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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestine-west-bank-hamas-affiliated-student-bloc-wins-landslide-key-university-election">middleeasteye.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Hamas-linked student bloc wins West Bank university election by landslide</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Shatha Hammad in Ramallah, occupied Palesitne - May 19, 2022<br></div>
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<div><img src="cid:ii_l3d8hfcg11" alt="image.png" width="460" height="259"><br><br><p>A Hamas-affiliated bloc has won student elections at a leading <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/tags/west-bank" target="_blank">West Bank</a> university despite arrests and threatening text messages by the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel" target="_blank">Israeli</a> army ahead of the vote.</p>
<p>The Islamic Wafa bloc scored a landslide victory with 5068 votes
in Ramallah's Birzeit University's elections on Wednesday, winning 28
seats of 51 available.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>'The message that we wanted to convey to the occupation army today,
by continuing the election process, is that its repression of students
will not pass and will not succeed'</p>
<p><em>- Iyad Tomar, Dean of Student Affairs, Birzeit University</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>It was followed by the "Shabiba" bloc - the student arm of the
Palestinian ruling party Fatah - which received 3379 votes and secured
18 seats. Fatah used to dominate student councils in the West Bank. </p>
<p>In the last Birzeit election held in 2019, the Wafa and Shabiba blocs scored 23 seats each. </p>
<p>Democratic Progressive Student Pole came out third, obtaining five
seats with a total of 888 votes, while the Progressive Student Union
bloc and the Student Union List did not get any seats.</p>
<p>The Birzeit University elections are considered as the bellwether of
West Bank politics. It's one of the most important political events in
Palestinian society, especially since the university is one of the
largest education institutions in the West Bank and maintains its
independence from the control of the Palestinian Authority. </p>
<p>The results of these elections are read as a reflection of wider
Palestinian society, its position on the PA, and voters' orientations in
any broader elections that may be held in the future.</p>
<p>Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for Elections and dean of
student affairs, Iyad Tomar, said the turnout reached 78.1 percent, with
9,782 out of 12,521 students eligible to vote casting their ballots.</p>
<p>After the results were announced, eyewitnesses said Israeli security
services quickly blocked the entrances to the city of Ramallah, and
prevented students from reaching the city centre to celebrate the
elections outcome.</p>
<p>They also prevented students from raising the flags of Hamas - which
governs Gaza, and forming a car rally, as the students have done in the
past.</p>
<div>
<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/palestine_birzeit%20university%20elections%20vote%20counting%20ramallah%20west%20bank%2018%20may%202022_shatha%20hammad_MEE.jpg" alt="Birzeit University officials say Wednesday's elections went as planned, despite intimidation from the Israeli authorities (Shatha Hammad/MEE)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="460" height="259"></p>
<font size="1">Birzeit University officials say Wednesday's elections went
as planned, despite intimidation from the Israeli authorities (Birzeit
University)</font></div>
<p><span><img src="cid:ii_l3d8f2oi5" alt="image.gif" width="15" height="15"></span>Hamas
praised the results as "a rejection of normalisation" and "security
coordination," in a reference to the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority's
ties with Israel.</p>
<p>Dr Fathi Hammad, a member of the group's political bureau, said "the
student movement has proven that (the youth) is the fuel to the
revolution."</p>
<h3>Arrests and threats</h3>
<p>On Tuesday evening, Israeli special forces arrested seven Birzeit
University students while they were in a popular park in the village of
Dura Al-Qara, northeast of Ramallah.</p>
<p>The seven students all belonged to the Islamic bloc at Birzeit University, the student arm of Hamas.</p>
<p>The arrest of the students by the army came a few hours after a
student debate was held at the university, and one day before the
elections at Birzeit University, the first held after two years of
disruption due to precautionary measures related to the coronavirus
pandemic.</p>
<div>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-birzeit-university-stormed-shoot-arrest-students" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/read_more/public/images-story/20220110042134.jpeg?itok=g8H2I7Wg" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="400" height="250"></a></p><p><font size="1">West Bank: Israeli forces storm Birzeit University, shoot and arrest students</font></p>
</div>
<p>According to an eyewitness, a group of about 10 plainclothes men
entered the park and began attacking and arresting the young men.
