Hamas Returns to Student Politics In West Bank
Hamas will participate in upcoming student elections in Palestine’s largest university, An Najah, for the first time in six years, reports Daoud Kuttab.
University life and Palestinian nationalism have been inseparable since the 1960s, when the Fatah movement was formed by student activists in Egyptian universities. Since then and throughout the world, Palestinian nationalism has been part of university life, and nowhere more so than in Palestine.
This fact has not gone unnoticed by Islamist student activists. University students supporting the various Islamic movements such as the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Islamic Jihad have been very active in various Palestinian universities, often making impressive victories. The Palestinian split between Gaza and the West Bank, as well as between PLO nationalists and Islamists, is reflected in student-council elections.
