DIGNITY SHIP LEAVES GAZA WITH PALESTINIAN STUDENTS

DIGNITY SHIP LEAVES GAZA WITH PALESTINIAN STUDENTS*
http://www.FreeGaza.org <http://www.FreeGaza.org>

*(GAZA PORT, GAZA - 11 December 2008) - *The Free Gaza Ship
"Dignity,"
departed from Gaza International Port at 22:10 hours, Thursday 11
December. Aboard the ship were eleven Palestinian students who had been
denied exit by Israel to attend their universities abroad. Over 700
students are currently trapped in Gaza, unable to obtain permission from
Israel to continue their education.

Accompanying the students are two British academics, Jonathan Rosenhead
and Mike Cushman, of the London School of Economics and the British
Committee for Universities for Palestine (BRICUP), an organization of
UK-based academics responding to Palestine's Call for an Academic
Boycott of Israel.

According to Rosenhead and Cushman, "As academics we are
particularly
pleased to be traveling on the Dignity on this mission to enable at
least some of the hundreds of students trapped in Gaza by the Israeli
siege to get out and take up their places at universities round the
world. This siege is an affront to any idea of academic freedom or human
rights. How can anyone justify preventing young people from fulfilling
their potential and learning how to serve their community more
fully?"

In an act of nonviolent defiance to the ongoing Israeli Occupation of
Palestine, the Free Gaza Movement has been running civil resistance
ships to Gaza for several months. This voyage is the fourth such trip,
helping to reunite families, and delivering medical supplies, mail, and
international humanitarian and human rights workers to besieged Gaza.

Free Gaza spokesperson Ewa Jasiewicz stated that, "Though we carried
in
a ton of medical supplies and high-protein baby formula on our ship, our
mission in Gaza was not to provide charity, but to give our solidarity
to the people of Palestine, break the silence of the world over this
continuing calamity, and physically break through the blockade of Gaza
in an act of direct resistance against the siege. In the end, the
oppression and humiliation of Occupation assaults the humanity of both
occupier and occupied and cannot and must not be tolerated any
longer."

For over two years, Israel has imposed an increasingly severe blockade
on Gaza, dramatically increasing poverty and malnutrition rates among
the 1.5 million human people who live in this tiny, coastal region.

Osama Qashoo, another Free Gaza spokesperson, explained their success by
saying that, "the sea passage to Gaza is open. Our fourth mission
was a quick response to Israel denying earlier attempts by Libya, Qatar and by
Palestinians from 1948 to also break through the siege. We hope that
other nations, civil society organizations, and activists around the
world will learn from our experience, be strategic in their planning,
and not let Israeli threats and aggression stop them from coming to
Gaza. Freedom of movement and of education, and to live in peace is
everyone's right."

For More Information, please contact:
(Gaza) Ewa Jasiewicz, +972 598 700 497 / freelance@mailworks.org
(Cyprus) Osama Qashoo, +357 97 793 595 / osamaqashoo@gmail.com
(Cyprus) Ramzi Kysia, +357 99 081 767 / rrkysia@yahoo.com
<mailto:rrkysia@yahoo.com>

===

Dignity boat arrives to Gaza amidst overwhelming popular joy 10/12/2008
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m\
9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7vR4JZhwfDb%2bsUPkoChUnzOujvN8PSx5J9KyTbJ%2bX7%2fGZekbGtw\
R6AsyV4Np5yQ6r4pYIePfNd7B1jEWnnHwZysj3P%2b40VSQuUqOn1m%2fw100%3d
<http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46\
m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7vR4JZhwfDb%2bsUPkoChUnzOujvN8PSx5J9KyTbJ%2bX7%2fGZekbGt\
wR6AsyV4Np5yQ6r4pYIePfNd7B1jEWnnHwZysj3P%2b40VSQuUqOn1m%2fw100%3d>

GAZA, (PIC)-- The Al-Karama "dignity" boat has anchored at Gaza shores
amidst overwhelming joy from hundreds of Palestinian citizens after
Israeli gunboats attempted to block and return it back to Cyprus.

International supporters were on board of the boat that was carrying
medical assistance to the besieged Palestinian people in Gaza Strip.

MP Jamal Al-Khudari, the chairman of the Popular Committee Against the
Siege on Gaza, welcomed the arrival of foreign ship after it succeeded
in breaking the Israeli marine cordon on Gaza.

