Ministry for Diaspora Affairs | October 2024

8 Hamas leaders see student cell victories as evidence of public support for the movement within Palestinian society. After the Hamas cell won the elections at Al-Najah University, senior Hamas figure Hussam Badran stated that this was “a referendum on the resistance,” referring to the armed struggle. 64 9 Despite Hamas’ victory at Al-Najah, the governor of Jericho, Hussein Hamail, 65 posted a provocative message against Hamas leadership, glorifying the cell’s achievements while mentioning terrorists and prisoners who graduated from Al-Najah, including Yasser Abu Bakr (responsible for the 2002 Netanya bombing in which an Israeli civilian and a nine month-old baby were murdered); 66 Nasser Aweis (serving 14 life sentences for planning attacks that killed 14 people); 67 and others.

11 Following the recent election results, the Hamas student cell stands out from the others, with an increased focus on organizing processions, demonstrations, and events fuelling incitement on university perimeters :

Activists dressed in explosive belts alongside children during an activity of the Hamas student cell at Birzeit during the student union elections (2023). 69 12 During an event at Al-Najah in July 2019, a play was performed depicting “the abuse experienced by prisoners in Israeli prisons”. The play included a scene with a terrorist on trial in Israel for the murder of Israelis, who tells the judge, “I killed three pigs with my own hands.” 70 Additionally, the cell organized an exhibition in Jerusalem on January 5th, 2015, at Al-Najah. The event was attended by the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Al-Najah and Mana Mansour, a member of the Legislative Council representing Hamas. The exhibition featured displays encouraging attacks, such as a representation of an attempt to stab Jews by a masked Palestinian. 71

Prominent Activities of the Student Cells 10 Despite the rivalry between student cells, cross organizational terrorist support events were also held. For example, on 10/4/2022, an event was held at the Polytechnic in support of terrorists from Jenin, with the participation of student cells from all organizations. The Polytechnic’s Dean of Students participated in the event, and signs supporting a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv attack were displayed. 68

64 https://palinfo.com/news/2023/05/16/836917/ 65 https://did.li/BJZlC

66 https://www.palwatch.org.il/main.aspx?fi=448&doc_id=3392 67 https://www.palwatch.org.il/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=21335 68 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdHNNFPDXVY 69 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r0BB5QPF_Q 70 https://www.facebook.com/ershad.kutla/videos/1633530190310215/ 71 https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/he/20782/

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