Recently, the Gisha the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement requested three students, who were accepted to study at Bethlehem University, be allowed to travel to the academic institution in the West Bank.

The three, Jawdat Michael, Dana Tarazi and Odeh al-Jeldeh, were meant to begin their studies in the summer of 2009, but so far, their requests to the defense establishment to travel to the West Bank have been denied. The three now hope to begin their studies this summer.

The letter the Israeli academics sent to Barak read: We believe that the general prohibition of any resident of Gaza wishing to study in the West Bank, is a disproportionate prohibition that should be revoked. Instead of this prohibition, we ask to allow these youths to reach their schools following specific security checks of each of their requests and, at the very least, the defense minister should establish a system to enable specific checks in cases which, when solved, could have positive humanitarian repercussions...