Students for Palestine

The Student Union General Meeting on Thursday 27th Sept 2007 which lasted till almost 8pm passed a motion calling for the removal of the travel restrictions on Khaled Mudallal and all Palestinians. The motion was put forward by the union executive.

The passing of this motion obligates the Union to pressure several bodies including the NUS, UCU, British and Israeli governments to see to the return of Khaled and other students in a similar situation as a matter of urgency.

The motion acknowledged the detrimental effect of the Israeli occupation on the right to education of Palestinian students and noted that he security barrier surrounding Gaza has turned the city into the world’s largest open prison and alongside the destruction of the airport and the naval blockade of the port amounts to economic sanctions against one of the poorest regions on earth.

This is the second motion to of it’s kind in the last three days, student activist Assed Baig who was instrumental in getting the first motion passed in Staffordshire said: “this shows that students in this country are aware of the situation, care about it and believe that if this is a students’ issue in Palestine or anywhere in the world then it’s a students’ issue here”.

Khaled Mudallal who is urgently trying to get back to Bradford University to start his third year of study, has found him self unable to do so after Israel identified Gaza as “hostile territory” this week, effectively closing it off to the outside world and in the process creating the world’s largest open air prison. Khaled Mudallal, 22, a British-educated business and management student who risks losing his third year if he does not return to Bradford next week, has become its latest inmate.

Many student societies, activists and organizations across the UK have shown their support to the campaign and it is expected that other students’ unions will pass similar motions and hold activities to support the campaign.

Allow Khaled Mudallal and all other Palestinians to travel.

A Palestinian student urgently trying to get back to Bradford University to start his third year of study, has found him self unable to do so after Israel identified Gaza as “hostile territory” this week, effectively closing it off to the outside world and in the process creating the world’s largest open air prison. Khaled Mudallal, 22, a British-educated business and management student who risks losing his third year if he does not return to Bradford next week, has become its latest inmate. The Israeli human rights organisation Gisha, is presenting a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court arguing that new restrictions which have so far prevented several hundred Palestinian students from Gaza to return to courses abroad is a violation of international law. Khaled must be allowed to return to the UK immediately to continue his studies, and all other Palestinian students studying abroad should be allowed to return to their respective universities. Any delay in Khaled’s and the other Palestinian students return is damaging to their future prospects and thus unacceptable.

Check out this article in The Independent newspaper about the issue
Also check out this facebook group

How to help:

1. Sign the on-line petition calling on the British Government to pressure the Israeli.

2. Pass a motion through your student union. Click here for a model motion.

3. Send demanding that the british goverments puts pressure on the Israeli goverment to allow freedom of movement for palestinians, to:

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH

Here is a model letter you can use:

I’m writing to you to express my anger about the case of Khaled Mudallal A Palestinian student urgently trying to get back to Bradford University to start his third year of study who found has found him self unable to do so after Israel identified Gaza as “hostile territory”, effectively closing it off to the outside world and in the process creating the world’s largest open air prison.

Khaled Mudallal, 22, a British-educated business and management student would risk losing his third year if he does not return to Bradford next week.

We demand that the British government puts maximum pressure on the Israeli government to allow the freedom of movement for Palestinians.

4. Contact the Palestinian solidarity group at your University to cooradante you work.

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Published: 22 September 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2987808.ece

A Palestinian student urgently trying to get back to Bradford University has become the first test case of new restrictions on movements in and out of Gaza since Israel identified it as “hostile territory”this week.

The Israeli Supreme Court is to hear a petition tomorrow brought on behalf of Khaled Mudallal, 22, a British-educated business and management student who risks losing his third year if he does not return to Bradford next week.

The Israeli human rights organisation Gisha, which is bringing tomorrow’s case, is arguing that new restrictions which have so far prevented several hundred Palestinian students from Gaza to return to courses abroad is a violation of international law.

The students were trapped in Gaza by the closure of the Rafah crossing into Egypt in June as fighting erupted between Fatah and Hamas which ended with Hamas’s takeover of the Strip. The Rafah crossing has remained closed.

Until last week, Israel was agreeing to let students out through the northern Erez crossing into Israel and then bussing them to the Nitzana crossing from Israel into Egypt from which they were able to make their way to courses abroad.

This week, however, this procedure was halted and on Wednesday the Israeli security cabinet sanctions announced that “restrictions will be … placed on movement of people to and from the Gaza Strip” as part of its policy of declaring Gaza “hostile territory”, following rocket attacks into Israel, and putting further pressure on Hamas. Restrictions on movement were already very heavy and Israel has for example barred Palestinian students in Gaza from taking courses in the West Bank or Israel itself. But it had adopted a more lenient policy towards students on accredited courses abroad.

Mr Mudallal, who arrived in his home town of Rafah on 6 June had only intended to stay for a few days to collect his new wife, Duaa, and take her back to Britain. He and his wife – who graduated with distinction this year from university in Gaza and also hopes to study in Britain – have UK residence permits valid to November 2010.

Mr Mudallal’s problems are compounded by having missed his first semester exams earlier in the year after he was delayed for two months by the closure of Rafah when he returned to Gaza in December 2006 to get married.

Although he arrived back half-way through the second semester he passed all his second semester exams and the university told him he would be able to carry on with his third year provided he first completed his first semester exams, as he intended to do at the start of the academic year next week. Gisha is pressing the Israeli military to let him leave through the Erez crossing.

Mr Mudallal, who did his GCSEs and A levels at Bradford Technology College while his parents were living in the city, said yesterday: “It’s a disaster for me. If I cannot take the exams I may have to take another year and I don’t know whether the university will let me do that.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that Israeli closures and roadblocks in the West Bank had increased by 52 per cent to 572 since August 2005, despite repeated calls to reduce them.

The Israeli Defence minister and Labour leader, Ehud Barak, recently promised the US to reduce the present total by 24 as a possible first step towards alleviating restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank.