PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER'S LOVE LETTER TO HAMAS

Hamas leader has strong tie to West Phila. (Phil. Inq.)
Dweik, who wears his moustache short and sports a white beard, is highly educated. He earned a bachelor’s degree in geography in Jordan and a master’s in education from Bethlehem University. Studying on a U.S.-backed scholarship, he earned a master’s in urban planning at State University of New York in Binghamton.

From 1985 to 1988, once again on a U.S. grant, he earned a master’s and a doctorate in urban planning at Penn. His doctoral dissertation analyzed the reasons Palestinians commuted from the West Bank and Gaza Strip to work in Israel.

In a recent interview, he recalled his days in West Philadelphia fondly. Afternoons spent at the Van Pelt Library, reveling in its “millions of books.” Forays to buy doughnuts, to which he says he became almost addicted. Communal prayer five times a day with fellow Muslim students in a room on the Penn campus.

Dweik said he was accepted at other universities, including one in the Southwest, but he chose Penn for the city’s rich history and because being on the East Coast gave him the feeling of being physically closer to his home in the Middle East.

“I said Philadelphia is the best. It was the first capital of the United States. So let me go there,” he recalled.