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Source: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=172024
PA Purges Hamas-Linked Educators
(Jerusalem Post) Khaled Abu Toameh - The PA in the West Bank has over the past two years fired hundreds of schoolteachers and imams suspected of being affiliated with Hamas, Palestinian sources in Ramallah disclosed on Sunday. A source in Ramallah said the crackdown was aimed at undermining the Islamist movement's influence and preventing it from extending its control beyond Gaza. Another source said over 1,000 teachers and more than 300 imams have lost their jobs since the beginning of the clampdown, though not all had ties to Hamas. "Many of them were fired because they don't support Fatah and the Palestinian Authority," the source said. "Others were fired because they had become too religious and there was fear that they would one day join Hamas." Some teachers said they were dismissed after they refused to work as informants for the PA security services.