Two days ago, students from Gaza received a letter stating that their Fulbright scholarship had been revoked. In fact, the State Department withdrew all Fulbright grants to Palestinian students in Gaza, who were supposed to be going to the U.S. to study during this coming academic year. And no one really seems to know what’s going on or why the State Department canceled without any apparent attempts to ensure they were allowed out. Why do I believe this? Because now that the New York Times has released the article, all of the sudden people are looking up from their desks going, “What happened?”

According the Times article, “when a query about the canceled Fulbrights was made to the prime minister’s office on Thursday, senior officials expressed surprise. They said they did, in fact, consider study abroad to be a humanitarian necessity and that when cases were appealed to them, they would facilitate them. They suggested that American officials never brought the Fulbright cases to their attention.”

And then AFP reported that Secretary Rice had no idea this had happened.

“We really have to be concerned about the future of Palestinians and the future Palestine,” Rice told reporters during a visit in Iceland.

“And if you cannot engage young people and give them a complete horizon to their expectations and to their dreams, then I don’t know that there would be any future for Palestine” or the people of the region, Rice said.

“It was a surprise to me and I am definitely going to look into it… I’m a big supporter of Fulbrights for people in places that have been isolated from the international community and we will see what we can do.”

So who knew what was going on and pulled the plug? The Times article said that the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem canceled the scholarships “out of concern” that the grant money would go to waste in light of the Israeli government’s crackdown on isolating Gaza beginning at the end of last year. The article also cited that internal State Department problems may have contributed to the lack of effort to assist these students:

The State Department and American officials in Israel refused to discuss the matter. But the failure to persuade the Israelis may have stemmed from longstanding tensions between the consulate in Jerusalem, which handles Palestinian affairs, and the embassy in Tel Aviv, which manages relations with the Israeli government.

You would think that if the awarded scholarships were in jeopardy for an entire area, that the Consulates of the U.S. would step up their efforts before canceling a whole program, and in the process, dealing a huge blow to the students who had received these awards based on their merits and leaving the mess to senior officials and the Secretary of State who probably could have intervened before this fiasco. Especially because it appears even if the Israeli government allows them out at this point (along with the dozens of other students with Western scholarships and offers to study abroad), the Fulbright grantees will not be able to go.

However, there is no confirmation that the money has been reallocated and Israel said yesterday that they would reconsider the situation. So there may still be hope to reinstate these Fulbright students.

Some of the current Fulbrighters have put together an open letter to the State Department and the IIE, which administers the Fulbright Program, to reinstate these fellows and to do whatever is in their power to reverse this backward move on the part of the program. So far, eighty former and current Fulbrighters have signed it. The site also includes links to the latest news on the situation. Although it is true that some of this depends on the Israeli government and not entirely on the shoulders of the State Department, it seems there is willingness on the part of Israel to reexamine this without too much complication. In fact, there seems to be misunderstanding as to why this happened in the first place.

Hopefully the situation will be rectified in time to give these students the opportunity they’ve earned without having to wait another year. The Fulbright’s goals are to increase “mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries” and it serves as “a context to provide a better understanding of U.S. views and values, promotes more effective binational cooperation and nurtures open-minded, thoughtful leaders, both in the U.S. and abroad, who can work together to address common concerns.” It is pretty difficult to accomplish that goal when grants are being canceled without much effort to ensure the ability of the student to start their studies.

UPDATE!

I have just heard from my fellow Fulbrighter in Gaza and he has told me that just a few hours ago, they received this message from the Consulate in Jerusalem:

The US Department of State is working to secure exit permits for you to travel to Jerusalem for your visa interview and for final travel to the United States in order to participate in the Fulbright program this year. We are working closely with the Government of Israel in order to secure its cooperation in this matter.

Therefore, I’m pleased to inform you that the Bureau of Educational and Cultural affairs (ECA) of the US Department of State has instructed Amideast in Washington to continue the placement process at a US university for the 2008-09 academic year for your Fulbright program nomination.

We will notify you when your placement has been arranged to begin the next steps in the grant process.

WOOHOO! Such great news. Although as my contact pointed out, there are still hundreds of students that were granted study through other U.S. programs that are still trapped by this isolation policy that the U.S. has not been to negotiate their exit.

Today, we will celebrate this small victory. These students will not only become an asset to the academic and cultural communities of the U.S., but will also help shape the future and international contributions of their country. Good luck to all of them.

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