Dear all,

Please find enclosed a letter (as PDF and also pasted below) from 
presidents of Palestinian institutions of higher education.

If you would like to add your name to those in support of the right to 
entry, please email [log in to unmask]

For more information, please visit: http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/

best wishes,
Nadia

To Members of Global Civil Society and Academia

We, Presidents of Palestinian institutions of higher education, wish to 
bring to your
attention an alarming yet unannounced Israeli policy that affects our 
society in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip at large, and education in particular: the denial 
of entry, re-entry,
and continuous residence to foreign passport holding Palestinians and 
non-Palestinian
family members, lecturers, NGO workers, and international development 
experts.
Since the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, 
Israel has
unilaterally controlled the civil register of the Palestinian 
population, and has restricted
movement in and out of the Occupied Palestinian Territory for 
Palestinians and other
non-Israelis, thus depriving the Palestinians of their basic right to 
freedom of movement
and residence.

Since the beginning of 2006, and especially after the parliamentary 
elections, many
thousands of foreign passport holders of Palestinian and 
non-Palestinian origin living
and/or working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have suddenly been 
denied entry or
even threatened with deportation. Israel has arrogated to itself the 
prerogative of allowing
or refusing work permits to foreigners in the Occupied Palestinian 
Territory. Most of
these are Palestinian-born and currently hold foreign passports because 
their IDs have
either been revoked while studying or working abroad, or their 
applications for family
reunion rejected by the Israeli occupation authorities under various 
pretexts since October
2000. Yet they are citizens who have built their lives in Palestine, 
paying local taxes and
voting in regional and national elections in their embryonic State.

The majority of foreign passport holders who are denied entry have 
family connections in
Palestine and are entitled to family integrity by international 
conventions and recognized
norms. Israel has also signed agreements of reciprocity in diplomacy 
and immigration
rules with other countries, which it is now violating while 
consistently failing to provide
a proper reason for its behavior, depriving threatened persons of their 
basic rights of
access to justice, transparency and state accountability. Israeli 
citizens, meanwhile, enjoy
unfettered entry into most countries around the world, while citizens 
of these countries
are being denied similar treatment when they cross Israeli borders.

The business community has also been severely affected. Several 
successful diaspora
businessmen, who have invested heavily in building their community for 
over a decade,
are now being refused entry or deported with barely a month’s warning.

Diaspora Palestinians and foreigners have withstood humiliating 
interrogation at entry
points, continuously threatened with the insecurity of not having their 
tourist visas or
visitor’s permits renewed every three months. Most of them are a part 
of the local
educated class whose contributions to civil society, educational 
institutions and the
private sector have been invaluable for the construction of a viable 
pluralistic country
and laying the foundations for a future Palestinian state. There have 
been at least five
cases of academics and university staff being denied entry to the West 
Bank, the most
recent in July 2006. Numerous international students were turned away 
at the borders
and unable to register or continue their studies in Palestine. Even 
Trustees of various
university boards have been issued final permits and are being told to 
exit the country.

We call on you to support appropriate collective action against this 
dangerous policy of
denial of entry- and re-entry to Palestinians and other nationals that 
threatens to empty
the Occupied Palestinian Territory of its educated classes:

To achieve the reversal of this illegitimate, discriminatory and 
immoral form of
population control

To secure the total freedom of access to education and other activities 
in
Palestine.

Presidents of Palestinian Universities

Dr. Ali Zedan Brother Daniel Casey
Al-Aqsa University/Gaza Bethlehem University

Dr. Daoud Zatari Dr. Fakhri Hasan
Palestine Polytechnic University Hebron University

Dr. Jawad Wadi Dr. Kamalain Shaath
Al-Azhar University/Gaza Islamic University of Gaza

Dr. Munther Salah Dr. Nabeel Kassis
Arab American University Birzeit University

Dr. Rami Hamdalla
An-Najah University

Dr. Sari Nusaibah
Al Quds University

Dr. Younis Amro
Al Quds Open University