The Smarter Darren Bernard

Israel is proving how morally superior they are to the Arabs by banning Palestinians from their universities:

ANATA, West Bank, Oct. 9 — Sawsan Salameh, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was thrilled to get a full scholarship from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to begin a doctorate in theoretical chemistry.

But a recent move by the Israeli Army to ban new Palestinian students from Israeli universities for security reasons is keeping her from studying at the campus, just two miles from her home.

“The first time I applied for a permit I was rejected,” said Ms. Salameh, 29, a Muslim wearing a firmly fastened head scarf and a black denim skirt that skimmed the floor. “I was shocked, because I thought there must be some kind of mistake, so I kept trying. I kept hoping.”

Her situation is familiar to many Palestinians whose freedom of movement has been limited in recent years because of the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Ms. Salameh said that after she appealed six times to the Israeli government agency that handles Palestinian affairs, she decided to turn to the Supreme Court. On Tuesday, Gisha, an Israeli group that is an advocate for Palestinian rights, submitted a petition on her behalf to the court, calling the ban illegal.

“Gisha calls upon Israel not to prevent Palestinian students from studying just because they are Palestinian,” said the group’s director, Sari Bashi. “No one should be denied access to education based on his or her national identity.”

The practice of reviewing student permits has been in effect since 2001, the last time any new Palestinian student was granted a permit, officials said. But before the outright ban began this summer, the army reviewed requests case by case, something it says it will not do now. Gisha is asking that individual reviews be restored.

The official ban comes before the beginning of the Israeli academic year at the end of October. But in effect it dates from the Palestinian uprising that began in the fall of 2000, when the security situation began to deteriorate, said Lt. Adam Avidan, a spokesman for civil administration in the West Bank.

Hebrew University was the scene of a suicide bombing in July 2002, when a Palestinian blew himself up in a student cafeteria, killing seven people.

One of these days, the Israelis are going to figure out that one of the rare times they had peace and no suicide bombings was when they cooperated with the PA and gave more freedoms to the Palestinians. But I guess the cult of retribution consuming the Israeli society is just too addictive.