From Inter Press: Eighteen-year-old Juliet Al-Tork, accepted in
Jordan’s Al-Yarmouk University for a translations course, is among the
hundreds not being allowed by Israel to leave. “All young people are
given the chance to study, and I am not.”
Jordan’s Al-Yarmouk University for a translations course, is among the
hundreds not being allowed by Israel to leave. “All young people are
given the chance to study, and I am not.”
“Israel is preventing the very people it should be
encouraging,” says Sari Bashi, executive director of the Gisha Legal
Centre for Freedom of Movement, a human rights Israeli group lobbying
on behalf of Palestinian students against the closure policy. “Israel
is not just denying Palestinian rights, it is also hurting its own
interests.” Bashi says that close to a thousand students attempt to
leave Gaza each year to pursue higher education; universities in Gaza
offer only undergraduate degrees. This year about a third of them were
allowed out.
(Thanks to Anne Silver…)
Posted in Beyondoweiss, Israel/Palestine, US Policy in the Middle East
polly et al,
re the discussion about richard witty, i submit he does not know he is being ridiculous, he does not know he is in a state of denial. this has happened to me in personal relationships with people who are hipper than rw, and i truly believe they are not lying. it is a deep psychological state of denial. i don't necessarily understand it but i have experienced it. seliger and all the other "liberals" who we would think would be interested in the evidence before they make these outrageous claims and statements, are not aware of their hypocrisy.
i had a friend who took me on the trip of revealing the perfidy of the media, who explained who the neocons were, yet could not go anywhere near aipac or the west bank. just wouldn't do it. he thought very highly of his intellectual honesty too. when i ultimately figured out what most here understand about aipac/israel he accused me of anti-semitism. he very much wanted to pin the whole problem on the xtian right. i have found differing levels of denial with other jews.
this is again another reason jews need to take the lead. they need to deconstruct their own lies to themselves. they need to see other jews take the journey.
i heard a jewish woman talk in utter perplexity about "the lemon tree". "why would this film/book be so anti-semitic? why are they accusing jews of these terrible things as if it is a one-sided issue?"
this is a real syndrome.
It is my opinion, based on seven years of closely watching Israeli and American Zionist behavior, that most Israeli leaders very strongly support efforts to stymie anything that might contribute to the birth of an embryonic Palestinian state. They do NOT view education of Palestinians as being in Israel's interest, excepting those likely to emigrate, contributing to a 'brain drain' from Palestinian society. Graduate education generates leaders who contribute to the development of economic, social, political, and civil society. Acceptance of immigrants by Europe and America is nearly a zero-sum game. A tripling of the amount of Palestinians getting graduate educations ensures that the number returned to the OPT will increase dramatically. Israeli leadership, and to a large degree 'establishment' Zionist leadership in America, both Jewish and Christian, want the campaign of creeping ethnic cleansing to continue. Anything that might hinder it, e.g. Palestinian organization of any kind, is opposed to the maximum extent possible. And to those whose first instinct is to deride this notion as 'conspiracy theory nonsense': whatever may be said about the morality and judgment of Israeli leadership in developing state policies, when it comes to the implementation of those they believe are critical to the survival and growth of the state (inasmuch as they see these as separable), they are NOT stupid. This is EXACTLY the kind of behavior that needs to be, and is not, reported to the American people. Only informed pressure from Americans will end this misbehavior, or at least our political and economic subsidy of it.
I totally agree with Colin Murray on this.
I believe that the policy of preventing the Palestinians persuing the higher education is deliberate and methodical policy of keeping Arabs in check.
Leaders tend to be educated people hence policy produces fewer potential leaders, hence the fabric of society is weakened and they can be herded like cattle and warehoused without causing too much of the hussle or expense.