Ramallah: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement has invested heavily in dominating student council elections in West Bank universities, senior Fatah sources in Nablus and Ramallah told Gulf News.
Palestinian university students typically form the elite sector of the Palestinian population and many students end up entering politics.
“Fatah is interested to win any elections in the West Bank,” Gassan Khatib, a professor of Philosophies and Cultural Studies at Bir Zeit University, told Gulf News.
The West Bank has eight universities and nine colleges that boast 150,000 students, according to the PNA Ministry of High Education sources.
“Fatah believes university students are powerful community groups, who will be the future leaders of Palestinian people, either in politics or in the private sector,” Major-General Akram Rajoub, the governor of Nablus and a member of Fatah Revolutionary Council, told Gulf News.
Senior Fatah sources in Nablus revealed that Fatah has spent $278,000 in the run-up to the elections on posters and buses to transport voters from other cities to the universities in order to vote.
Fatah won elections at Al Najah University in Nablus on April 18, collecting 41 of 81 seats, as well as Bethlehem, and the Polytechnic in Hebron this year.
According to Fatah secretary-general Jibril Rajoub, Fatah’s victories on university campuses are indicators that it is capable of leading the youth.
“The transparency of elections at universities are an indicator of Fatah’s democratic practices in the Occupied West Bank, unlike Hamas in Gaza,” he told Gulf News.
Hamas — which took over the Gaza Strip through a military coup in mid-2007 — has not allowed student council elections for the last 10 years.
Nevertheless, Hamas does work hard and has dedicated a huge budget to win student elections in the Occupied West Bank.
Their efforts paid off on Wednesday night when the Hamas-affiliated Islamic Wafa’a Bloc beat Fatah’s Shabiba Bloc 25-22 in the Bir Zeit University elections.
The renowned Bir Zeit is one of the West Bank’s best universities and has 13,000 students.
“Bir Zeit University elections are highly transparent and are a credible indicator of both Fatah’s and Hamas’ popularity in the West Bank,” Khatib said.
A majority of prominent Palestinian political leaders have graduated from Al Najah or Bir Zeit Universities, including Marwan Barghouti, who has been leading 1,700 prisoners in a hunger strike since April 17.
Photos of him were widely used by the Fatah bloc in Wednesday’s elections at Bir Zeit.
“The only rival power to Fatah in the West Bank is Hamas, so when Fatah wins against them at universities, it shows Fatah’s strength,” Ahmad Ghuneim, a senior Fatah leader from Occupied Jerusalem, told Gulf News.
Prior to the vote, the students hold debates where they discuss their platforms to their audience.
Hamas-affiliated students criticise Fatah for their security coordination deal with Israel, for cracking down on resistance groups in the Occupied West Bank and for their corruption.
Fatah-affiliated students criticise Hamas for their ironclad rule of Gaza.
But observers noted that corruption and the stalemate in the peace process were the chief factors contributing to Fatah’s loss in Beir Zeit University.
“It is Fatah’s fault, not Shabiba’s,” 20-year-old Marwan Taha, a Shabiba member, wrote on his Facebook page following his bloc’s defeat.
