of academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
At the end of the tour Mr. Abu-Hijleh held discussions with Professor Keith Hammond about joint research to produce a series of academic articles focusing on the Palestinian right to education and the status of Palestinian higher education to be published in scholarly journals.