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Israel-Palestine
Attempted lynching shuts down PA univ.
2005-03-02
The largest Palestinian university in the Gaza Strip was shut down after hundreds of Fatah-affiliated students tried to lynch the institution's president.
Back in my day we used to just tar and feather 'em...
... guess they weren't happy with just an effigy ...
Sources in Gaza City said the students at Al-Azhar University were angry with the head of the university because he didn't give Fatah enough seats in the newly-established board of directors.
Yep. That'll set 'em off...
They said the students went on the rampage on Monday, destroying furniture and setting fire to several administration offices and classrooms.
Clearly they're well-educated Paleos ...
According to the sources, the rioters then attacked university president Hani Nijem's office while he was inside. Nijem, who was appointed just last week, was forced to hide for nearly three hours as the students tried, unsuccessfully, to break down the door of his office. Palestinian Authority policemen who rushed to the scene battled for hours with the protesters before rescuing Nijem from his office. At least five students were injured during the confrontation and taken to hospital. Yahya Madhoun, a leader of the Fatah-affiliated students on campus, condemned the university administration's decision to suspend studies indefinitely. He said the protest was organized to demand reforms in the university administration and to call for the resignation of Nijem and other top academics.
"We're resignin' youse! Get a rope, Mahmoud!"
The student leader described the university as a Fatah stronghold "that must be preserved at any cost." The administration condemned the perpetrators as "saboteurs" and called on PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to put an end to chaos and lawlessness. Tensions on the campus have been running high since unidentified gunmen murdered professor Yasser al-Madhoun, one of the teachers, late last year. Last week, the Arab-American University in the Jenin area suspended studies for several days after a group of gunmen kidnapped and beat the library director.
Posted by:Fred

#7  Yeah, you can't blame college students rioting on the Sixties, as much fun as that can be. There have been students rampaging through college towns with impunity ever since they first figured out that the clerical exemptions from Medieval secular law covered people studying to be clerics as well. Must have been about five minutes after the establishment of the first university in Paris.

Oh, and by the way - as a representative of the Commonwealth, we want our state abbreviation back. It's our considered opinion that the behavior of the Palestinian Authority has done considerable damage to the trademark "PA".
Posted by: Mitch H.   2005-03-02 3:01:32 PM  

#6  At Berkeley, we used to just have sit-ins and the occasional riot. Just venues and excuses to meet chicks.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2005-03-02 11:17:10 AM  

#5  Kids will be kids and in a region where alot of them never really grown beyond the mentality of the sandbox is it any wonder?!!? When you start saying crap like "at any cost" somebody often ends up paying the highest cost. In alot of ways, they deserve themselves. That's what you get when you allow nasty freaks a little open field running room. God help them.
Posted by: Bradshaw mk IV   2005-03-02 7:36:27 AM  

#4  SON OF TOLUI
Was it an organic chem textbook?
Posted by: gromgorru   2005-03-02 4:01:45 AM  

#3  they beat the library director in jenin because he demanded payment for the library's one overdue book out of a total of one--the KKKORAN
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI   2005-03-02 2:06:20 AM  

#2  They said the students went on the rampage on Monday, destroying furniture and setting fire to several administration offices and classrooms.

Sounds like they had help from some 60's era hippie types.

Posted by: BigEd   2005-03-02 12:48:13 AM  

#1  How many students went to jail? If the PA wants to exert authority that would be a good start. Jail, trials, prison. Cops are of no purpose if they don't do their job.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom   2005-03-02 12:07:05 AM  

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