http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/773451.html
Salameh won a scholarship, but can't enter Israel to use it
By Tamara Traubmann
Sawsan Salameh was born to a family of limited means in the Palestinian
village of Anata, east of Jerusalem. Despite her family's financial problems,
Salameh completed high school and went on to Al-Quds University in Abu Dis,
where she obtained bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry. Recently,
Salameh won an outstanding student scholarship to pursue doctoral studies at
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
However, due to the sweeping ban on the entry of Palestinian students
into Israeli institutions of higher education, Salameh will not be able to
begin studying this year. According to the coordinator of government activities
in the territories, this decision was made around a month ago. However, Salameh
also cannot study in the West Bank, because none of the universities there
offers a doctoral program in chemistry. And in any case, many students at West
Bank universities are also unable to get to their classes, because of the
separation fence and army checkpoints.
On Tuesday, Salameh and Access (Gisha), an association that advocates
freedom of movement in the territories, petitioned the High Court of Justice
against this decision. The petition demanded that Salameh's application to
begin her studies be reviewed in a thorough and straightforward manner. It also
asked the court to cancel the sweeping ban on the entry of Palestinians into
Israel for the purpose of studying - a ban that prohibits all Palestinians from
studying in Israel, regardless of whether or not they pose a security risk.
Salameh submitted two requests for entry permits, which were both
rejected. Her adviser, Professor Rafael Levine, also sought to obtain
permission for her to enter Israel. According to Levine, she must enter Israel
to conduct her research. The Association for Israeli-Palestinian Scientific
Cooperation, an organization that comprises leading scientists and Nobel Prize
winners from around the world, including from Israel and the Palestinian
Authority, submitted a similar request. These requests were rejected as well.
The responses made no claim that there was any kind of intelligence information
against Salameh.
"There's no specific security problem in her case," acknowledged Shlomo
Dror, a spokesman for the coordinator of government activities in the
territories. "Due to the security situation, the defense establishment decided
that no [Palestinian] students would enter Israel to study. This is a
population that is deemed very problematic from the security and political
standpoints." However, he noted, the decision allows students who began
studying in Israel last year to complete their degrees. As a result, Dror
estimated, a few dozen Palestinian students will study in Israel this year,
while a few dozen more will be barred.
"It's not that we're barring [Salameh] from studying," added Dror. "She
could go to Jordan, to Egypt. Moreover, studies in Israel are more expensive.
If she's so good, she could get a scholarship to other places, too."
But Salameh cannot study at another university. Due to her financial
situation, she is dependent on the scholarship promised by Hebrew University,
which is not guaranteed to her anyplace else. Moreover, her traditional family
consented to her studying in Israel and returning home to sleep every night -
but it would not consent to her going abroad to study.
In a telephone interview, Salameh, 29, said that she wants to continue
her studies because of her desire to increase the educational standards of
Palestinian women. Al-Quds University's chemistry department, she said, has not
a single female lecturer. Currently, Salameh is supporting herself and her
family on her salary of about NIS 2,500 a month from her job as a chemistry
teacher in the girls' high school in Anata. But over the last six months, even
this source of income has dried up, because Israel is not transferring taxes
collected on the PA's behalf.
The petition noted that under international law, Israel is required to
ensure normal life in the West Bank. Thus since there are no doctoral programs
in chemistry there, it must allow Salameh to study in Israel.
But Israel's policy is also affecting higher education within the West
Bank. Today, there are around 500 internal checkpoints in the West Bank, and
women are the first to be affected, according to a study by Dr. Nadir
Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a senior lecturer at Hebrew University. She found that when
checkpoints are set up, the families tend to tell the women to stay at home, to
prevent clashes with soldiers and out of concern for the women's welfare.
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