Is It Time for "Gaza Dictatorship Month"?

While the world is busy marking the annual hate-fest that is Israel Apartheid Week, students at Gaza’s Al-Azhar’s University are being attacked by Hamas.

While thousands of students and academics around the world exercise their democratic right to protest in the name of Israel Apartheid Week (an annual Israel hate-fest on campus) their brethren at Gaza’s Al-Azhar’s University are being beaten up by Hamas for – wait for it – protesting. But of course, you’re unlikely to hear a word from the Israel bashers about this.

As reported by AFP, on Wednesday, dozens of Hamas police and security forces entered the university (dressed in civilian clothes) and began attacking students heading out for a protest.

University sources say that at least 10 students were taken to hospital and around 20 were arrested by Hamas.

What were the students protesting, you may ask? The downfall of Hamas? No. God forbid closer relations with Israel? Certainly not. The students were calling for an end to the bitter enmity between Hamas (which controls Gaza) and Fatah (which controls the West Bank) and the creation of a Palestinian national unity government between the two.  If Hamas were a little less obsessed with destroying Israel and asserting their dominance over every aspect of Gazan life, they would actually have noticed that this protest was in their benefit.

The University protest follows earlier demonstrations on Tuesday, when thousands of Palestinians rallied in the streets of Gaza City and the West Bank, calling for an end to the division in their national movement and unity between Fatah and Hamas.

Perhaps during Israel Apartheid Week, when students and academics seek to single out and demonize Israel (where incidentally, campuses are filled with both Arab and Jewish students, seemingly doing much more protesting than studying), they spare a thought for their Palestinian colleagues in Gaza City, who do not have the same luxury under Hamas.

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