News | Sunday, 19 April 2009

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Fatah and Hamas compete on campus

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Fatah celebrated victory at the Birzeit University student elections last week, but behind closed doors its members acknowledge the result is a slap in the face for the ruling party in the West Bank.
Winning a mere two-seat majority over Hamas on the 51-strong council, and losing one since last year’s election, the result is a clear indicator here that Fatah is losing its popularity in the wake of the war on Gaza last January.
The yearly elections at the most prestigious Palestinian university on the outskirts of Ramallah are held to be a close reflection of the major parties’ popularity in the wider Palestinian society, but out in the streets, Fatah and Hamas supporters are engaged in anything but democracy since the latter seized the Gaza Strip in a bloody confrontation in June 2007.
Yet this annual event provides a haven for Palestinian democracy as young rival leaders battle it out side by side in a heated electoral campaign that is full of vociferous open criticism not only against each other but also at the ruling parties in Gaza and the West Bank.
Students’ interest was as high as ever, with 85% of the 7,000 eligible to vote casting their ballot, and thousands of students carrying green, yellow, orange, black and red flags swarmed the campus prior to the Wednesday vote.
“Over here I can say I support Hamas, but outside I would be killed,” said 21-year-old Hazim Kahala, a second-year architecture student.
The former students’ council leader from the Hamas bloc, Ayman Abu Aram, also 21, was arrested four times by Fatah forces. “I was never arrested by the Israelis,” he said, although his colleagues were. “It’s enough to be a Hamas member to get arrested by Fatah. But being arrested for a few hours is nothing compared to my colleagues who die for the cause. I believe in what I’m doing and I’m ready to die for it.”
In the election debate held Tuesday, Raed Halaby, who contested on the list of the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine, summed it up when he slammed both Hamas and Fatah of being solely interested in maintaining power at the expense of the people.
“There is no end to the fighting between Palestinians,” he said. “We have to change, we have to solve our problems, and with our vote we have to punish those responsible for Palestinian disunity. The present student council should be punished because university is expensive. Hamas should be punished for what it did in Gaza, Fatah should be punished for what it did in the West Bank.”
Beyond the infighting, the Israeli occupation punishes any form of student activity here by criminalising it, making the student election itself a high-risk business.
“It’s a reality here,” said Fatah activist Awad Mishel, himself imprisoned for two years and arrested in an Israeli jail without charge. “All student activists are in danger. It’s not just about the students, it’s the wider Palestinian politics they want to suppress. They might consider us as future leaders.”
His colleague, Amed Abu Rawani, says he would have a PhD today had he been allowed to study instead of spending five and a half years in prison when he had just entered Birzeit.
“I was arrested and imprisoned without charge, so I could not even defend myself,” he said. “But the whole experience has encouraged me to keep struggling for my country and to work with Fatah.”
Founded in 1924 as a village school for girls, Birzeit campus stands as a symbol of defiance in the face of the Israeli occupation. For four years since the 1987 intifada, the university was forced to close by Israeli forces, driving lectures underground and leading to the arrest of students for merely carrying textbooks.
The coordinator of the Right to Education Campaign, Simine Alam, speaks of the constant harassment and blatant human rights abuses here. “Right now we have 83 students who are in prison,” Alam says. “A good part of them are facing secret charges in front of military judges. They’re kept for a six-month detention period that is renewable at the end. This amounts to torture.”
Even foreigners studying here have to deal cautiously with Israeli authorities, who routinely deny them entry into Israel once they know they are here to study at Birzeit or any other Palestinian university.
Jessica, a foreign student from Switzerland is on an exchange programme. She could not give her full name or be photographed because she was only allowed into Israel as a tourist. “I would have problems with my visa and studying here if they know I’m at Birzeit,” she said.
Hundreds of foreign students, especially of Palestinian parents, have been deported upon arrival in Israel without any justification, while students residing at Birzeit village report raids by Israeli soldiers in the middle of the night.
“I don’t see the situation improving,” Amad said. “We’re documenting all of this and twinning with lots of other universities abroad, but the full force of the occupation is making our students’ lives hell.”

karl.schembri@ramattan.com
Karl Schembri is a correspondent for Ramattan news agency in the West Bank and Gaza

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