The implications of the student movement elections at An-Najah and Birzeit Universities

A few days ago, the student council elections at An-Najah National University in Nablus and Birzeit University in Ramallah ended with the superiority of Hamas over Fatah in the two universities. Fatah had outperformed Hamas in the elections that took place more than a month ago in Hebron and Bethlehem universities.

The results of these elections show that the Fatah and Hamas movements share the percentage of support in the Palestinian public opinion, especially among the student movement, which is considered one of the most important components of the Palestinian national movement in its two parts (the liberal democratic and the conservative Islamic), and from within it the future leaders of the Palestinian people are born, which comes as evidence For the results of Public Opinion Poll No. (87) for the first quarter of this year 2023, which the Palestinian Center for Political and Survey Research continues to implement and publish. The results of this poll showed that the tie between Fatah and Hamas remained unchanged without significant change during the first quarter of this year. .

A preliminary reading of the results of these elections shows that the electoral tendencies of the student movement are different from one university to another, and it seems here that these tendencies in this round of elections were also different in universities in the south of the West Bank than in universities in the north, as Fatah (liberal) won the student councils. In the universities of Hebron and Bethlehem, where the first is considered to be conservative and the second is liberal, Hamas (conservative) won in An-Najah National University, which it considers to be conservative, and Bir Zeit, which is considered liberal.

And while the entire Palestinian people, at least in the West Bank, won victory by holding these elections, which shows their determination to adopt democracy and the ballot box as the only means for transferring power and leadership within the walls of the university campus, reading the implications of the results of these elections, especially in An-Najah and Bir Zeit universities, shows that Fatah's approach to addressing the causes and effects of the Hamas coup against the Palestinian regime in the summer of 2007, and its establishment of a de facto regime in Gaza, is an unsuccessful and counterproductive approach, which reflects the crisis or crises of the Fatah movement, which in turn was the main reason for the youth's inability to win. In strongholds that witnessed the establishment and birth of the youth at the end of the seventies of the last century.

On the other hand, it appears that the victory of Hamas in any elections that take place in the West Bank without an honest and explicit declaration from it that the internal education curriculum in its ranks, which does not see the Palestinian other as a partner in society, was the main reason for the bloodshed in the streets of Gaza in 2007, which It makes achieving reconciliation, strengthening national immunity, producing national and community unity, and establishing a stable political system an impossible task, especially since the culture of these educational curricula is still preparing future generations.

Regarding the chronic crises of the Fatah movement, it should be noted here that the report of the investigation committee on the failure of the Palestinian armed forces to confront the Hamas coup in 2007, which followed its resounding loss to Hamas in the general legislative elections in 2006, summed up the responsibility in the political sphere in two points, the first being the blurry vision The second is the absence of a leadership institution.
The report specified that what is meant by leadership here is the leadership of the Fatah movement, starting with the Central Committee, passing through the Revolutionary Council, and ending with the local leadership of the organization and the leadership of the squares {...}, and the report added that a quick look at recent history reveals the severity of the deep and complex, structural and functional crises that the movement suffers Corresponding even with the erosion of its struggle balance, and its progress in a movement, corruption is rampant in its leadership circles, especially among the elements that occupied advanced positions in power {...}, and in the same context, the report added, and this was one of the main reasons for Fatah losing the municipal and legislative elections to Hamas, and the report continues This, of course, along with fragmentation and the absence of unity of position, has demonstrated that Fatah's experience of governing and leading the political system without political achievements as a result of blockage of prospects, poor performance, and the collapse of the negotiating peace option "was not an encouraging model that motivates the rallying of public opinion."

It is noteworthy here that the reasons for Fatah’s loss to Hamas in the 2005 municipal elections, the 2006 Legislative Council elections, and then the loss of Gaza as a whole in 2007 are still present and effective 16 years after the investigation report was issued, which makes the percentages achieved by the youth out of student votes In success and Bir Zeit, and then its victory in the Bethlehem and Hebron elections, is a great victory that must be built upon if Fatah wants to at least preserve the purity of the national project that its founding generation is writing to resurrect at the end of the fifties of the last century.

As for the Fatah movement's approach to dealing with the effects of the coup, which was based on building an attractive government in the West Bank (democratic, transparent, adjudicated, free from corruption) that achieves prosperity and a comfortable life for people, it is attractive to citizens, especially in Gaza, and motivates them to revolt against the de-facto regime. Which can only be dark and oppressive and unable to fulfill its promises to the people there (liberation from occupation, luxury of living and freedom from corruption), it was completely opposite.

And about the victory of Hamas in the historical strongholds of Fatah in the universities of the West Bank without daring to change the threats to the unity and immunity of Palestinian society represented in its educational curricula that see the Palestinian other as related to fire because it works outside the teachings of the sacred text, the Palestinian people are not reassured that their blood is forbidden for their brother The Palestinian people, especially since the wisdom of Hamas did not grow as much as its military power, which provided models of resistance that no one with insight can deny, which exposes the Palestinian people to loss twice. .