NOT the Majority Opinion

The victory of Hamas in the Palestinian election has generated interest in the leadership of the organization. There is one thing that may have passed unnoticed: Three of its leaders Mahmoud Zahhar, Ismail Haniya and Abdel-Aziz Rantissi (assassinated by Israel in 2004), were faculty of the Islamic University of Gaza in Palestine.

And a note for the readers of my blog interested in Greek University politics: The Islamic University of Gaza is governed by a Board of Trustees. (“The board consists of a number of outstanding people representing the educational, economic and community service fields in Gaza Strip. The Board of Trustees and the Council of Founders constitute the legislative body for the IUG. As its members live in Gaza Strip, the Board of Trustees work as an executive body for the Council of Founders”). http://www.palestine-net.com/education/iug.html)

Some biographical information of the three leaders:

Mahmoud Zahhar. Having spent much of his youth in Egypt, he remained in the country to study medicine at Cairo's Ain Shams University. After graduating in 1971, Mr Zahhar spent a further five years at Ain Shams specialising in general surgery. He then returned to the occupied territories to lecture at the Department of Medicine of the newly created Islamic University of Gaza, where Rantissi also worked.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4653706.stm)

Ismail Haniya headed Palestinian militant group Hamas' national list of candidates in January's legislative elections. Mr Haniya was born in 1962 in the Shati refugee camp to the west of Gaza city, after his parents fled their home near what is now the Israeli town of Ashkelon during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. He studied Arabic Literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he became involved in the Islamist movement. Mr Haniya graduated in 1987, just as a mass uprising, or intifada, against the Israeli occupation erupted in Gaza. Mr Haniya returned to Gaza in December 1993 and was appointed dean of the Islamic University. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4655146.stm).

Abdel-Aziz Rantissi was born in 1947 near Ashkelon, in what is now Israel. The town, then known as Yebna, is now known by its Hebrew name, Yavneh. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2977816.stm)

Abd al-Aziz Rantissi was an outstanding student. He completed his secondary school education in 1965 and was admitted as a student to the faculty of medicine at Alexandria University (Egypt). He graduated in 1972, returned to Gaza for two years, and than obtained a masters degree in Pediatrics. Rantissi studied in Egypt for nine years and received a degree in pediatric medicine. While there, he was influenced by the philosophy of the Muslim Brotherhood. Rantissi joined the Faculty of Science at the Islamic University of Gaza when it opened in 1978 and also became Chief Pediatrician in the Government Hospital in Khan Yunis. In 1983, he was arrested for refusing to pay taxes to Israel. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Rantissi.html