Tag: Gaza Strip

Cairo April 13, 2013

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), denounces today the arrest of a professor on allegations of using illegitimate terms in his lecture. He was arrested by the Palestinian authority in Gaza strip which, controlled by Hamas.

“Khader Atteiah Mehraiz”, the modern literature criticism professor in “Aqsa University”, Gaza strip, was notified on Thursday April 11, 2013 that he was suspended from his work in accordance with the decision issued by the Advisory Board; appointed by the executive authority in Gaza strip which is affiliated to Hamas. It was provided in the justifications of the decision that “Mehraiz” used illegitimate terms as he used the terms “Jews and “Women” instead of “Sons of Monckys and Pigs” and “Hara’r” which means in English “women of honor or Free Women”!

The suspension decision against Mehriez comes in the series of the campaign established by the authorities in Gaza Strip that targets the Islamization of the higher education. Among the recent manifestation of this campaign was the decision issued by the Minister of Education in the suspended Prime Ministry of “Ismail Hanieh”, is the separation between the two genders above the age of 9 in all the stages of Education. In the same context the Advisory Council was established, in Al-Aqsa University of 26 thousands of students and about 1000 lecture working in it. One of its earliest decisions was suspending Mehriez.

ANHRI said that the decision of suspension lacks the legitimacy as it is issued by a body that was appointed in contraindication with the principle of the Independence of the University. The decision lacks the recognized rules in the academic work which provides specific procedures regarding accusing a professor and as a result of to be suspended and investigated through specialized committees enjoy the academic capacity. These can’t be conducted without a direct administrative order. The absurdity of this decision can be noticed from the justifications related to suspending Mehraiz, which shows an intervention in the daily work details of the University professor that can’t be accepted. It is also an intransigence that can be amounted to the farce limits regarding imposing narrow ideas that involve racialism understandings, which imposing it on the educational process is a serious violation by itself and its mechanism is a serious waste to the media freedoms”.

ANHRI added that the persistent of Hamas regarding imposing its narrow understanding and visions on the citizens and foundations of Gaza is in total siege to the Palestinian people in Gaza which became a large and wide prison sealed by the Israeili occupation from outside while Hamas plays the role of the arbitrary warden, that the evidences declare that its independent of ruling this part from Palestinian only to establishing a dictator authority that waste the rights of the citizens and repress their freedoms”.

ANHRI demands the necessity to return the professor to his position immediately and demands from Hamas to lift its hand from the universities of the Strip and stop its intervention in the academic and personal freedoms of the students and the professors in all the educational stages”.

Also available in : العربية