Hamas government closes large Youth center in Gaza

Sharek partcipated yearly in summer camps for youth in Gaza with UNRWA, like here in the summer of this year. These camps were attacked by unknown thugs and destroyed.

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Palestinian police detained at least 13 young people who were protesting Hamas authorities' closure of the Sharek Youth Forum, a large independent NGO in Gaza Sunday.
Police spokesman Ayman Al-Batniji said 13 young men were taken into custody for holding a demonstration without a permit from the Ministry of Interior. He said the male detainees would be freed by sundown without being charged with a crime, while an unspecified number of female demonstrators had already been released.
The Gaza government shut down Sharek last Tuesday citing an ongoing criminal investigation into the group's activities and members. Sharek officials say the shutdown is a nakedly political attempt to crack down a liberal-minded institution.
One of the protesters, Ebaa Rezeq, told Ma'an that between 30 and 60 youths arrived outside the organization's offices around noon on Sunday holding signs. She said plainclothes government officers were waiting for the demonstrators, and ordered the group to speak with officials in the attorney general's office before holding the demonstration.
As the demonstrators walked from Sharek's office toward the attorney general's office, Rezeq said, police in jeeps arrived, ordering the group to disperse, then arresting several people.
"They were shouting at us 'we will beat you up and arrest you if you don't go home,'" she said. She said police also "hit and attacked" one female demonstrator.
After being dispersed by the police, Rezeq said the remaining protesters gathered outside the French Cultural Center, where again police arrived, arresting several more youths.
Rezeq estimated the total number of people arrested at more than 20, while another observer at the protest put the number at between 15 and 20.
Rezeq added that the demonstration was not backed by any political party and was intended only as an expression of solidarity with the Sharek Youth Forum. "We are the kind of people who believe that these kind of actions are wrong, including closing Sharek," she said.

'Democracy' agenda
The Sharek organization, which focuses on empowerment and capacity building among Palestinian youth in the West Bank and Gaza, has denounced the closure of its Gaza branch as an assault on an independent organization. Sharek co-founder Sufian Mshasha told the Ramallah-based website Palestine Monitor that the closure was "prompted by our agenda of democracy, social development, and our insistence on holding activities for both genders."
The organization said its Gaza manager, Muheib Shaath has been summoned 15 times for interrogation by Hamas-allied police. Mshasha said the vast majority of the questioning focused on mixed-gender activities.
A summer camp run by Sharek in partnership with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was attacked in May.
Mshasha also said: "Our director is an observant Muslim, our IT technician wears a burqa. Almost all the women wear traditional Islamic dress and all our volunteers are from Gaza."
In a statement on its website, Sharek also disputed the legal basis for the closure, citing the Palestinian Charitable Societies and Nongovernmental Organizations Law of 2000, which says the closure of an organization must be based on a court ruling.