GAZA, Hamas has denied rumors on having removed the name of Ghassan Kanafani from one of Gaza’s schools, saying Kanafani is, and will forever remain, a key Palestinian icon.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a press statement Thursday that Hamas has held contacts with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. The Ministry assured Hamas that the school still bears the same name, he added.
Abu Zuhri said Hamas will never allow any party to show any sign of disrespect towards Palestinian national icons.
For his part, undersecretary of the Ministry of Education in Gaza, Ziad Thabet, denied rumors that the tag of a school bearing Ghassan Kanafani’s name in Rafah city, to the south of Gaza, might have been changed to the name of Marmara.
He said a new school for girls bearing the name Marmara and adjacent to Ghassan Kanafani’s was inaugurated last year and will start classes with the launch of the new academic year.
He added that the Marmara school is independent of the Ghassan Kanafani school and has a different teaching staff.
According to the official, the ministry can never change the tags of schools and institutions bearing the names of such revolutionary and outspoken national figures as Ghassan Kanafani.
