[WCUSP] Fwd: [womeninblack] Amira Hass: High Court has been wrongly besmirched (the issue of students' studying abroad being stopped)

[yvonne simmons]

--- lieve.snellings at telenet.be wrote:

> From: lieve.snellings at telenet.be
> To: womeninblack at listas.nodo50.org
> Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:18:14 +0000
> Subject: [womeninblack] Amira Hass: High Court has
> been wrongly besmirched
>  (the issue of students' studying abroad being
> stopped)
> 
> 
> ----- Oorspronkelijk bericht -----
> Van: Paula Abrams-Hourani
> [mailto:paula.abrams at chello.at]
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: Elana Wesley 
> 
> 
>             High Court has been wrongly besmirched  
>            
>             By Amira Hass, Haaretz
>             Wednesday August 15, 2007
>             [Things have gotten so bad that Amira
> has given in to her sarcasm. - Elana]
>            
>            
>             As a war of petitions rages between
> supporters of the Supreme Court and supporters of
> the justice minister, it should not be forgotten
> that on the really important issues, Supreme Court
> justices demonstrate national responsibility and are
> synchronized with the prevailing mood. They proved
> this once again last week when they accepted the
> state's position that 10 students from the Gaza
> Strip should not be permitted to travel to the West
> Bank for two months in order to complete a clinical
> internship, without which they will not be able to
> work as occupational therapists in Gaza. There is
> currently only one certified occupational therapist
> working in the strip. 
> 
>             With respect to their age, the
> petitioning students "belong to the risk group of
> those who seek to destroy Israel"; Hamas will
> attempt to export the war "from the Gaza Strip to
> Judea and Samaria" [the West Bank]; and relations
> between Gaza and Israel have only degenerated since
> the disengagement. These are the main arguments that
> were submitted by the state and accepted by the
> Supreme Court justices, who are being wrongly
> besmirched. 
> 
>             The patriotic ruling by their honors
> Justices Elyakim Rubinstein, Esther Hayut and Joseph
> Elon put an end to a saga that had gone on for three
> years and to the attempts by seven young men and
> three young women to attend a special course at
> Bethlehem University, which is funded by the
> Norwegian government and taught by experts from
> abroad. The course was designed to meet the needs of
> Palestinian society with regard to caring for people
> with disabilities.
>            
>            
>                   
>                  
>             Since 2004, the students have been
> trying to leave Gaza in order to participate in the
> course, but the state made it clear that there is a
> sweeping prohibition on people aged 16 to 35 leaving
> Gaza, including students. These 10 young people, who
> have had to make do with studying by video
> conferencing and correspondence, had hoped that they
> would be allowed to do the clinical internship,
> which can be done only at rehabilitation centers in
> the West Bank. 
> 
>             The petition by the nonprofit
> association Gisha, the Legal Center for Freedom of
> Movement, asked that the court relate specifically
> to the 10 and did not confront the sweeping
> prohibition head-on. Yet even so, the justices
> accepted the state's position that a ruling "that
> singles out the petitioners would not suit the
> current difficult situation," although the court did
> recommend establishing an "exceptions committee" in
> the future. 
> 
>             The three justices affixed their
> signatures to the ruling. Therefore, it is possible
> to commend them for having mobilized to save the
> state from a palpable security threat. We will not,
> however, be able to name and commend those anonymous
> Shin Bet security service officers who are
> protecting the state's security by preventing the
> outstanding master's student Luay Kfafi from
> traveling from Ramallah to Hamburg, Germany, via
> Jordan, thereby also preventing him from using the
> German scholarship that he was awarded. Kfafi, 24,
> was born in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza. In
> September 2000, he began studying mechanical
> engineering at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank.
> In the meantime, Israel decided to declare all the
> Gazans living in the West Bank "illegal sojourners,"
> yet at the same time, it also refused to change the
> address listed on their identity cards, in violation
> of the Oslo accords. 
> 
>             Beyond the fact that he was present "in
> Judea and Samaria illegally," according to the Shin
> Bet, "there is information about him that indicates
> a suspected connection between him and terrorist
> operatives. Under these circumstances, it appears
> that his departure abroad could endanger the
> security of the state." Kfafi, who is already
> working as a teaching and research assistant at the
> university and aspires to an academic career, has
> not been arrested in the West Bank even though his
> place of residence is known; he was not arrested at
> the Allenby Bridge when he tried, in vain, to cross
> it; he has not been declared a wanted man and he has
> not even been summoned for questioning by the Shin
> Bet. 
> 
>             How fortunate the state of Israel is to
> be protected in this way: to have a security service
> that understood that Kfafi's academic progress
> abroad was liable to endanger the state's security
> more than his presence in Ramallah does, and to have
> Supreme Court Justices who never let down their
> vigilance and who thwarted a plan for destroying the
> state by 10 students of occupational therapy.  
>      
>      
>      
> 
> 
> 
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