He also praised the "Free Gaza" movement for sending the vessel, which
arrived one week after the Israeli navy blocked the Libyan Al-Marwa
vessel and two other vessels from Qatar and from the Islamic Movement
inside the 1948-occupied Palestinian territories from proceeding to
Gaza.

Furthermore, Khudari highlighted the importance of continuing to send
more ships to Gaza "in order to break the Israeli economic siege on the
tiny Strip", urging Arab and foreign activists to keep the momentum.

"We shouldn't be discouraged by the Israeli blocking of some ships
brining medicine and food for us, and we must keep up the momentum of
sending ships to Gaza till the unjust Israeli economic blockade on Gaza
ends", underlined Khudari, describing the Israeli siege on Gaza as "war
crime against children, women, and elderly people in the Gaza Strip, and
mass extermination of the 1.5 million human beings living there".

In Brussels, the European campaign for lifting the siege on Gaza
stressed to the PIC correspondent that the committee will send more
ships to Gaza in the coming weeks, pointing out that the dignity was the
fourth boat to arrive to Gaza.

===

BRITISH COMMITTEE FOR THE UNIVERSITIES OF PALESTINE (BRICUP)
8th December 2008

BOAT LEAVES CYPRUS TO IMPLEMENT 'RIGHT TO STUDY' OF PALESTINIAN STUDENTS

Two Jewish academics from the UK, Emeritus Professor Jonathan Rosenhead
and Research Fellow Mike Cushman, both from the Department of Management
at the London School of Economics, have joined the latest 'Free Gaza'
boat
in an attempt to enable Palestinian university students to pursue their
studies abroad.

The 'Dignity' sailed from Larnaca, Cyprus at 23.40 local time, Monday
December 8, in an effort to break Israel's 19-month blockade of Gaza and
bring out 16 students who have places to study abroad. There are
currently some 1700 students in Gaza who have been granted places at
universities abroad - often with prestigious scholarships such as the
Fulbright or Ford Foundation awards - but whom the Israeli authorities
have prevented from leaving Gaza.

Higher education opportunities are extremely limited in Gaza. Many
vital
disciplines, including speech therapy, dentistry and physical therapy
are
not taught in Gaza, and there is no opportunity for doctoral study
either
in Gaza or in the West Bank. Study abroad is the only alternative for
Palestinian students, yet this alternative is being denied them by the
Israeli authorities.

Rosenhead and Cushman are members of the British Committee for the
Universities of Palestine (BRICUP), which advocates boycotting Israeli
academic institutions as long as they are complicit in Israel's illegal
occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territory. BRICUP recently held
a
packed meeting at SOAS where Israeli academic Prof. Ilan Pappe described
the Israeli siege of Gaza as "slow genocide".

Now they have joined those taking direct action to enable Palestinian
students to continue their academic and professional training. Prof.
Rosenhead said: "Our government has failed to uphold international
law and
defend the human rights of the Palestinians, including the right to
study
and the right to teach. On the 60th anniversary of the International
Declaration of Human Rights, we are proud to join the `Dignity'
on its
fourth blockade-breaking trip to Gaza. We hope that by the end of this
week we will have liberated these Palestinian students, in accordance
with
international law, and enabled them to take up the places awarded them
by
universities around the world in recognition of their academic
merit."

Mr. Cushman said: "As academics we are particularly pleased to be
travelling on the Dignity on this mission to enable at least some of the
hundreds of students trapped in Gaza by the Israeli siege to get out and
take up their places at universities round the world. This siege is an
affront to any idea of academic freedom or human rights. We, working for
a
British university, have the freedom to teach and study. This must be a
universal right, not at the discretion of an occupying power. How can
anyone justify preventing young people from fulfilling their potential
and
learning how to serve their community more fully?"

This third trip by the `Dignity' is expected to take 14 hours,
arriving in
Gaza on Tuesday 9th December at 13.30 local time (11.30 GMT).

===

Trapped in Gaza with a Fulbright Scholarship
<http://thehollytree.blogspot.com/2008/11/trapped-in-gaza-with-fulbright\
.html>

Friday, November 28, 2008
http://thehollytree.blogspot.com/2008/11/trapped-in-gaza-with-fulbright.\
html
<http://thehollytree.blogspot.com/2008/11/trapped-in-gaza-with-fulbright\
.html>

University students in the Gaza Strip who want to study abroad have been
facing severe restrictions since Israel imposed a blockade on the
territory two years ago. Israel took the measure after the militant
Hamas movement won elections in Gaza and took over control of the
territory.
[Listen to the story]
<http://download.omroep.nl/rnw/smac/cms/trapped_student_in_gaza_20081129\
_44_1kHz.mp3> Every year, one thousand or so Gazan students are accepted
by foreign universities. But since the blockade was imposed, fewer than
half of them have been able to go study abroad. One of them is Zohair
Abu Shahan. This is his story.

