Students’ West Bank ‘ban’

ARABIC LANGUAGE students at Cambridge University will not be allowed to spend their year abroad in the West Bank following problems with Israeli border officials.

The university confirmed this week it had decided to intervene after five students were detained at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv earlier this year.

The students had been required to spend eight months in a place where Arabic was the primary language as part of their course work.

Most had reportedly chosen to study at Birzeit University in Ramallah, but those who travelled via Tel Aviv, rather than Jordan, claimed they had been hassled during security checks.

Cleodie Rickard told the Evening Standard that interrogators at the airport “screamed in my face, yelling things like ‘f*** you’ and ‘this is my country’.”

Ms Rickard added: “They said they had unlocked my phone and spoken to all my friends and family, saying I’d been working as a volunteer in Palestine — none of which was true.”

In a statement, the university said it was “regrettably” no longer allowing students to choose the West Bank as a study location.

“Whilst we do not ban independent travel to, or study in, the Palestinian territories, students cannot choose to spend their year abroad in the West Bank for the time being due to recent difficulties faced by students in securing visa renewals from the Israeli authorities.”

The Israeli Embassy in London did not respond to repeated requests for a comment.