Jerusalem - The Israeli human rights organization Gisha, which has been working for, among other things, the rights of Palestinian students to travel abroad for opportunities in higher education that are absent in Gaza, appealed on Sunday evening to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice not to forget the hundreds of students who are still trapped in the Gaza Strip.
Rice arrived in the region over the weekend to see if any progress could be made in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Gisha‘s Executive Director, Sari Bashi, issued a statement saying that "despite promises by Israel to change the policy trapping students in the Gaza Strip and despite comments by Secretary of State Rice regarding the importance of access to education for the future of the region – Israel is still preventing hundreds of students from exercising their right to leave Gaza to access the foreign universities to which they have been accepted."
In any case, Gisha reported, three of the seven Fulbright candidates seeking to reach universities in the US in the coming academic year have still not even been able to travel to Jerusalem for visa interviews at the US Consulate.
The three “are still prevented from leaving Gaza because of ‘secret’ information collected by the Shin Bet, information which they have no opportunity to view or challenge,” Gisha said.
Gisha said on Sunday that a committee of other Gazan students who want to travel abroad to pursue their educations "sent a letter to Secretary of State Rice yesterday, asking her to help them reach their studies”.
According to Gisha, the students wrote that "We believe that education should be dignified and kept apart from all political and militant conflicts".
Gisha then called on Secretary of State Rice "to intervene in a closure policy that is not only violating the rights of Gaza residents to freedom of movement and to access education – it is harming the joint Israeli-Palestinian interest in allowing young people to access the training they need to build a better future in the region."