After eight years, Gaza student walks to freedom and an education

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"There was no mistaking the breadth of Wissam Abuajwa's triumphant smile yesterday as he reached the last passport check at the crossing with Israel on his way out of Gaza for the first time in eight years. When a man has been waiting so long to acquire the qualifications he needs so he can return and do something positive for his own stricken society, it is a moment to savour.

Yet the first words uttered by this polite but determined man after realising at last that he would be able to do his master's at Nottingham University's world-class school of chemical and environmental engineering were ones of almost formal thanks. "I am glad that the UK Government and Mr Kim intervened, and I am happy the Israelis responded to that," he said.

He also thanked Tony Blair, the Middle East envoy, to whom he had written from Gaza "where I and some 1.5 million other Palestinians have been imprisoned since 2007". He said that he was only seeking the expertise to help Gaza tackle its dire pollution problems, and went on to thank Gisha, the Israeli human rights agency championing trapped Gaza students; the Nottingham vice-chancellor and The Independent for highlighting his case.

Even yesterday his exit remained uncertain. Mr Abuajwa first won a place to do his master's at the prestigious Arava Institute in Israel when he was just 22 only to forfeit it because of the border closure when the intifida began in September 2000. Yesterday, after five failed attempts to leave and having been told at last that he had clearance to journey via Amman to Britain, he arrived at the Erez crossing at 8.30am then was told he did not have an Israeli permit. When he was told that Angela Crompton, the British consular official on hand to escort him to the Jordanian border, had been promised it would be sorted out, the tension in his voice was palpable. "Just tell her to hurry up," he said. "The Allenby Bridge closes at 4 o'clock." Sorted it was.

But Mr Abuajwa was quick to draw attention to all those students still in education-obsessed Gaza as ambitious and intellectually hungry as himself, who had not been so lucky. "There are perhaps 700 students in there still waiting who didn't have the British government working for them, who aren't getting any help as I did."

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[LeftishBrit]

1. Glad to hear this.

Sorry it took so long but at least there's a happy ending.

[Violet_Crumble]

3. Not for the hundreds of others who were mentioned in the article...

'But Mr Abuajwa was quick to draw attention to all those students still in education-obsessed Gaza as ambitious and intellectually hungry as himself, who had not been so lucky. "There are perhaps 700 students in there still waiting who didn't have the British government working for them, who aren't getting any help as I did."'

[LeftishBrit]

4. True.

For all those concerned with the issue.

www.gisha.org

[Violet_Crumble]

5. Thanks for the link. I'll check it out n/t

[Scurrilous]

2. Denying Gaza's students visas smacks of 'collective punishment'

<snip>

"WHEN THE Israeli government some weeks ago denied permission to seven Fulbright scholars to leave Gaza to take up their scholarships in US universities, the US department of state, with regret, but with immediate effect, cancelled their awards.

These two extraordinary decisions by the Israeli and US governments were met with worldwide outcries and protests, and nowhere stronger than within Israel.

Sari Bashi, the director of the Israeli organisation Gisha, whose mission is the promotion of freedom of movement of Palestinians, led the protests, saying the ban on Palestinians leaving Gaza region " . . . is part of a policy of closure and collective punishment that is trapping 1.5 million civilians".

Moreover, noting that in addition to the Fulbright scholars, there are many hundreds of other Palestinian students in Gaza who have been accepted for graduate studies in US and EU universities, but have been prevented from leaving, she added: " . . . Gisha calls on Israel to allow all Palestinian students accepted to universities abroad, to exercise their right to leave Gaza and access education in order to obtain the tools they need to build a better future for the region".

Following Gisha's petition to the Israeli Supreme Court on behalf of two other students who had been accepted by universities in Germany and the UK, the Israeli justices criticised the military's refusal to let any students leave Gaza and demanded clarifications within two weeks. The military's reply is still awaited."

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[Scurrilous]

6. 24 July 2008: The siege on Gaza: Israel severely infringes Gazans' right to education

<snip>

"Since Israel tightened the siege on the Gaza Strip last year, hundreds of Palestinian students have been unable to reach their educational institutions in the West Bank and abroad. Not only are the students being denied their right to education, but Palestinian society suffers as a whole from this impediment to its development. The harm to students is only one example of grave harm resulting from the siege. Israel has almost complete control of Gaza’s borders, and its policy toward the Strip breaches its obligations under international law.

Student hardship in Gaza

There are three universities in Gaza, which offer a limited number of programs for bachelor’s degrees. No programs are available in occupational therapy, physiotherapy, dentistry, and many other fields. Master’s degrees are even more limited, and PhD programs are non-existent.

As a result, many Gazans choose to study in the West Bank and abroad. Hundreds of Gazans were accepted this year to academic programs outside the Strip, but Israel refused in almost all cases to let them leave the Strip to attend school. The many students who had already begun their studies outside the Gaza Strip and were home on vacation found themselves stuck there. The precise number of students unable to reach their schools is unknown, given that, since January 2008, the Civil Committee in Gaza stopped accepting exit requests from students. According to the statistics of Gisha, a human rights organization, the number of students unable to exit the Strip is in the hundreds. As far back as 2000, Israeli authorities imposed a sweeping prohibition on the exit of Gazans wanting to study, with a small number of exceptions. The situation worsened under the siege.

Given its sweeping nature and the lack of individual examination of each case, the Israeli prohibition constitutes collective punishment. In August 2007, the Israeli High Court of Justice rejected the petition of occupational-therapy students and Gisha to enable the students to leave the Strip to attend school in the West Bank. The court based its ruling on the age of the students, who were in the 16-35 age group, which the defense establishment considers security risks, and on the existence of an armed conflict between armed groups in Gaza and Israeli armed forces. The court did not require the state to examine the movement requests on an individual basis, thus approving the state’s sweeping refusal to let them leave the Strip.

In recent months, the media has given wide coverage to the case of seven students from Gaza who received prestigious Fulbright fellowships, given by the US government, and were denied exit from the Strip. Fulbright officials consequently decided to retract the scholarships. Following criticism by the US government and the involvement of US Secretary of State Rice, the prohibition was lifted. Recently, American officials arrived at Erez Crossing to enable the students to apply for US visas. Whereas these seven students were lucky, hundreds of other students remain imprisoned in the Strip and wait for a general solution to the problem."

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[UndertheOcean]

7. This is a systematic policy to prevent the economic advancement of Gaza Strip

What better way there is than preventing its bright students from obtaining advanced degrees.