Hamas and Fatah play the blame game following acid attack on Palestinian teacher

The teacher, Nadia Abu Eisha, was slightly injured after an unknown group of people had thrown acid in her face while she was heading to work in a Hebron school.

By MAAYAN GROISMAN
Palestinian teachers' demonstration in the West Bank (photo credit: PALESTINIAN MEDIA)
Palestinian teachers' demonstration in the West Bank
(photo credit: PALESTINIAN MEDIA)
Palestinian Authority security services accuse Hamas of standing behind an acid attack on a Palestinian teacher in a school in Hebron Wednesday afternoon, Palestinian media reported.
The teacher, Nadia Abu Eisha, was slightly injured after an unknown group of people had thrown acid in her face while she was heading to work in a Hebron school. Abu Eisha arrived at the school even though her colleagues in the West Bank have been striking for the past three weeks to demand the Palestinian Authority raise their salaries.
In an interview with the Quds News Network, Abu Eisha said that one of the gang's members told her: "Since you want to break the strike, I will distort your face." This remark raised suspicion among Palestinian Authority security forces that Hamas, which supports the teachers' strike, is responsible for the attack against the Palestinian teacher.
While Abu Eisha refused to accuse Hamas of the acid attack, the head of the Palestinian Authority's Preventive Security Services, Adnan Damiri, wrote a post on his Facebook page unequivocally accusing Hamas of the attack. The post read: "Throwing acid on girls is a method Hamas used during the first intifada."
The teachers, however, claimed that the acid attack was fabricated by the government in order to break the teachers' unity. "If the story is true, we want to know who carried out the attack and we will firmly condemn it," a teachers' union statement read.
After three weeks of massive teachers' demonstrations which were forcefully dispersed by Palestinian Authority policemen, the Palestinian government called on teachers to return to schools, fearing that students would miss the second semester of the school year due to the strike.
While Fatah accuses Hamas of riding the wave of teacher protests in order to gain political dividends, Hamas claims that it is an integral part of the protest because the Palestinian government discriminates against Hamas teachers who apply for work in the West Bank.