Gaza students denied chance to study abroad

[Scurrilous]

Even with scholarships to prestigious foreign schools, many are trapped by Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. Only a few with Western backers or high connections get to leave.

<snip>

"As the academic year gears up around the world, hundreds of college and graduate students here are growing increasingly desperate. Israel's decision to virtually seal off the Gaza Strip after the militant group Hamas took control last summer has made the students partners in frustrated ambitions and pawns in a larger political struggle.

The case of seven Gazan Fulbright scholars who were not being allowed to leave the enclave attracted a flurry of international media attention; four of them got out in June after the U.S. intervened. But very few Gazans are allowed out anymore, except in extreme medical cases.

"I think I'm going to lose and then I'm going to check right into the asylum," said Wael Hamdi al Daya, who was accepted to the doctoral program in international finance at the University of Bradford in Britain. "It's a long struggle just to obtain a scholarship. So to do all that and gain it, and then lose it. . . ."

Individual students -- 58 so far this summer, according to Israel -- have been permitted to leave to study overseas. But Daya, the coordinator of Gaza's trapped student committee, estimates that at least 600 have been accepted to foreign universities. That number, he said, is probably low and doesn't take into account a new dynamic: students with ambitions to study abroad who didn't bother to apply.

The plight of Gaza's students drew unusually direct comments from Secretary of U.S. State Condoleezza Rice in May.

"If you cannot engage young people and give them a complete horizon to their expectations and to their dreams, then I don't know that there would be any future for Palestine," she said."

more

Israeli radio bans ad criticizing Gaza policy

<snip>

"Israel's national broadcast authority has rejected radio ads criticizing the government for stranding Palestinian university students in the Gaza Strip, a broadcasting official said Wednesday, calling them too controversial.

The ads, submitted by a group working for the free movement of Palestinians, target Israeli sanctions that have trapped hundreds of Gaza students who hoped to study abroad. The group, Gisha, is appealing the decision.

The ads feature two prominent Israeli authors and a former Cabinet minister calling on the government to let the students out."

more

[LeftishBrit]

1. I don't often agree with Condi, but I do here

"If you cannot engage young people and give them a complete horizon to their expectations and to their dreams, then I don't know that there would be any future for Palestine,"

I agree with that!

Hoping that Gisha's appeal is successful.

[Violet_Crumble]

2. Every now and again she says something that makes sense...

That line of hers jumped out at me coz she hit the nail on the head. It's a shame she can't say sensible things more often...