Agreement averts financial crisis at Gaza's Al-Aqsa University
The ministries of education in Gaza and the West Bank reached an agreement to end the standoff at Al-Aqsa University over administrative appointments, which had put the education of thousands of students in jeopardy.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — After months of deliberations between Gaza- and Ramallah-run education ministries, an agreement was reached March 29 ending the crisis at Al-Aqsa University in the Gaza Strip — the largest public university in the Palestinian territories. The crisis lasted for a year and a half and threatened the future of 1,000 employees and more than 27,000 students.
The crisis broke out in September 2015 when the Hamas-run Ministry of Education and Higher Education appointed Mohammed Radwan — without consulting the Ramallah-based Ministry of Education and Higher Education — as acting president of the university. This occurred after former chairman Ali Abu Zuhri submitted his resignation. The ministry in Ramallah resisted this appointment and threatened to withdraw its accreditation of the university if its counterpart in Gaza did not take back its decision to appoint Radwan.
On Nov. 30, 2015, the ministry in Ramallah dismissed the administrative measures adopted by its counterpart in Gaza for Al-Aqsa University, considering them to be a violation of Article 17 of the 1998 Law of Education and Higher Education that states, “Any license for an educational institution granted through a decision from the minister is canceled if the said institution fails to meet one of the licensing conditions and to settle its situation within six months at least from having received a written notification of the above.”
The ministry in Gaza refused to rescind Radwan’s appointment, thus prompting the consensus government to freeze the salaries of 13 academic and administrative staff at the university on Nov. 3, 2015, because they were connected to Radwan and disobeyed the orders of the Education Ministry in Ramallah. In response, the Education Ministry in Gaza expelled four deans from the university board because they abided by the decision of the ministry in Ramallah and did not attend the board of trustees’ sessions in the Gaza Strip.
