GAZA CITY: The ruling Hamas movement yesterday replaced hundreds of striking teachers with its own supporters, purging Gaza’s education system of its political rivals and deepening its control of the coastal territory.
The labor strife has disrupted the public school system at the start of the academic year and added to the misery in Gaza, which has suffered from international isolation and Israeli economic sanctions since Hamas violently seized power last year.
During the takeover, Hamas routed forces loyal to the rival Fatah movement.
The local teachers’ union, one of the last remaining Fatah strongholds in Gaza, called its strike this week to protest the transfers of dozens of educators to new schools. It said Hamas forced the transfers to give its supporters key posts in the education system.
Hamas denied this, but then installed hundreds of new teachers almost immediately after the strike began. “Anybody who left their job will not be allowed to return,” said the Hamas Education Minister Mohammed Askoul.
“They have become irrelevant and cannot be trusted anymore as educators.” He estimated 2,000 teachers have been replaced. About 9,000 teachers work in Gaza’s public schools.
The move ensures Gaza’s education system will now be stacked with Hamas loyalists. While the group has said it would not impose its strict Islamic views on society, its control of the classrooms is likely to change the tone of instruction and create more sympathy for the group’s ideology among the territory’s 250,000 public school students.
The dispute has caused widespread confusion in Gaza’s schools this week. Many parents kept their children home. Some students appeared torn, coming to school but skipping class.
“What’s happening is a joke. We came to school and the teachers told us to go home,” said Hussam Abdullah, 16, standing outside his school in Gaza City. “But the new (Hamas) principal says if we don’t go to school for a week, we’ll be expelled.”
Meanwhile, Palestinian officials holding talks in Egypt on ending divisions among the various Palestinian groups said Tuesday that talks between all Palestinian groups are to resume at the end of next month.
Egypt is to hold separate talks with individual Palestinian factions throughout Ramadan, Mohammad Al-Hindi, a senior official of the Islamic Jihad group, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
But the all-inclusive round of talks would resume after the Eid El-Fitr feast, during the first three days after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“Both Hamas and Fatah are invited to these separate talks,” Al-Hindi said.
Islamic Jihad held a second day of talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Tuesday that Al-Hindi told DPA had focused on the presence of Egyptian security advisors in the Gaza Strip.
“Discussions tackled the presence of Egyptian advisors in Gaza for security reasons only,” he said, adding that they had been there before the Hamas takeover. He also refuted reports of the possibility of Arab forces being deployed in the enclave.
In another development, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is due to meet Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday in Jerusalem, Palestinian sources said yesterday.
The sources said that the two leaders will discuss the progress of the peace process on final status issues, and the implementation of Israeli commitments in the first phase of the US-backed road map peace plan, including the cessation of the Israel settlement activities. The two sides will also discuss the release of Palestinian prisoners from the Israel jails.
The same sources confirmed that contacts are under way between the Palestinian and Israeli sides in preparation for this meeting, the second between Abbas and Olmert this month. On his part, chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei on Tuesday stated that Abbas will meet Olmert next week and US President George W. Bush in September.
— With input from Hisham Abu Taha
