Violation of Gazan Students’ Rights Must End Now

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Economic & Social Council (ECOSOC)

The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights reiterates its condemnation of the blanket Israeli ban on travel for Gazan students who are admitted to study at Palestinian universities in the West Bank.

Al Mezan reasserts its support for Gazan students who wish to study at Birzeit University in Ramallah in the West Bank, and calls on the Israeli authorities to allow Gazan students to reach their universities freely.

Al Mezan has started providing legal advice and support to students and, in cooperation with Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, has been working on submitting a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court demanding its intervention to remove the illegal ban on students’ movement within the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), including the West Bank.

Since 2000, Israel has imposed a blanket ban on students and professors from Gaza studying at or even visiting universities in the West Bank. This has had serious negative consequences for young people in Gaza, as well as universities, the academic sector, and Palestinian society as a whole.

Palestinian higher education was devised as a unitary system, on the assumption that students would always be allowed to move between areas for study. Today, certain courses are only available at West Bank universities and others only in the Gaza Strip, meaning that students cannot freely choose what they want to study due to the Israeli ban on academic travel.

Israeli authorities insist on this ban and have declined all local and international calls to end this practice, which violates Gazan students’ rights.

On Monday 10 October 2011, the Israeli authorities rejected travel requests for four women, all of them MA students who are registered at Birzeit University but have been cut off from their studies since 2000.

Al Mezan had provided these students with legal and technical assistance (completed by Thursday 29 September 2011) in submitting applications for permission to reach their university studies.

Al Mezan notes that none of the female students will be able to pursue their studies due to the Israeli ban on travel to the West Bank. They also will not be able to study what they wish, as their majors are not available in Gaza’s universities. In addition to these cases, this August the Israeli authorities rejected two new applications from students wishing to study at Birzeit. The students missed their opportunity to join the first academic term of 2011/2012.

In this context, Al Mezan reiterates its previous position on the legal status of the Gaza Strip. Gaza is still an occupied territory because Israel maintains effective control over its land, sea, and airspace. Israel controls the movement of people and the flow of goods into and out of the Gaza Strip.

The Oslo Accords of 1993 declared that the occupied Palestinian territory should be treated as a single territorial unit and that people should be able to move freely between its constituent parts.[1] Students should be free to study in their own country; as long as they hold the correct qualifications, there should be no obstacle to entry into the university of their choice.

Al Mezan views the ban on Gazan students’ studying in the West Bank as part of Israel’s illegal and systematic collective punishment of all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Al Mezan calls on the Israeli authorities to allow Gazan students to freely reach their universities in the West Bank and to respect their fundamental right to education and free movement inside their homeland.

Al Mezan will continue its unceasing efforts to combat the Israeli policy of collective punishment against the Palestinian civilian population of the oPt, particularly restrictions on free movement and travel between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and the blanket denial of Gazan students’ ability to reach their universities in the West Bank.

Press Release Link:

http://www.mezan.org/en/details.php?id=12884&ddname=education&id2=9&id_dept=9&p=center

[1] Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements with attached Annexes and Agreed Minutes, signed by Israel and the PLO on 13 September 1993, International Legal Materials, vol. 32, no. 6, November 1993, pp. 1527-41 (Declaration of Principles), Art. IV, at p. 1528 (“The two sides view the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a single territorial unit, whose integrity will be preserved during the interim period”); Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with selected attached Annexes and Maps, signed by Israel and the PLO on 28 September 1995, International Legal Materials, vol. 36, no. 3, May 1997 (Interim Agreement), pp. 557-649, Arts. XI:1 (“The two sides view the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a single territorial unit, the integrity of and status of which will be preserved during the interim period”), XVII:1(a) (“In accordance with the DOP [Declaration of Principles], the jurisdiction of the [Palestinian] Council will cover West Bank and Gaza Strip territory as a single territorial unit. . . .”), XXXI:8 (text effectively identical to Art. XI:1), Annex I, Arts. I:2 (“In order to maintain the territorial integrity of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a single territorial unit . . .”), XIII:11 (“Guided by the principle that the two sides view the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a single territorial unit . . .”), at pp. 561, 564, 568, 569, 586. See also Declaration of Principles, op. cit., Annex II, ¶ 6, at p. 1537 (“. . . the status of the Gaza Strip and Jericho area will continue to be an integral part of the West Bank and Gaza Strip”); Interim Agreement, op. cit., Art. XXXI:7 (“Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations”) and Annex I, Art. I:4 (“the unity and integrity of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip shall be maintained and respected”), at pp. 568, 569.