Secret History of My Geography Teacher, also Cofounder of Hamas | Ramzy Baroud

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Ramzy Baroud -- World News Trust

March 12, 2015

This is not my geography teacher, or, more accurately, it is not at all how I remember him.

A series of APA images published by the British Daily Mail and other newspapers showed Hamad al-Hasanat lying dead in a mosque, surrounded by a group of Hamas fighters. On top of his lifeless body, as worshipers came to offer a final prayer before burial, rested an assault rifle.

Hasanat was buried among the refugees of the Nuseirat Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip. He died March 2, at the age of 80.

“Hammad al-Hasanat co-founded the terrorist group (Hamas) on Dec. 14, 1987,” wrote British tabloid by way of introducing the black Palestinian leader. I say "black," although, skin color was never an issue worth discussing within the Palestinian Gaza political context.

But Hasanat had an affinity to Africa. I should know that. He was my geography teacher, and my favourite one throughout my three years at the Nuseirat’s UNRWA Boys’ Prep School.

Hasanat’s popularity stemmed largely from the fact that he “didn’t give too much homework” and that “he didn’t hit” as other teachers habitually did. In that way, his class was quite ideal: learning about the world at large and where winds come from and why, but the lessons included much storytelling. He was an agreeable character, and unlike our math teacher -- whose name I am withholding because he still scares me to this day -- who often came to class drunk and violent, Hasanat was a kind, fatherly figure to many of us.

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