Minutes later, soldiers in military uniform joined in and completed the
operation.</p>
<p>The eyewitness said the Israeli officers beat the students, tied them
up, covered their eyes, and subjected them to field investigations.</p>
<p>Tasneem Hassan, sister of 21-year-old Abdul Majeed Hassan, told MEE
that her family began calling him after seeing on social media the
arrest of Birzeit University students. However he did not answer his
phone, and about an hour later, eyewitnesses confirmed that Hassan was
among the seven students arrested by the army.</p>
<p>About two months ago, Abdul Majeed was released from Israeli prison
following a year-long detention. This was the third arrest that Abdul
Majeed has been subjected to since he began studying at Birzeit
University, making him lag behind his peers in his studies, his family
said.</p>
<p>"The arrest of Abdul Majeed is because of his union work at Birzeit
University and his affiliation with the Islamic bloc... We expected that
the occupation would re-arrest him, but we did not expect it that
quickly,” Tasneem said.</p>
<div>
<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/images-story/palestine_birzeit%20university%20elections%20results%20ramallah%20west%20bank%2018%20may%202022_shatha%20hammad_MEE.jpg" alt="Birzeit University officials announce the results of its latest student elections on Wednesday, 19 May, 2022 (Shatha Hammad/MEE)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="460" height="259"></p>
<font size="1">Birzeit University officials announce the results of its latest student elections on Wednesday, 19 May 2022 (Birzeit University)</font></div>
<p><span><img src="cid:ii_l3d8f2or10" alt="image.gif" width="15" height="15"></span>The
families of the arrested students expressed deep concerns over the
welfare of their sons, especially after hearing eyewitness accounts that
they had been assaulted and beaten during the process.</p>
<p>Tasnim said her family did not learn about the location of Abdul
Majeed’s arrest until the following afternoon, and the family accused
the army of hiding their son and the other students for long hours
before revealing their fate.</p>
<p>The students were being held in Ofer Prison and would be brought
before the Israeli military court on Thursday morning, the families
learned.</p>
<h3>Intimidation tactics</h3>
<p>Prior to the elections, threatening messages had also been sent out
to several other Birzeit University students and their families, warning
them against participating in polls and claiming the measure violated
Israeli law.</p>
<p>The messages also contained a threat against voting for the Islamic bloc, according to social media posts.</p>
<p>The dean of student affairs at Birzeit University said he was keen on
the continuation of the electoral process and accused the occupation
army of interfering in the elections.</p>
<div>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/birzeit-how-palestinian-students-became-next-generation-resistance" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/read_more/public/main-images/Birzeit%20uni%20afp.jpg?itok=7Arlvvsk" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="400" height="250"></a></p><p>Birzeit: How Palestinian students became the next generation of resistance</p>
</div>
<p>Tomar told MEE that Birzeit University rejects and condemns the
arrest of the seven students, and stressed that the detentions are an
attempt by the army to obstruct the elections and put pressure on the
university’s students.</p>
<p>The university's lawyer has been trying to follow up on the students’
condition since their arrest, however there’s been a great deal of
obstruction, leaving the students’ fate in the dark, according to Tomar.</p>
<p>He said he was not surprised by the latest arrest, as the Israeli
army had escalated its attacks on Birzeit University students through
arrests and summons, especially around the time of political events such
as elections.</p>
<p>However, despite the Israeli army's attempts to obstruct the
elections, the university insisted that the elections had proceeded as
planned. The polls opened at 8am in the morning and remained open until
4.30pm before the votes were counted.</p>
<h3>Bellwether of West Bank politics</h3>
<p>The elections are an important part of the political practice of Palestinian students, said Tomar.</p>
<p>"The message that we wanted to convey to the occupation army today,
by continuing the election process, is that its repression of students
will not pass and will not succeed.”</p>
<p>With no general elections on the horizon in Palestine, some saw the
campus vote as "a test for measuring public opinion", said Birzeit's
vice president, Ghassan al-Khatib.</p>
<p>One analyst said the Birzeit polls were perceived as a type of
bellwether because the make-up of the student body was "seen as more
representative of Palestinian society".</p>
<p>"The fact that you have a democratic mechanism and the voter pool is
seen to be representative of Palestinian dynamics - that's why it
matters," Hugh Lovatt, senior policy fellow at the European Council on
Foreign Relations, told AFP.</p>
<p>The general Palestinian population has not been to the polls since 2006.</p>
<p>Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas scrapped elections scheduled for
last year citing Israel's refusal to allow voting in Israeli-annexed
east Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as their capital.</p>
<p>But Palestinian analysts said Abbas baulked out of fear that Hamas,
which controls the Gaza Strip, would also trounce Fatah across the West
Bank.</p>
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