As a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, I could not have been more proud
to learn last June that I had earned a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship
to study in the United States.
[Zohair Abu Shahan] As a child, I would wonder how televisions,
computers and washing machines actually worked. I took this fascination
to the Islamic University of Gaza, the only Gazan university offering a
degree in electrical engineering.
There, I developed an ECG monitoring system that enables patients'
hearts to be monitored at home through a personal computer and an
Internet link. I won the university prize for distinguished projects for
my innovation. I long dreamed of the other advances I might make after
an education at the University of Connecticut, where I was scheduled to
study this fall for a master's degree in electrical engineering.
Now, my dream has been stolen from me. I am devastated; my parents
heartbroken. Though Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, it
still controls our borders and determines who and what enters or exits.
Since a 2006 election that brought a Hamas majority to the Palestinian
Legislative Council, Israel has steadily diminished access into and out
of Gaza. More than 200 Palestinians died in the past year because they
could not leave to obtain medical care they desperately needed. Food,
fuel and medicine are scarce. Hundreds of students like me, with
scholarships to study abroad, are being arbitrarily denied the right to
leave Gaza to fulfil our educational aspirations.
A few weeks ago when I went to the Erez Checkpoint between Gaza and
Israel, I was told by the Israeli official that I could not leave unless
I collaborated with the Israeli occupation. I refused. My conscience and
my people's right to freedom and equal rights mean more to me than even
the finest education.

[Aerial view of Gaza]
An estimated 1.4 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip, a narrow
coastal strip along the Mediterranean Sea about 41km long and between
six and 12 km wide. [Erez tunnel]
The tunnel that leads to the Israeli side. Thousands of Gazans used to
pass here every day to work in Israel.
US officials came to my aid. They held special visa interviews along the
Israeli-Gaza border for me and two other Fulbright scholars in a similar
position. The US granted my visa. Once again I could imagine taking my
seat in a lecture hall in America. I packed my bags, bought souvenirs
for my future friends in America and bade farewell to my family. Then
came a phone call that changed everything. My American visa had been
revoked based on secret evidence provided by Israel. I cannot see the
evidence and so have no opportunity to contest it.
I'm not prepared to give up my plans. I worked very hard and earned
another full scholarship to UK to study in one of the best universities
in the world, Imperial College London. I got the British visa last
September but my travel plans still need a miracle to take place.
The good news came on September 21 and Rafah border opened. So I grabbed
my luggage brimming with hope that I would take my seat beside other
international students in one of the Imperial College halls. I
approached Rafah and stayed there for about 24 hours in no man's land. I
spent a whole day and night there waiting for my bus to come. It never
did. Only three busses were allowed and I was in the twelfth. There I
recognised the fact that I am different from my international colleagues
at Imperial who have already started their study while I am still
stranded in the hell that is the Gaza Strip.
What troubles me most, however, is not my own personal plight, but the
effect this experience has had on my talented younger brother.
After watching what I have endured as an innocent and politically
unaffiliated student, he has concluded that he will no longer pursue the
educational dream outside of Gaza he once held. His horizons are
closing.
As an older brother from a family that places deep value on education,
it pains me to see his own ambitions falter because of the injustice I
am facing.
I wonder what hopelessness all children in Gaza suffer when they learn
that Gaza's best students are confined by Israel to the cramped Gaza
Strip? How are they to succeed when their parents discover local stores
are empty of pencils, pens and notebooks because of the economic
blockade of our small parcel of land?
There are hundreds of Palestinian students in Gaza hoping for a miracle
so that we can pursue scholarships that may offer a once-in-a-lifetime
escape from ignorance and poverty. We are determined not to be rendered
a dependent people lacking advanced education.
And yet the silence of the world suggests that Israel will succeed in
keeping us within the limiting confines of Gaza. Maybe the students of
the world will think of me and my fellow Palestinian students because we
the students of Gaza long to be with you. (Source
<http://www.radionetherlands.nl/thestatewerein/otherstates/081129-tswi-s\
tudent-Gaza> )

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