In 2005 Hamas won municipal elections in the West Bank city of Qalqilya, triggering declarations from some observers to the effect that power would force the Iran-backed terror organization to govern pragmatically. When the organization won the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006, the same analysis was expanded to encompass hopes for the entire West Bank.
Hamas’s moves to take over the West Bank were blocked by the rival Palestinian Fatah faction. But the group succeeded in ousting Fatah officials from the Gaza Strip after a bloody 2007 battle. Hamas’s subsequent governance of the territory, extending into policies passed in recent days, does not inspire hope for pragmatic, moderate governance. Instead Hamas officials are set to enforce gender segregation inside Gaza classrooms:
In early April the Gaza-based Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) voted in Educational Law No. 1/2013, provoking debate because the law was only ratified by members of Hamas’ Change and Reform bloc, which did not actually have a legal majority in the Council. The new law will come into force at the beginning of the next school year, and contains two particularly controversial articles.
Article 42 mandates gender segregation in all Gazan schools, stipulating that “boys and girls must be in separate classes in educational institutions after the age of nine.” Under Article 47 of the new law, men will be banned from teaching at girls’ schools. Gaza’s universities are already segregated by gender, but the new law means that these policies will be implemented in all primary, secondary, and private schools.
Distaste for mixed gender education was also reportedly behind a Hamas decision last March to ban women from participating in a fundraising marathon for summer camps. The most recent announcement follows moves by Hamas to crack down on co-ed hair-cutting.
Anti-Semitic invective, in contrast, continues to play well:
The Hamas-affiliated student union in Gaza published a cartoon Tuesday in which a person whose body is made of a Palestinian Authority flag is seen throwing a Star of David – one of the best-known Jewish symbols – into a garbage can. Text under the picture says, “Keep the world clean.”
[Photo: Euronews / Youtube]