UPDATE: Gaza Students Lose Fulbright Scholarships and Their Hope

Last week, I wrote about 7 Gaza students who had their Fulbright Scholarships revoked on account that they could not obtain visas to leave Gaza.

The Associated Press is now reporting that four of the seven have been allowed by Israel to travel to Jerusalem to apply for student visas so they may study in the US. However, Israel would still not let the three other students leave Gaza as Israel officials deemed the students as "security risks."

Hopefully, in the coming days, all seven students will be able to leave Gaza and obtain visas so they may pursue studies in the US.

Gaza Students Lose Fulbright Scholarships and Their Hope

Reading the New York Times yesterday, I stumbled upon a small story, but a story that struck a chord with me.

The United States State Department made a decision to revoke the Fulbright scholarships of 7 Palestinians residing in Gaza. And while the decision does not appear to have stemmed from malicious intent, the decision nevertheless maintains strong negative undertones and represents a blow to 7 courageous people battling all odds to make a difference in their communities and change the world.

Hadeel Abu Kawik, a 23-year-old computer engineering student, endured an arduous process that included exams, interviews, an English test and an opportunity to leave the ravaged Gaza Strip to earn her scholarship, only to lose the opportunity to a technicality in foreign policy. "I was building my hope on this scholarship," she said. And anyone wanting to see a peaceful resolution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, is building their hope on a new, gifted generation of Palestinians and Israelis led by scholars like Abu Kawik who see a different and better world than the one they currently live in.

The scholarships were retracted according to a State Department spokesperson because Israel would not grant the students exit visas to study at universities in the United States. Israel has sealed off the Gaza Strip for months in an effort to isolate Hamas, which took over the region of about 1.3 million Palestinians last June. An Israeli military spokesman, Peter Lerner, said today however, that individual exceptions are made to the blockade and that the United States did not specifically ask for visas for the 7 Palestinian Fulbright Scholars. In effect, according to Lerner, the State Department decided to rebuke the scholarships without coordinating with Israel.

The United States State Department website describe the prestigious Fulbright Program in the following manner:

Since its inaugural in the late 1940s, the Fulbright Program has been an integral part of U.S. foreign relations. Indeed, face-to-face exchanges have proven to be the single most effective means of engaging foreign publics while broadening dialogue between U.S. citizens and institutions and their counterparts abroad. In doing so, the Fulbright Program creates a context to provide a better understanding of U.S. views and values, promotes more effective binational cooperation and nurtures open-minded, thoughtful leaders, both in the U.S. and abroad, who can work together to address common concerns.

Whether the challenge is transforming conflict into dialogue, conducting medical research to end a modern-day plague, halting the trafficking of persons, or designing an efficient energy grid, today’s issues call for new voices, new ideas and new leaders. Even in a networked world of the Internet and satellite television, there is no substitute for personal interaction—what journalist Edward R. Murrow called "the last three feet of communication." It is individuals, after all, not data streams, who must ultimately build the connections that in turn create lasting international partnerships.

Fulbrighters do just that.

A program that at its very core is broadening dialogue to address common concerns is acting counter towards promoting effective binational cooperation. 'The fundamental principles of international partnership and mutual understanding remain at the core of the Fulbright Program's mission," according their website.

And yet scholars like Abdulrahman Abdullah, a 30-year-old who had been hoping to study for an M.B.A. at an American university, is left to ponder the future. “If we are talking about peace and mutual understanding, it means investing in people who will later contribute to Palestinian society,” he said. “I am against Hamas. Their acts and policies are wrong. Israel talks about a Palestinian state. But who will build that state if we can get no training?”

Fortunately, hope does not appear to be completely lost as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters she plans to review the matter. "If you cannot engage young people and give complete horizons to their expectations and their dreams, I don't know that there would be any future for Palestine," Rice said. It would seem an administration that has staked its final months on making a difference in the Middle East would seek to empower those who have the will and ability to create change.

I will continue to monitor the developments and pursue any means in my power to help the 7 Gazans retain their opportunity to change the world.