US embassy cable - 05TELAVIV1270

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 001270 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NEA FOR BURNS, SATTERFIELD/DIBBLE, E. 
NSC FOR ABRAMS/DANIN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/01/2010 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, EAID, KWBG, GZ, IS, GAZA DISENGAGEMENT, ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS 
SUBJECT: "TECHNOCRAT" PRESIDENT RUNS INTO TROUBLE AT 
AL-AZHAR UNIVERSITY 
 
Classified By: Pol/C Norm Olsen for reasons 1.4(b) and (d). 
 
1.  (C) Summary: An angry mob of students, reportedly stirred 
up by remnants of the previous, Arafat-appointed 
administration, chased the new al-Azhar University president, 
Dr. Hani al-Nijim, from his campus office February 28 in 
response to al-Nijim's announced plan to uphold long-ignored 
university standards and policies, including on tuition and 
fees.  Classes are suspended while the university board 
weighs a date to re-open.  Al-Azhar, sometimes characterized 
as the "Fatah" or secular university, faces, like many 
Fatah-linked institutions, increasing competition for 
prestige with its chief rival, the Islamic University of 
Gaza.  Although at least one board member expressed his 
confidence that the conflict will be resolved, the type of 
troubles experienced by Dr. al-Nijim seem likely to recur in 
other arenas as Fatah responds to its embarrassing defeats by 
Islamists in January local elections in several Gaza strip 
municipalities, and gears up for more elections in coming 
months.  End Summary. 
 
-------------------- 
Cleaning up al-Azhar 
-------------------- 
 
2.  (C) Dr. Hani al-Nijim, appointed February 15 as the 
president of largely secular al-Azhar University in Gaza 
City, was reportedly driven from his office by a mob of 
rioting students the evening of February 28 after an earlier 
announcement that he intended to actively implement 
long-standing university standards and policies.  According 
to al-Azhar Board of Trustees member Ahmad Mousa, al-Nijim 
was having trouble from the get-go, as he attempted to impose 
a more formal relationship between his office and the 
students.  Under the former university president, PLO 
Executive Committee member Riad el-Khoudary, Mousa continued, 
the students, in particular the student council, had exerted 
what Mousa called in his March 1 conversation with Poloff 
"significant influence" over decisions affecting the 
university.  In particular, Mousa cited students being 
exempted from paying fees and tuition, as well as being 
awarded diplomas without having completed course 
requirements. 
 
3.  (C) While reports in the Israeli media portrayed the 
February 28 events as an armed mob of Fatah-affiliated 
students attempting to "lynch" the new president, Mousa 
painted instead a picture of a beleaguered technocrat 
empowered by President Abbas to end an era of chaos and 
declining standards under the previous, Arafat-appointed 
president.  He said the conflict had been instigated by Hazem 
Isqaq, dean of the Continuing Education faculty and a 
relative of ousted president el-Khoudary.  Unhappy with the 
uniform and more stringent policies being imposed by the new 
president, and reportedly in fear that he would lose his 
position, Mousa said, Isqaq mobilized students in his 
department by telling them that the new president would not 
allow them to receive their diplomas.  Several hundred 
students then went on a rampage, Mousa said, vandalizing 
several university offices and calling for the president to 
resign.  Riot police eventually quelled the mob, and the 
president and the board suspended Isqaq pending a full 
investigation of his role in the incident.  Mousa said that 
the Board intends to re-open the university in several days, 
so as not to penalize the entire student body (currently on 
vacation) for the actions of students in a single faculty. 
 
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Board Claims Abu Mazen Support 
------------------------------ 
 
4.  (C) Unlike in the Arafat era, when those with strong 
Fatah credentials and often little else to recommend them 
were appointed to public office, and organizations like the 
Board of Trustees were little more the "rubber stamps," Mousa 
said, President Abbas supported the board's decision to 
retire then-president el-Khoudary, and had freed the board to 
decide on his replacement based on merit (Note: El-Khoudary 
was reportedly appointed subsequently to a senior position in 
the PLO education department.  End note).  Calling 
el-Khoudary "inefficient," the board was unanimous in voting 
his ouster and also united in its support of al-Nijim, a 
veteran board member who is reportedly widely recognized as 
being technically competent and in possession of a "clean 
reputation." 
 
5.  (C) Al-Nijim and his top aide, Mazen Hamada, would not 
comment directly to Emboffs on the February 28 events, saying 
only that they awaited the results of the board's 
investigation.  Al-Nijim flatly told PD officer March 2 that, 
"I do not know about politics -- I know about academics," and 
stressed that he intends to run the university "in proper 
order, according to regulations."  Mousa said that in its 
letter of appointment, the board had specifically entrusted 
to al-Nijim responsibility and authority to carry out all 
university rules and procedures, as well to put an end to 
nepotism. 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
Situation Requires A Certain Leniency, But.... 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
6.  (SBU) Krister Nordahl, UNRWA program director in Gaza, 
confirmed that virtually all educational institutions in 
Gaza, including those run by UNRWA, have been under 
increasing pressure during the four years of the Intifada to 
be lenient with students, many of whom have extreme 
difficulty in getting to their place of study because of 
internal closures.  Nordahl said that most institutions in 
Gaza recognize the need to bestow a certain latitude on 
students unable to meet course requirements because of 
closures or other movement-restricting events outside their 
control.  Mousa and others familiar with the level of 
education at the university described a system that abused 
that latitude to the benefit of well-connected students and 
to the detriment of the educational standards of the 
institution. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Declining Standards, Declining Prestige 
--------------------------------------- 
 
7.  (SBU) Comment: Although the universities do not fit 
neatly into a political line-up, with a broad brush, al-Azhar 
is viewed as being secular or "Fatah," and the Islamic 
University of Gaza (IUG) is viewed as being Islamist or 
"Hamas."  Embassy education experts have increasingly noted 
over the course of this Intifada a sense within al-Azhar that 
its once-unique prestige is increasingly rivaled by IUG, 
which has been both more creative in adopting compensatory 
measures such as distance learning, and more bold in 
modernizing its curriculum (Note: IUG, for example, teaches 
its business administration courses in English, from U.S. 
textbooks). 
 
---------------------------- 
Burnishing a Tarnished Image 
---------------------------- 
 
8.  (C) Comment cont'd: The appointment of al-Nijim and the 
subsequent challenge to his authority by remnants of the 
Arafat-appointed cadre at the university appear a microcosm 
of what lies ahead for those interested in "cleaning up" the 
image of both the PA and Fatah.  Ahmad Mousa was expansive in 
his conversation with Poloff, depicting a board interested in 
exercising a new-found freedom to use its judgment for the 
good of the institution under President Abbas and shedding 
its "rubber-stamp" reputation.  Although at least one board 
member expressed confidence that the conflict will be 
resolved, the types of troubles experienced by Dr. al-Nijim 
seem likely to recur in other arenas as Fatah responds to its 
embarrassing defeats by Islamists in January local elections 
in several municipalities in the Gaza Strip, and gears up for 
more elections in coming months. 
 
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