Khaled Mudala, a Palestinian student trapped in Gaza since June, landed in the UK on Tuesday after being allowed out of Gaza alongside 240 others. All movement in and out of Gaza for Gazians has been fully stopped since Gaza was declared a hostile entity in September.
We would like to thank everyone who has taken part in the campaign for lifting the travel restrictions for Palestinians. Khaled Mudala’s case has been focused on in order to highlight the restrictions on others. With your help we have been able to gain a great deal of media attention and support as well as support from key organisations and individuals. Through the support that we have gained we have been able to apply significant amounts of pressure on the Israeli government. Both the Israeli government and the Israeli Supreme Court cooperated to make the situation for the Palestinians in Gaza worse by refusing to interfere and stating that the matter was in the hands of the Israeli Army.
Several MPs supported the campaigns alongside key teaching and student organisations, such as the NUS and UCU. Also different student unions passed motions to support the campaign. After all this pressure both the Israeli Embassy and Israeli Government were forced to give several statements about Khaled’s situation. All of these statements were full of lies and false promises that Khaled would be allowed out Gaza within days hoping that these statements would diffuse the campaign. However the pressure was kept up and played a vital role in Khaled leaving Gaza a few days ago.
This is a very positive step forward – Khaled and a few others were able to leave Gaza but the situation in Gaza is still very dire. The campaign used Khaled’s name but it was always about the basic rights of Palestinians. This is also Khaled’s view as in a press conference earlier this week at special press conference in London, Khaled said, “I am very glad that I am here today but this is not a victory as whilst 140 people have been let out of Gaza there are still 1.75 million people living under siege, imprisoned, terrorised, being starved and in the canton of Gaza.â€. The pressure from the campaign needs to be maintained as Palestinians are still living under a dire situation and every right of the Palestinians is being seriously violated.
Rally of support for trapped student Khaled Mudalla to coincide with his Supreme Court hearing tomorrow in Israel.
Tomorrow (2nd October) at Bradford University, outside the Atrium, 1pm – 2pm
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 approximately 300 Palestinian students from Gaza to return to courses abroad is a violation of international law.
The rally will be attended by friends of Khaled, his lecturers and students’ unions throughout the UK.
NUS calls for Palestinian student Khaled Al-Mudallal’s right to education. (28.9.7)
Israeli government must allow Khaled to return to Britain to finish his degree.
The National Union of Students (NUS) has today (28th September) written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling on him to ensure his Israeli counterpart allows Khaled Al-Mudallal, a Palestinian and a business and management student at the University of Bradford, to leave Gaza so that he may complete his degree.
Khaled is currently trapped in Gaza due to the restrictions on freedom of movement imposed by the Israeli government on Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. These restrictions were introduced following the declaration that Gaza was a ‘hostile territory’.
Khaled needs to return to Bradford urgently to begin the third year of his degree course. He has a British residence permit valid until November 2010.
NUS President, Gemma Tumelty said:
‘The Prime Minister should call on the Israeli government to allow Khaled Al-Mudallal to leave Gaza immediately. The right to education is a human right as stated in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The right for students to study freely and safely across the world must be defended. Education will be central to finding a peaceful resolution in the Middle East.”
NUS National Black Students’ Officer said:
‘Khaled, along with hundreds of other students, is currently unable to leave Gaza to begin the new academic year. Students in Britain have a responsibility to support them by calling on our government to join us in insisting that students in Palestine are allowed to complete their studies.’
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.