A bloc affiliated with the Hamas terror group on Wednesday won a landslide victory in the student council elections at Birzeit University in the West Bank, one of the biggest Palestinian tertiary education institutions.
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The Islamic Allegiance Bloc garnered 5068 votes, taking 28 seats out of 51 total, while the Fatah-linked Yasser Arafat Bloc garnered just 3379, or 18 seats. Birzeit University used to be a Fatah stronghold, but support for the Palestinian Authority has since dwindled, and the popularity of Hamas increased.
This year's elections also had a high voter turnout, with 78% of students having arrived at the polls.
Palestinian media reported that Israeli security forces raided the university campus ahead of the elections and arrested several Islamic Allegiance Bloc students, leading to accusations, including by Hamas, of Jerusalem trying to intervene in the vote.
Islamic Allegiance Bloc students have a history of supporting the terror group through campus activity. In November 2021, Israel arrested five activists that maintained contact with senior Hamas officials based in Turkey for the purpose of transferring funds through the Gaza Strip to Judea and Samaria with credit cards. Half a year later, the IDF arrested several other Birzeit University students suspected of belonging to a Hamas student cell.
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