What better way to punish Hamas than by punishing Gazan students?

The American State Department recently withdrew the Fulbright Grants for Gazan students hoping to pursue higher education opportunities in the United States. And on what grounds?

Well, it seems that because Israel isn’t letting them out anyway, it’s better not to waste money on students condemned to a future of imprisonment. The politics of accomodation work yet again, but this time the hopes of seven talented students have been drastically crushed by this moral cowardice.

True, the money can be used elsewhere, but why not take a moral stand against the collective punishment of Gaza? First, there is no guarantee of Israel policy regarding Gaza and simply assuming that Israel will never allow these students to leave the Strip is tantamount to supporting Israeli oppression in the first place.

So much for the responsibility of intellectuals.

Of course, Israel excuses itself from responsibility in Gaza with pretty lies and platitudes.

At the parliamentary hearing on Wednesday, a Defense Ministry official recalled that the cabinet had declared Gaza “hostile territory” and decided that the safety of Israeli soldiers and civilians at or near the border should be risked only to facilitate the movement out of Gaza for humanitarian concerns, like medical treatment. Higher education, he said, was not a humanitarian concern.

Yet Israel has regularly denied Gazans the right to seek healthcare and it’s an insult for the Israeli government to pretend otherwise. Nearly one hundred people suffering from serious illnesses have died, unable to seek medical care outside the prison that is Gaza. In one extreme case last November, while I was still working in Gaza, a heart patient was told by the Israeli occupying authorities to “go die in Gaza” when they refused to grant him permission to travel to the West Bank for emergency treatment.

But if this is how desperately ill Palestinians are treated, what can we expect for educated, healthy Palestinians? Israel is one problem, but the Fulbright Commision was not obligated to default on these students’ grants.