Israel continues to block Gaza woman’s studies on bureaucratic/despotic grounds

Ben White writes:

I’ve received an update from Gisha, the legal centre representing Bethlehem University student Berlanty Azzam [pictured] who Israel expelled last month from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip. The court delayed proceedings once again to December 6th (remembering that Berlanty was initially taken by Israeli forces almost 5 weeks ago). Here’s Gisha spokesperson Keren Tamir:

"We are disappointed in the ongoing delay – while the semester melts away without Berlanty being permitted to attend her classes. This case raises questions as to why Israel insists on trying to prevent talented Palestinian students like Berlanty from accessing higher education – even when Israel itself makes no allegation of a security threat.

"I’m also attaching an affidavit [sorry, editor at Mondo cant upload] submitted today to the court from the Ambassador of the Vatican in Israel in which he makes a commitment by the Vatican that, if ordered by the court to do so, Berlanty would agree to go back to Gaza after the completion of her studies. Even this commitment didn’t help to persuade the State and the Court to let her travel."

About Ben White

Ben White is author of 'Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide' and 'Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, discrimination and democracy'. Follow him on twitter at @benabyad and on his website www.benwhite.org.uk.
Posted in Gaza, Israel/Palestine

{ 17 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. potsherd says:

    The only point for Israel is having one less Arab in the Land of Israel.

  2. Oscar says:

    Yes, potsherd, but the most important thing is to prevent this generation of Palestinians from having acccess to higher education, and providing eyewitness accounts of their experiences under genocidal apartheid. link to nytimes.com

    • yonira says:

      Thats funny, you know that institutes of higher education were only allowed in the OT after Israel took control of them from Egypt and Jordan, right?

      • Chaos4700 says:

        Of course they were built for Jewish settlers by Israel, but hey, lets not nitpick here.

      • Oscar says:

        Nothing funny about it, yonira. It’s another form of collective punishment routinely practiced by the IDF. From the above-referenced NYT article in May 2008:

        “We are fighting the regime in Gaza that does its utmost to kill our citizens and destroy our schools and our colleges,” said Yuval Steinitz, a lawmaker from the opposition Likud Party. “So I don’t think we should allow students from Gaza to go anywhere. Gaza is under siege, and rightly so, and it is up to the Gazans to change the regime or its behavior.”

        Riiiiiiight. Today’s Palestinian graduate student is tomorrow’s terrorist. Hey, there we go again with our “shared values!”

  3. Chaos4700 says:

    Funny, it doesn’t seem Witty has a comment on this article. Fancy that. I guess Mr. Center of Attention is off looking for those WMDs in Iraq — er, Iran, sorry.

  4. James says:

    a blockade here, a blockade their…. who’s counting? israel wants us to know how many well educated citizens it has… actions like this suggest none of them are holding office or having any say over the jim crow direction of their country…

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