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Sawsan Salameh (Archive)
Last update - 16:52 04/11/2007
High Court challenges IDF criteria for entry of Palestinian students
By Tamara Traubmann, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: IDF, entry permits 

The High Court of Justice last week ordered the state to review defense establishment criteria that stipulates that the Israel Defense Forces can determine which Palestinians are eligible to study in Israel, even in cases where the Palestinians in question are not deemed a security risk.

The state will submit the criteria again within four months.

The criteria also determines which programs Palestinians given permission to enter can attend. The universities will have to provide their rationale for accepting those students.
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The criteria in question were drafted in response to a court petition last year by the human rights group Gisha, on behalf of Sawsan Salameh.

Salameh, from the village of Anata east of Jerusalem, was accepted into a doctoral program in chemistry at Hebrew University with a scholarship. The army never claimed she posed a security risk, but she was still refused access to the university because of a policy prohibiting the entry to Israel of Palestinian students.

In December 2006, the High Court ordered the defense establishment to replace that sweeping ban with new criteria, under which applications to study in Israel would be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Thanks to the petition, Salameh received special entry permits last year. This year she has yet to receive permits. It is not clear she meets the new criteria.

Salameh and Gisha sought to have these criteria nullified. Attorney Noam Peleg argued that the criteria place unreasonable obstacles in students' path and violate the academic freedom of Israeli institutions of higher learning, regarding both their applications processes and study programs.

The justices on the panel, headed by Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch, pointed to flaws in the criteria, primarily their violation of the academic institutions' discretion.

According to the criteria, undergraduate students will not be allowed to study in Israel. Graduate students will receive permission if their field of study is not available in the West Bank.

In addition, students seeking a master's degree will be allowed to enroll only in programs that deal with regional cooperation or with developing coexistence and peace in the region.

Once a student has submitted an application, the Education Ministry will examine the projected study program and express its opinion as to whether the program meets that definition.

In the case of international programs, such as the Kellogg-Recanati International Executive MBA at Tel Aviv University, the Foreign Ministry's recommendation will also be required.

The authorities will deny applications to study subjects that defense officials feel "have the potential to be used adversely against the State of Israel" - a criteria the court termed "peculiar."

Furthermore, a university will have to explain to the IDF why it wishes to accept these students, and offer special reasons for this.

In each case, the army may refuse to review applications by candidates who meet basic requirements, "at its own discretion and by taking into account all relevant circumstances including general security considerations."

The army will also be able to set quotas for granting permits for study purposes.

The Defense Ministry declined to comment for this article.

Related articles:
  • Ministers demand entry into Israel for Palestinian students
  • Knesset education panel: Let Palestinian students attend Israeli universities
  • State prosecution waives entry ban on Palestinian PhD student

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      1.   The High Court Of Fools 03:08  |  Edifice 04/11/07
      2.   SAY WHAT? 03:38  |  NEILGOLAN 04/11/07
      3.   Edifice- RACIST eom 04:52  |  bashar 04/11/07
      4.   I trust the IDF more than the courts 04:57  |  Ron 04/11/07
      5.   JUDGES,DO NOT PASS GO! GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL! 05:00  |  NEIL GOLAN 04/11/07
      6.   students 05:34  |  Shmuelshachor 04/11/07
      7.   Criteria for Palestinian student entry 05:50  |  Jake 04/11/07
      8.   Teaching Your Enemies How To Kill You 05:57  |  Efox 04/11/07
      9.   consider yourself lucky 05:59  |  r.m. 04/11/07
      10.   Why aren`t they studying at moslem universities? 06:05  |  Binyamin Dissen 04/11/07
      11.   Who decides? 06:43  |  Otto Rand 04/11/07
      12.   THE HIGH COURT OF COMMUNISTS 06:50  |  THE LIBRARIAN 04/11/07
      13.   posters #1 thru #5; you`re a pack of ignorant hyenas... 07:34  |  eric 04/11/07
      14.   I want to study in Ramallah and get a degree in Lynching 08:35  |  daniel 04/11/07
      15.   Note, the PA/PLO are yet to declare the Arab Israeli conflict 08:41  |  Reuven 04/11/07
      16.   MAde in the US of A 09:08  |  Refugee 04/11/07
      17.   a doctorate in chemistry??? 09:26  |  Ezra 04/11/07
      18.   WHAT criteria did the Pals use to bomb the cafe at the Hebrew Uni 10:00  |  PETER S.M. 04/11/07
      19.   "REFUGEE"?? If you blow up Sydney Uni.you will not be welcome 10:04  |  PETER S.M. 04/11/07
      20.   eric and poetry for Pals.swine and such 10:14  |  PETER S .M. 04/11/07
      21.   re: Otto Rand 10:16  |  Efox 04/11/07
      22.   Otto Rand # 11 - a lone sane voice 10:16  |  Esther 04/11/07
      23.   re: r.m. 10:24  |  Efox 04/11/07
      24.   How do you regard enemy aliens in your own country? 10:27  |  Jasmine Murphy 04/11/07
      25.   For eric #13 10:28  |  Esther 04/11/07
      26.   Palestinians have wonderful schools 10:43  |  propal 04/11/07
      27.   what a democracy, can`t leave to study, but can`t study in Israel 10:57  |  Dolores 04/11/07
      28.   DOLORES. Spain.Send them to Atucha 11:04  |  PETER S.M. 04/11/07
      29.   she looks like a suicide bomber to me 11:16  |  yitzhaki 04/11/07
      30.   to Efox 11:19  |  r.m. 04/11/07
      31.   eric and the "likes of you" 11:21  |  yitzhaki 04/11/07
      32.   re she looks like a suicide bomber to me 11:22  |  r.m. 04/11/07
      33.   ERIC. why do "swine"& "hyenas" win so many nobel prizes 11:23  |  PETER S.M. 04/11/07
      34.   Boycott Israeli Universities 11:36  |  Fiona Bruce 04/11/07
      35.   Fiona Bruce 11:48  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 04/11/07
      36.   how many would agree to sit on a bus next to someone 12:10  |  wickedwitch 04/11/07
      37.   FIONA BRUCE You have already tried that.Now think laterally 12:18  |  PETER S.M. 04/11/07
      38.   #36 Wickedwitch 12:20  |  Chris Linthwaite 04/11/07
      39.   Dolores OLE 12:25  |  Ecuatoriana 04/11/07
      40.   SECURITY FIRST 12:48  |  DRD 04/11/07
      41.   Education for Palestinians 12:54  |  Shlomo from Tel-Aviv 04/11/07
      42.   "Chris" Yoyne Lintwit would be jailed during the WW2 in Britain 12:54  |  Absolute Sweden 04/11/07
      43.   #42 Absolute Sweden 13:52  |  Chris Linthwaite 04/11/07
      44.   ERIC nm.Its "pigs AND monkeys".Can`t you even quote properly 13:57  |  PETER S.M. 04/11/07
      45.   Israel has no obligation to educate, at any level, those who 13:58  |  Daniela 04/11/07
      46.   to Ben Dissen I agrtee on this one 14:00  |  Hilda 04/11/07
      47.   43: Chris, so wrong, so often 14:05  |  David Teich 04/11/07
      48.   #39 to WICKED 14:19  |  humanity works 04/11/07
      49.   Ron, how could you say that... 14:30  |  Reader 04/11/07
      50.   David Teich re Linthwaite 14:40  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 04/11/07
      51.   An Eye for an Eye Reuven? 14:41  |  Reader 04/11/07
      52.   Re: Daniela: Israel`s obligation re interntional laws its signed 14:54  |  Kim 04/11/07
      53.   THE HIGH COURT IS LUCKY....... 14:58  |  Ian 04/11/07
      54.   Kim 15:11  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 04/11/07
      55.   Margie,"Chris" Yoyne Lintwit is a Marrano,a converted Jew 15:12  |  Absolute Sweden 04/11/07
      56.   Wicked Witch - Jewish women also were head coverings 15:28  |  Kim 04/11/07
      57.   A Doctorate in Chemistry??? 15:31  |  Reader 04/11/07
      58.   # 16 refugee? in Australia? 15:35  |  Lynn 04/11/07
      59.   #52 Kim of Australia 15:40  |  Lynn 04/11/07
      60.   # 34 Fiona bruce 15:50  |  Lynn 04/11/07
      61.   after reading the first dozen 15:51  |  Kris 04/11/07
      62.   # 33 that`s easy: 15:57  |  Kris 04/11/07
      63.   #54 Margie 15:59  |  Outsider 04/11/07
      64.   Outsider 16:15  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 04/11/07
      65.   This is amazing 16:44  |  KUTW 04/11/07
      66.   Shlomo on Education for Palestinians 16:51  |  Reader 04/11/07
      67.   27.Dolores: What does it have to do with democracy? 16:53  |  KUTW 04/11/07
      68.   52. Kim: Israel does not have the obligation 17:02  |  KUTW 04/11/07
      69.   Cairo,Damascus,Tripoli,Sussex,Stockholm,Tehran:go explore 17:17  |  G.Ulliver 04/11/07
      70.   #35 to so called peacenik all Palestinians are terrorists. 17:19  |  Labhras 04/11/07
      71.