The US state department has withdrawn its Fulbright scholarships from seven Palestinian students from Gaza because they are unable to obtain Israeli permission to leave the small strip of land.
The students were told in a letter from the US consulate general in Jerusalem, dated Thursday and seen by the Guardian, that the state department "will not be able to finalise your Fulbright Student Scholarship for 2008". No explanation was given, but the students were told to apply again next year, when they would be given "priority consideration" but with no guarantee that the scholarships would be awarded again.
Tom Casey, a spokesman for the state department, which sponsors the scholarships offering students abroad a chance to study in the US, said they would instead be given to Palestinians from the West Bank, who can travel abroad more easily.
Casey told reporters that the US is working to "revisit the issue" with Israel. Since the Islamist movement Hamas won parliamentary elections more than two years ago, Israel has severely restricted the number of Gazans it allows into Israel as part of a broad closure policy, which it says is designed to halt the regular firing of rockets and mortars by militants into southern Israel.
Hadeel Abukwaik, 23, won a Fulbright to study for a masters in software engineering after graduating last summer from al-Azhar University in Gaza City. "Is it my fault to be here in Gaza?" she said. "I am wondering, is it better for our neighbours to have an educated neighbour or to have an angry neighbour?"
Abdulrahman Abdullah, 29, won a Fulbright to study for an MBA in one of four American universities. He said he had spent several years preparing for the scholarship since graduating in finance and accounting from Birzeit University in Ramallah, in the West Bank.