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Bethlehem University Student Detained, Deported to Gaza
By Judith Sudilovsky
Source: Catholic News Service
Published: Thursday, November 05, 2009
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JERUSALEM (CNS)—A student from a Catholic-run university in the West Bank was detained and deported to her home in the Gaza Strip two months before completing her studies.

Berlanty Azzam, a 21-year-old business administration major and translation minor at Bethlehem University, was returning to Bethlehem from a job interview in Ramallah, West Bank, Oct. 28 when the bus on which she was traveling was stopped by Israeli soldiers at a military checkpoint. Azzam and a man from Gaza were removed from the bus.

"I was not there illegally," Azzam said in a phone interview from Gaza Nov. 3.

Azzam has lived in the West Bank since 2005, the year she received a permit to travel from Gaza through Israel for her studies at the university, run by the Christian Brothers.

On Oct. 28 she was traveling from one Palestinian-controlled area of the West Bank to another, but had to pass through an Israeli checkpoint between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, said Keren Tamir, spokeswoman for Gisha, the Israel legal center for freedom of movement.

Tamir, whose center filed an urgent petition to the Israeli High Court on behalf of Azzam, noted that Israel still retains security control over large parts of the West Bank.

After waiting for six hours at the checkpoint, Azzam and the man were handcuffed and blindfolded and taken to a nearby Israeli civil administration office.

Meanwhile, officials of Bethlehem University contacted Gisha, which extracted a promise from military officials that both Gaza residents would be placed in detention for the night and would not be removed to Gaza pending a court petition challenging their removal.

However, Azzam was taken to Gaza, where she was dropped at the Erez checkpoint late at night. Her parents, with whom she had been in touch with during the ordeal, were waiting for her on the other side.

Tamir said part of the problem might have been the difficulty in finding an appropriate women's facility in which to keep Azzam overnight. The man who was detained with Azzam remained under detention in Israel Nov. 4.

At a court hearing Nov. 3, Israeli Defense Forces officials admitted that Azzam had been sent back to Gaza despite an order from the Military Legal Advisor's Office not to do so. IDF officials said they would investigate why the mistake occurred. However, they claimed Azzam originally left Gaza under false pretenses, so they would not allow her to return to the West Bank.

The court scheduled another hearing on the case for Nov. 12 and ordered the Israeli Defense Forces to present the findings of their investigation.

The IDF did not respond to a request for comment.

"The court was not pleased with the mistake," said Tamir. "We hope it is a good sign. It is important to understand she was not illegal. She entered with the only permit available in 2005 and she needed it only to cross through Israel, (after which) she was in the West Bank."

Azzam, who is a Christian with a Greek Orthodox father and a Catholic mother, is currently the only Gazan student at Bethlehem University, said a university spokeswoman. However, she said, 12 students from Gaza have been accepted into the university but have been unable to begin the academic year because Israel has not given them the necessary travel permits.

Azzam said although she was happy to see her family after four years, she is worried about her future.

"I don't know what will happen to me. I am just waiting for my university and the lawyer to see what will happen next," said Azzam. "I stayed away for four years for fear I would not be allowed to return to my university studies. And now, just two months before my graduation, I was sent back to Gaza by force without a chance to complete my degree. I am really so confused about the situation."

The only two universities in Gaza where she could complete the course work for her degree are Islamic, Azzam noted, adding that she had hoped to be able to remain in the West Bank and work.

"The situation in Gaza is so bad. We are Christian and it is hard to stay under Hamas rule," she said, referring to the Islamic militant group that controls the Gaza Strip.

Tamir said Israel bans Palestinian residents of Gaza from studying at Palestinian universities in the West Bank, and it claims that Palestinians originally from the Gaza Strip have no right to remain in the West Bank. She noted that the Israeli army has begun a campaign to search for registered Gazans living in the West Bank and remove them to Gaza. At least six Gazans residing in the West Bank were arrested at the same checkpoint as Azzam in the previous two weeks, she said.

"This is part of an Israeli policy aiming to separate Gaza and the West Bank. Like Berlanty, there are thousands of people living peaceful lives in the West Bank while Israel is tearing them apart from their families, place of business, from their center of life and removing them to the Gaza Strip. ... This policy violates basic rights, and it fragments the Palestinian civil society," Tamir said.

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