Rice to investigate grant cancellation to Gaza students

Reykjavik/ Gaza City: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday she would investigate a report that the State Department had withdrawn coveted scholarship grants to Palestinian students in Gaza.

A report in the International Herald Tribune newspaper said the State Department had withdrawn Fulbright scholarships to Palestinian students hoping to pursue advanced degrees at American institutions this fall, because Israel had not granted permission for the students to leave Gaza.

The newspaper, the global edition of The New York Times, said seven Gazans had been notified of the cancellation. The report said Israel's restriction was in keeping with its policy of isolating Gaza, which is run by Hamas.

"I had not known this, and I'll look into it," Rice told reporters on her plane while flying from Stockholm, where she attended an international conference on Iraq. "Perhaps there are reasons, but I want to look into why this has happened," she said.

Hadeel Abu Kawik was supposed to spend next year in the United States on the prestigious Fulbright scholarship programme, but now it appears she will remain where she is now -trapped in the Gaza Strip by an Israeli blockade.

Word that the US State Department was cancelling her scholarship came after Abu Kawik, 23 and a computer engineering student, went through a lengthy process that included interviews, exams and an English test. Six other Gaza students also lost their grants. The decision was made because they would not be able to get exit visas from Israel, according to State Department spokesman Tom Casey.

The teeming coastal territory and its 1.5 million inhabitants have been controlled by Hamas for nearly a year, and Israel has kept its border crossings closed to everything but humanitarian aid in an attempt to weaken the group and end frequent rocket barrages aimed at Israeli towns.

The scholarships meant for the Gazans would be offered instead to Palestinian students from the West Bank, Casey said, "rather than lose them for this year." The West Bank is controlled by President Mahmoud Abbas, and West Bank residents are allowed to leave the territory. The eight Gazans will still be eligible next year, he said.