PA and Hamas Target Students

Stand for Israel  |  April 15, 2019

It would seem that many of the world’s students show their “pro-Palestinian” stance by attacking Israel and blaming her for all Palestinian problems. Perhaps instead, writes Khaled Abu Toameh at the Gatestone Institute, they should look at how the Palestinian Authority and Hamas beat up their own students:

“Pro-Palestinian” activists at university campuses in the US and other Western countries have long been waging various campaigns to denounce Israel and hold it fully responsible for the continued “suffering” of Palestinians.

These activists, however, seem to care little about violations committed against the Palestinians by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank or Hamas in the Gaza Strip — even when fellow students in the West Bank and Gaza are being targeted.

In recent weeks, the PA has been waging a campaign of arrests and intimidation against Palestinian students at some of the West Bank universities. The students, according to the Palestinian Authority, are being targeted because of their affiliation with opposition groups, including Hamas. The students, in other words, are being targeted because of their political affiliations and not because of any crime they committed…

Hamas and other Palestinian groups accused the Palestinian Authority security forces of acting with a mob mentality against university students in the West Bank. “Our people and sons in the West Bank are facing a gang in contradiction of morals, laws and national values,” Hamas said in response to the crackdown on university students. The PLO’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) called on the Palestinian Authority to “stop dealing with a mob mentality toward with Palestinian students.”

It is ironic that Hamas is accusing its rivals in Fatah and the Palestinian Authority of acting like gangs.

This is the same Hamas that has repeatedly resorted to repressive measures, including breaking bones and shooting unarmed protesters, to silence its critics in the Gaza Strip. Hamas and the PA have been at war with each other since 2007, when Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip. Since then, hundreds of Palestinians, including political activists, journalists, writers, and university students, have fallen victim to the power struggle between the two groups…