Posted by David Bernstein:
Bizarre Case of Two Gazan Students:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_08_03-2008_08_09.shtml#1218063289
Seven Palestinian students were awarded Fullbright scholarships to
study in the U.S. Israel, whose border with Gaza is closed, refused to
allow the students to enter Israel on the way to the U.S. U.S.
officials put heavy pressure on Israel to allow the students to travel
through Israel, including by leaking the story to the U.S. media in a
manner very unflattering to Israel. Israel eventually agreed to accede
to U.S. demands, including with regard to two students whom it deemed
to be particular security risks. After several delays apparently
caused by mistakes by U.S. consular officials, [1]here's what happened
next:
At 8 P.M., when the border crossing closes, the Israeli border
terminal workers approached the U.S. diplomats and suggested they
return to Gaza and try crossing the following day, after having
dealt with the passport matter. "I'm not interested, I'm not moving
from here until they open the bridge," said one American diplomat
and sat down in the road in protest.
After consulting with the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry
and the office of the Shin Bet chief, it was decided to leave the
bridge open, until the Jordanians finally agreed to the Americans'
request at 9 P.M. and allowed the Palestinians to pass. But this
was not the end of the two Palestinians' travails.
The high school student remained in Amman for a few days. His
friend departed for Washington on Saturday night. However, after a
12-hour flight, when he got to the border control station in
Washington, an unpleasant surprise awaited him. The U.S.
immigration officials informed him that his visa has been canceled
and put him on a plane back to the Jordanian capital. The high
school student, who was still waiting in Amman, was notified that
his visa had been canceled, too. He already returned to Gaza
yesterday, disappointed, while his friend remains frustrated in
Jordan.
Israel has asked the State Department in Washington for some
clarifications, and local officials are especially upset at the
behavior of the American diplomat at the Allenby Bridge. "It's a
disgrace," said a senior Foreign Ministry official. "If I had
behaved that way at an American border crossing, I'd either be in
jail or no longer in the U.S."
A spokesman for the U.S. State Department told The New York Times,
which first reported yesterday on the revocation of the visas that
the visas were canceled because of new information received by the
U.S. authorities. The paper reported that Rice was unhappy about
the way these cases were handled and that a thorough review had
been ordered to prevent a recurrence.
"This is one of the oddest things we have encountered in recent
years," an Israeli official said of a long sequence of events that
began with intense American pressure to allow two young Palestinian
students to leave Gaza to study in the United States and ended with
the U.S. barring their entry and canceling the visas it had granted
them. Sure sounds that way. I'm especially troubled that post 9/11,
the State Department was putting intense pressure on Israel to allow
into the U.S. the students whom the Israeli specifically thought had
ties to terrorism, a belief the U.S. itself apparently eventually came
around to, at the last minute.
References
1. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1008866.html
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