With the 2009-10 academic year underway, 838 Palestinian university students were still waiting for the authorisation that would enable them to leave the Gaza Strip to study overseas, reports Yaheli Moran Zelikovich for Ynet News. The Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement said on 21 October that the students had not been able to leave the Strip because of the Israeli blockade on Gaza.

The Palestinian Interior Ministry said that some 1,983 students who had been accepted to universities abroad had applied for the necessary permits, but only 1,145 had been cleared to travel through the Rafah crossing. Seventy others had been cleared to travel through the Erez crossing.

Palestinian students who wish to cross into Israel en route to an overseas university have to deal with substantial red tape: they must have a 'recognisable' scholarship awarded by a school in a country that has diplomatic relations with Israel.
Full report on the Ynet News site

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