Some university students in Gaza who were accepted for admission to Harvard and other Ivy League schools were denied permission to leave the country by Israel. Israel did not cite security or other concerns (and how could they, considering the students would be leaving Israel/Palestine). It simply denied them their right to education.
There is a public Israeli precedent for this. In the past - most recently in the fall of 2000, off the top of my head - the United Nations General Assembly voted in favour of resolutions granting Palestinians basic rights, such as the right to obtain access to an education within their own homeland. Naturally, all of these resolutions passed easily with overwhelming vote counts of roughly 148-2 and 151-1 (this is no exaggeration; look up the exact votes on the UN homepage). The two votes against? The U.S. and Israel. And in cases when there was only one opposing vote, it was cast by Israel, with the U.S. abstaining.
Apparently, the U.S. and Israel are alone among nations in the world in believing that Palestinians have no right to an education.
A snippet here of the recent Ha'aretz article, with the full link below:
Gisha, an Israeli organization aimed at protecting Palestinian freedom of movement, says the problems the Palestinian students faced are not out of the ordinary.
"There are hundreds of students in the Gaza Strip who were accepted by universities abroad and have valid visas," said Gisha executive director Sari Bashi.
But, she added, "Israel issues a comprehensive ban on students from Gaza going abroad, as part of its policy of collective punishment toward Gaza residents, thereby impinging on the right to education of hundreds of talented young people who want to study, develop, and create a better future in our region."
====
No matter how you slice it, this shit is fucked up.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1008866.html
#
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment