Gaza, April 20 (EFE).- Hundreds of university students protested this Monday in Gaza City against the generalized blockade policy by the Israeli Government so that students cannot leave the Strip and study, mostly on scholarships, abroad.
Among destroyed buildings, the result of more than two and a half years of Israeli fire, the students, aged between 18 and 24, took to the streets with banners and carrying forms of their enrollment in destination universities abroad, as well as letters from these academic centers where they were granted study scholarships.
“The right to be able to study is not a luxury”, “Save the Gazan students” or “open the borders” were some of the slogans that could be read on the posters carried by the students.
“We are students, we are outstanding students and maybe we will be teachers, doctors, engineers or researchers one day. We just want to continue pursuing our dreams and study at these universities to return and rebuild Gaza,” Rima, a 23-year-old woman admitted to the University of Alberta (Canada) and the University of Almería (Spain) in the last two years, told EFE, but who has not been able to leave the Strip.
Similar cases were repeated with other protesters, such as Alaa al-Sheikh, 19, who is waiting to see if he is accepted to study Psychology abroad, but who has little hope of being able to leave even if he is admitted.
“As my freedom of movement is violated and has been taken away from me, I cannot exercise my rights. I only have obligations, no rights. Six months have passed since the Israeli ceasefire in Gaza. Many expectations, many hopes, but nothing has changed,” Alaa told EFE.
“In reality, the real war begins after the war, and this is what people do not see (…) My only goal today is to finish my studies,” added Yara, who wants to complete her higher education at a computer science college in Türkiye.
Since Israel responded with a brutal offensive in Gaza, following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, an extremely small number of young people – practically non-existent – have been able to leave the Palestinian enclave and develop abroad; almost always sponsored by some international program or by some foreign government.
Likewise, amid the border blockade by the Israeli authorities so that Gazan students cannot go abroad, the higher education system has not yet returned to functioning efficiently.
Institutions such as the Islamic University of Gaza partially resumed classes months ago, but the vast majority of its facilities, and those of the majority of study centers, were devastated by the bombings.
Likewise, thousands of families remain displaced and many students survive in tents, while Israeli bombings continue almost daily despite the ceasefire signed on October 10. EFE
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