Al Mezan Center Condemns Assault on Al-Azhar University; Calls for Halting Politicizing Education Institutions

The negative impacts of the political divide in the Gaza Strip continue to influence most of the service sectors, especially the education sector.
Today, riots erupted and the utilities of Al-Azhar University – Gaza were attacked and damaged.
This is the second time that universities witness clashes and riots in the past two months.
According to field investigations of Al Mezan, at around 11:00am on Thursday, 14 October 2008, over 50 students of the Islamic Bloc broke into the premises of Al-Azhar University.
They destroyed the main gate's lock and gathered inside the main square inside the University.
They circulated a statement entitled 'Warning Statement No 3'.
After the Islamic Bloc students protested inside the University premises in a tense atmosphere, they clashed with other University students.
The Islamic Bloc students broke into the administration building, breaking door panes and messing with the contents of offices.
They also broke into the office of the Students Union.
Later, the sound of an explosion was heard.
The police then intervened and evacuated the premises under an atmosphere of suspense.
The University administration said that seven students of the Islamic Bloc had been dismissed on the grounds of the riots that had erupted at the University previously.
It added that it had informed those students to appear before a commission of inquiry twice; however, they refused to do so.
Therefore, it decided to dismiss them.
According to the Islamic Bloc's statement, students protested against the University's decision to dismiss seven students of the Islamic Bloc.
The current problem was an extension of an older one where the Islamic Bloc's students had broken into a secretariat office in the University's Continuous Education Department on Sunday, 24 August 2008; in which students occupied the office and took a PC with them when they left it.
The PC was later returned to the University.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns the attack on the premises of Al-Azhar University.
It calls for sparing the Palestinian universities of the fierce, on-going political conflict between Fateh and Hamas movements.
The Center stresses the need to take peaceful and democratic actions when making demands or solving student-related problems inside universities.
The Center also stresses the need to carry out the Student Union's elections in universities as soon as possible so that students can be democratically represented and engaged in university life.
This would help end tensions among the different student blocs inside universities.
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