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Letter to Secretary Rice from Seven US
Organizations Urging Further Championship of Gaza Students' Hopes
AAI, July 22, 2008
The Foundation for Middle East Peace, the Arab American Institute,
and five other American organizations who support a two state peace
between Israel and Palestine have asked Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice to urge Israel to permit hundreds of students in
Gaza who have been admitted to foreign universities to exit Gaza.
These students are confined to Gaza because of Israel's closure
policy.
The other co-signers of the letter are Americans for Peace Now,
American Task Force on Palestine, Churches for Middle East Peace,
the Israel Policy Forum, and Brit Tzedek v'Shalom.
The letter, dated July 15, 2008 thanks Secretary Rice for her
earlier intervention with Israel to enable Gazans with Fulbright and
other U.S. scholarships to travel to the U.S. to study. The
cosigners hope that the U.S. continues to champion the cause of
these students in their pursuit of higher education abroad, won by
merit and hard work.
The Foundation for Middle East and the co-signers of the letter to
Secretary Rice believe that education for young people is a critical
investment for peace between Israel and Palestine.
The text of the letter follows:
July 15, 2008
The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street N.W
Washington, D.C. 20520
Dear Secretary Rice,
As American organizations committed to a two state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we applaud your efforts to persuade
Israel to allow the seven Fulbright scholars who have been confined
to Gaza to travel to the United States. We are also grateful
for the efforts of our embassy in Israel to enable Gazan awardees of
other American scholarships to leave Gaza and to facilitate U.S.
visas for them. Your intervention and public comments on the
importance of opportunities for both Israelis and Palestinians to
study abroad demonstrate American leadership and are very welcome.
Unfortunately, the problem of students and academics who are trapped
in Gaza is much larger than the seven Fulbright grantees and five
other Gazan students who have scholarships to American universities.
There are also hundreds of other students in Gaza who have valid
opportunities to study elsewhere abroad but do not qualify for the
narrow category of the few dozen students with "recognized"
scholarships for study in "friendly" countries that Israel now says
may leave Gaza, following the intervention of the U.S. and
other foreign governments.
We strongly urge that the United States broaden its diplomatic
efforts in order to persuade Israel to permit the travel of all
students whose travel presents no genuine security threat.
Students allowed to travel should include not only scholarship
awardees admitted to American universities and those of friendly
foreign states, but the hundreds of others who have been admitted to
foreign universities elsewhere without "recognized" scholarships.
As you said so eloquently on May 30, "If you cannot engage young
people and give them a complete horizon to their expectations and to
their dreams, then I don't know that there would be any future for
Palestine." For Palestinians, like Israelis, education is the
most important investment. Peace and a better future for both
Israelis and Palestinians will depend on an educated and productive
Palestinian community. Israeli policies that foreclose higher
studies abroad that are generally unavailable in Gaza not only
undermine such a future, but also threaten to destroy hope, the
critical antidote to extremism and violence.
As Israel's ally and closest friend and partner in the cause of
peace, the United States has a deep and legitimate interest, not
only in ensuring that students in Gaza can come to study in our
country, but in ensuring that any Gazan student who has earned a
place at a foreign university has the opportunity to pursue these
studies. The right to do so should not be limited to the few
dozen who have "recognized" scholarships.
Members of the Israeli Knesset and Supreme Court, international
academics, and leading media around the world, have called on Israel
to permit Gazan students to study abroad. For example, Rabbi
Michael Melchior, Chairman of the Knesset's Education Committee has
said "Trapping hundreds of students in Gaza is both immoral and
unwise." Broadening American diplomatic efforts to include all such
students would reinforce these appeals. Such U.S. leadership
would also resonate positively with the Israeli public, which,
according to a recent public opinion survey, believes the closure of
Gaza is likely to increase radicalism and support for Hamas.
And, it would demonstrate to Palestinians, both in the West Bank and
Gaza, genuine U.S. concern for the Palestinian people.
Of course, the deprivation of the right of students to travel abroad
for education is only one harmful aspect of an Israeli security
regime that harshly restricts the movements of a million and a half
Gazans, as well as the movement of goods into and out of the Gaza
Strip. We hope this larger problem is addressed soon and urgently.
In the meantime, as the next academic year approaches, there is a
special urgency to ensuring that Gazan students who have won by
merit and hard work the chance to study abroad do not lose this
priceless opportunity.
Yours truly,
Philip C. Wilcox, Jr.
President, Foundation for Middle East Peace
1761 N Street NW, Washington, DC 20036
Debra DeLee
President and CEO, Americans for Peace Now
1101 14th Street NW, Sixth Floor, Washington, DC 20005
Ziad al Asali
President, American Task Force for Palestine
815 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 1200, Washington, DC 20006
Warren Clark
Executive Director, Churches for Middle East Peace
110 Maryland Avenue NE, #311, Washington, DC 20002
James Zogby
President, Arab American Institute
1600 K Street, Suite 601, Washington, DC 20006
M.J. Rosenberg
Director, Israel Policy Forum, Washington, DC
122 C Street NW, Suite 820, Washington DC 20001
Steve Masters
President, Brit Tzedek v'Shalom,
11 E Adams, Suite 707, Chicago, IL 60603
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