Five church schools in Gaza face closure after Hamas order
June 06, 2013: Five schools in Gaza – two Catholic and three other denominations
– face closure if the Hamas government follows through on an order forbidding co-educational
institutions, according to the director general of Latin Patriarchate Schools in Palestine
and Israel, reports The Catholic Herald.
Fr Faysal Hijazin said: “This will
be a big problem. We hope they will not go through with it, but if they do, we will
be in big trouble. We don’t have the space and we don’t have the money to divide our
schools.” In addition to finding additional space, he said, the schools face having
to hire more teachers. Men and women teachers would not be allowed to teach classes
of the opposite sex older than 10 under Islamic law.
“We will never accept
this even if we have to close the schools,” Fr Hijazin said. He said Latin Patriarch
Fouad Twal of Jerusalem hoped to speak with Gaza’s prime minister, Ismail Haniya,
to discuss the Church’s concerns.
The patriarchate administers the Latin Patriarchate
School, with 370 students, and the Holy Family School, with 650 students. In addition,
the Rosary Sisters operate their own school. The majority of the students enrolled
in the schools are Muslim. Fr Hijazin said that although the order did not specifically
single out the Christian schools, the five are the only schools with mixed enrolment
in Gaza.