Hamas has once again earned a political and moral victory in elections for the Students’ Association at Birzeit University, the more important university in the West Bank.
Birzeit is located in Ramallah, the center of power for the Fatah movement and the Palestinian Authority. The Hamas faction won 25 seats against just four that went to Fatah.
Hamas’ new political chief Ismail Haniyeh said that the election results at Birzeit were “a new expression of the students’ loyalty to the option of resistance and the Hamas movement.” Haniyeh added that, “This victory proves that all the attempts to diminish and exclude the Hamas movement have been unsuccessful.”
The leaders of Fatah’s youth movement called for an examination to explain the loss. The leaders attributed the loss to a lack of unity within the movement rather than to the election campaign.
Hamas sought to pour more salt on the wound and aired a video on one of their media agencies showing Palestinians near Ramallah celebrating Hamas’ victory in the elections.
Arab social media users also addressed Fatah’s loss. Abdulla Saafin took advantage of the election results to criticize those who supporter continued negotiations, writing, “Hamas won in the Birzeit student elections. Did the Oslo Accord people get the message?”
https://twitter.com/abdulla24862/status/862353195108098048
Fareed Qassem addressed the conspiracy that the IDF arrested Hamas students in order to harm their election campaign, writing, “Despite the occupation arresting the heads of the student faction of Hamas on the eve of elections, the party won the elections at Birzeit University, the university of the martyrs.”
Social media user Mahmoud Sabah wrote, “The intelligence and preparedness of the students in Birzeit won. This is a generation that understands the circumstances of this period in time well.”
Another internet surfer wrote, “The situation is difficult for Fatah people; they wanted to grow in Birzeit and boost their president’s moral, but instead they’ve fallen on their faces.”
A woman on Twitter wrote, “The liberation begins from the university.”
Saher Abou Dgeim criticized Fatah and the PA and hinted at their responsibility for the electricity crisis in Gaza, writing, “It may be that now they’ll cut off electricity from Birzeit University. lol”
Another woman, Hadeel, wrote that “Hamas’ victory in the elections at Birzeit University reveal the depth of the anachronism of Fatah and the PA.”
Another social media user, seemingly a Fatah supporter, wrote, “And then they say that there’s not democracy in the West Bank. If there is democracy in the Arab world, it’s only in the West Bank and Lebanon.”
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