Tell Congress: Get Those Fulbrights to Palestinian Students
Today's New York Times reports that the State Department has withdrawn funding for seven Palestinians from Gaza who were to be awarded Fulbright scholarships to study in the United States. It is hard to determine if the decision to take this action was made in Washington or Jerusalem but it needs to be reversed.
The Fulbright is our nation's most prominent and prestigious international education exchange program. Established in 1946, the program currently awards 7,000 grants each year and operates in over 150 countries. As the State Department website explains, "the Fulbright Program creates a context to provide a better understanding of U.S. views and values, promotes more effective binational cooperation and nurtures open-minded, thoughtful leaders..."
Isn't this exactly what the United States and Israel are asking of the Palestinians? The seven young leaders initially chosen for these awards certain fit the bill. One, Abdulrahman Abdullah, an M.B.A. candidate, told the Times, "If we are talking about peace and mutual understanding, it means investing in people who will later contribute to Palestinian society...But who will build (a) state of we can get no training?"
The State Department's decision is reportedly based on the Israeli policy of blockading Gaza. But officials in both countries seem ambivalent, if not confused, by this decision. Even hardliner Natan Sharansky complained, "When we don't help them build civil society, this plays into the hands of Hamas."
Sharansky is right, and Members of Congress must act. Congress controls the Fulbright purse strings. Members who want to take a small, but significant step toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and advance our own interests, should pick up the phone this weekend and demand that the State Department reverse its decision on the young Palestinian leaders from Gaza.
Wow - here I am agreeing with Rosenberg!
May 30, 2008 11:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for getting word out about this -- it's not only vile, but obviously self-defeating and stupid.
May 30, 2008 11:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wow. How counterproductive.
Who made this decision? Was any effort made to pressure the Israeli government to allow the Fullbright Scholars to leave Gaza?
May 30, 2008 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
My guess is some computer. It seems quite likely that the State dept. has a program that automatically takes people under certain classifications off of the various lists similar to the Fulbright list it keeps.
May 30, 2008 11:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another example of collective punishment. Another Israeli war crime. Predictable U.S. complicity. Business as usual.
May 30, 2008 12:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, of course! We simply can't have educated Palestinians, can we? They might return to their homes and begin to rise in their societies, providing leadership and vision - truly a very dangerous thing in an occupied people!
As an aside, I think the single best guarantee of peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians would be every adult Palestinian having at least one full-time job and being maybe 15-20 lbs. overweight.
May 30, 2008 1:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is truly a sad state of affairs. Thank you for sharing this MJ.
Something interesting occurred to me upon reading the scholarship program's stated goals. This particular portion really caught my eye -
Is there any chance whatsoever that we could force OUR nations leaders into this program? Not only will they get an education (which more than a fair number show little evidence of having) but they would also get an infusion of open-mindedness and be encouraged to be thoughtful (both qualities which are glaringly absent in our nations leadership)!
Just a thought...
May 30, 2008 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here I could not agree more (with Mr. Rosenberg). This is yet another blow by Israel against the free flow of ideas and thoughts and certainly another outrage that will be vociferously defended by the fascistic and racist likudniks. (See the earlier post by Mr. Rosenberg where Rosenberg joins the party of intolerance concerning the denial of entry into Israel by the scholar Norman Finkelstein).
Many Jews decry the views of European academics who regularly condemn measures by Israel which are so out of balance as to be over the top. The barricading, blockading and embargoing of Gaza is just one of many; certainly the incursion into Lebanon in which Israel suffered a humiliating defeat was another.
The Wolf prizes are among the most prestigious academic awards anywhere. This year one of the recipients was David Mumford who is donating his prize money to Palestinian Universities:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/986898.html
Here is how he describes his acts:
"I decided to donate my share of the Wolf Prize to enable the academic community in occupied Palestine to survive and thrive," Mumford told Haaretz. "I am very grateful for the prize, but I believe that Palestinian students should have an opportunity to go elsewhere to acquire an education. Students in the West Bank and Gaza today do not have an opportunity to do that."
What will the Israel lobby, what will torture-proponent Dershowitz say? (Mumford, like Dershowitz, spent most of his career at Harvard).
May 30, 2008 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another foreign relations coup by the indescribably intelligent and competent Condi Rice. She can add this to all the successes she had as National Security advisor. A Gold Star to you Miss Secretary.
We're certainly fortunate to have someone like Condi in public service.
May 30, 2008 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
There is an update from the AP. From the report:
Maybe this decision can be reversed soon.
May 30, 2008 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
leszek,
Too bad dear Condi, our illustrious National Security Advisor at the time, didn't "look into" the Presidential Daily Brief titled "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US"
May 30, 2008 6:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
What an unfortunate combination of qualities in our current leadership. Vicious, incompetent and lazy.
May 31, 2008 9:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Like the majority of Americans, I am more concerned about the problems faced by working poor and struggling middle class American citizens face in affording higher education.
Our institutions of higher learning do not do enough to help less affluent citizens get the higher education they need, and at this place in time, are told they shouldn't expect a job unless they attain it.
We spend more money on foreign aid, and offering grants and scholarships for foreign students, than we do to help less fortunate Americans attain higher education. So, while I can understand that Rosenberg has been attacked by the neo-left into proving that he isn't anti-Palestinnian, I wanted to make the point that there needs to be articles written here dealing with the real issues, as faced by less fortunate American citizens.
May 31, 2008 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks but I am never, to my knowledge, attacked as anti-Palestinian. Quite the contrary.
Two, the amount of money the United States spend on foreign aid of any kind is tiny, far less than the other major industrialized countries.
We don't spend enough to subsidize higher education here because our government has other priorities, prime among them feeding the war machine.
Aid to foreign students is insignificant.
May 31, 2008 11:50 AM | Reply | Permalink