Fidaa Abed, the Fulbright grantee from Gaza who flew all the way to Washington D.C. only to be told his visa was revoked due to secret evidence against him, has written about his ordeal for the San Diego Union Tribune.
Here are his words.
Blocking a Gazan’s Path to San Diego, by Fidaa Abed.
As a young Palestinian from Gaza , I had been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to study at the University of California San Diego on a Fulbright scholarship. The chance to escape Gaza ‘s confines and immerse myself in an American education was deeply thrilling. With Israel controlling Gaza ‘s border exits, air space and sea access – notwithstanding its “pullout” of 2005 – I imagined the long, open roads of the United States and its people’s unchallenged freedom of movement.
I love my people and my homeland, but a young person needs opportunities. These are far more abundant in the United States than in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Last week, I landed in Washington , D.C. , brimming with optimism. Upon arrival, I was whisked into a separate room. An American official informed me that he had just received information about me that he could not reveal. However, it required him to put me on the next plane home. I was shocked. And I was taken aback at the cruelty of snatching away my educational dreams at the last possible moment.
My mistreatment was particularly unexpected because in late May, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice learned that I and six other Fulbright students were being stripped of our Fulbright scholarships, she leapt to our assistance. One by one, Israel let other Palestinians Fulbright scholars out of Gaza , and they made their way to American universities. Then I was mysteriously singled out for last-minute denial based on “secret evidence.” Two others had their visas canceled on account of secret evidence before they could even leave Gaza .
William J. Fulbright was the only U.S. senator to vote against funding for Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s Un-American Activities Committee. It is ironic, then, that my remarkable educational opportunity is being stripped from me on the basis of the sort of secret – and fabricated – evidence that Fulbright opposed in the hands of McCarthy. Unopposed, McCarthy destroyed lives. I do hope the United States will side with the openness of Fulbright and not the fear-mongering of McCarthy.
Israel routinely locks up Palestinians based on secret charges. All sorts of outrageous claims can be leveled based on information that Israeli officials garner coercively. Could the secret evidence against me have been extracted through the torture of some young Palestinian? Was I even the one denounced, or someone with a similar name? Was my “crime” sharing a classroom or a lunchtime conversation with someone Israel believes poses a danger? I have no way of knowing, and thus no way of defending myself.
My education is my gateway to the future. The master’s degree I would have earned at UC San Diego in computer science certainly cannot be attained in Gaza . And I am not alone. Hundreds of Palestinian students with dreams of improving their lives are stagnating intellectually in Gaza . The doors to our open-air prison have largely been slammed shut.
Israel tightened economic restrictions in 2006 following the election victory of Hamas. Hoping to weaken Hamas , Israel has gradually tightened restrictions on freedom of goods and people from the Gaza Strip to the outside world, maintaining a near total blockade on some 1.5 million Palestinian civilians for more than a year.
Thankfully, I have received support from people around the world. Journalists have wanted to hear my story. The American officials who saw me in Amman and Jerusalem upon my return were friendly and seemed embarrassed by my predicament.
Despite my treatment, I know that most Americans are kind people who mean well. What happened to me runs contrary to the good will exhibited by the American people. Israeli policies that relegate Palestinians in Gaza to prison-like conditions and Palestinians in the West Bank to an apartheid-like existence do not advance the cause of peace. The United States should use its tremendous sway with Israel to advance the cause of freedom and equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis alike.
We Palestinians have been stripped of our land for 60 years. But with educational opportunity we have persevered and made what we could of our lives. Limiting our educational prospects only perpetuates our status as a subordinate people. Nothing is served by confining our best and our brightest to Gaza . A better future for everyone lies in unlocking the gates to Gaza and allowing us to learn and gain exposure to the broader world – with all of the challenges, controversies and diverse perspectives it offers.
Abed, receipient of a Fulbright scholarship, lives in the Gaza Strip.
Tarboush Tip: Fayyad
Related posts:
- Fulbright Runaround
- New Email: Sorry, You Can Forget About Your Future
- Milton Viorst Speaks at Palestine Center
- More on the Good Occupier in Gaza
- State of Emergency in Gaza
A better future for everyone lies in unlocking the gates to Gaza and allowing us to learn and gain exposure to the broader world – with all of the challenges, controversies and diverse perspectives it offers.
That’s cute. Maybe we should also allow Iranian students to study nuclear physics at MIT? “The poor boy only wants to learn computer science, you heartless Firouz!” Half the top leadership of al Qaeda learned engineering and medicine. This did nothing to civilize their brutality, but entrenched and structured their hatred and vitriol with intellectual rationality.
Why was Abed denied, when others were not? Why is there “secret evidence” on Abed, and not on the half dozen Gaza students who continued on their Fullbright dreams? “Secret Evidence”? Not so secret, since it was shared with US officials, who denied him the visa, not Israel.
Could the secret evidence against me have been extracted through the torture of some young Palestinian?
What about torture of an old Palestinian? It doesn’t really matter, does it? Torture is wrong. Of course, it also works.
This reminds me of a documentary about the original PLO women fighters; the ones who were the first to start bombing Israeli buses and gunning down families in their sleep, back in the 1960s. Back then Palestinian society was not violent and would often turn them in to avoid trouble with Israel.
She explains quite clearly how the PLO used terror attacks against Israeli civilians to trigger a disproportionate Israeli military response, and then capitalized on the resulting anger among the people to recruit angry young men.
In any case, the former PLO woman tells how when she was finally captured, Israel knew she had hidden weapons and explosives somewhere, but they did not know where. They beat her, but she would not say anything.
Then they sat her down an a desk, made her some tea, brought in another PLO woman fighter and beat the second woman in front of her.
Finally the Israeli interrogator ripped the second woman’s clothes off and raped her with something like a bat or a baton. That’s when the first PLO woman had enough and told Israel everything: where she hid the weapons and the explosives and all her friends who were waiting in Jordan with orders to attack so and so, on this date and on that date. And this is what she admitted on camera! Who knows what Israel finally got out of her.
Gruesome? Yes. Brutal? Barbaric? Inhuman? Yes. Then again, no one asked her to murder innocent people. Fuck her and fuck her friend. The only thing that matters is the interrogation was successful, and innocent people, who did not choose that life, were saved.
The only thing I could think of after the movie ended was, torture works!
Was my “crime” sharing a classroom or a lunchtime conversation with someone Israel believes poses a danger?
Now we’re getting somewhere. He knows EXACTLY what’s going on, and what “secret evidence” Israel has on him. I am willing to bet he chose his words specifically to create doubt about the details of the evidence Israel has on him. Perhaps he was approached by terror groups at a lunchroom or classroom, and asked to perform some tasks for them in America. Whatever it is, he knows exactly.
Granting students from around the world scholarships to study at America’s best universities is a privilege. This country is fully capable of making the right decisions about who it should invest our finite resources and human capital.
I have no doubt there are some bright Georgian students, who are not at war with the West, who did not participate in terrorist activities, nor supported terrorist groups, who will certainly not be using their future skills for Jihad.
In fact, there are even some Gazan students who, too, meet such criteria.
Fidaa Abed is just not one of them.
Posted by Firouz | August 17, 2008, 10:42 amWith Israel controlling Gaza’s border exits, air space and sea access.
Right. Egypt/Rafah…
Maybe one day even Arabs will be sick of this obvious distortion.
Doubtful, but maybe. Very little hope until then.
Posted by Anonymous | August 18, 2008, 12:03 pm