Ramallah invalidates new degrees from top Gaza university

The Palestinian Education Ministry declared Tuesday that it would no longer recognize new degrees from Al Aqsa University, the Gaza Strip’s largest academic institution.

The ministry’s headquarters in Ramallah said it “formally withdrew its recognition” of degrees for new students enrolling at the university, and that those degrees would not to qualify graduates for work or further education, the official PA news site Wafa reported.

For recent graduates and students currently enrolled at the university, degrees will not be accepted unless they are personally signed by the chairman of the university’s board of trustees, Dr. Kamal al-Shirafi, the statement said.

The ministry called on Gaza’s students to enroll in other institutions.

According the news site Al Monitor, in 2015 student enrollment at Al-Aqsa and its affiliates reached 25,000.

The move by the ministry follows the recent transfer of two Fatah-affiliated professors from the university to local colleges, as well as new teaching appointments in the university by educators who weren’t approved by the General Personnel Council in Ramallah.

Fatah and Hamas — the main Palestinian political factions — have been fighting for control of Al Aqsa University since last August, when chairman Ali Abu Zuhri resigned. Hamas, a terror group in control of the Gaza Strip, then appointed Mohammed Radwan as acting chairman of the university without clearing the decision with the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority. The PA responded by cutting the salaries of 11 pro-Hamas academics from the university.

No agreed-upon chairman for the university has been appointed since.

Hamas and Fatah are currently readying themselves for Palestinian municipal elections in Gaza and the West Bank slated for October 8.