Random Israeli arrests are a major obstacle to Palestinians’ academic ambitions.

By Walaa Al-Shamlol, Mohammad Yassin, IOL Staff

CAIRO/GAZA, February 20, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Stringent visa restrictions imposed by Israel were no obstacle to Moussa Mohammad’s unrelenting resolve and vaulting academic ambitions, thanks to the video conferencing technology, which became indispensable in view of the crippling Israeli blockades.

Many were the times that Mahmmoud, a young Palestinian academician, and his ilk were denied access to neighboring Egypt to pursue their post-graduate studies in its reputable universities.

Defying the Israeli policies, he managed to get his PhD from Egypt after the thesis discussion was conducted via video conferencing from the Gaza-based Islamic University.

His colleague Ahmad Al-Saati has a similar success story being the first Arab researcher obtaining his PhD in culture through the state-of-the-art technology.

Saati, who spent a few years in an Israeli jail and has been banned from traveling abroad since 2003, told IslamOnline.net that e-learning helped him overcome his disappointment.

“It helped me to take my remote classes at the Islamic University in coordination with Egyptian professors in Ein Shams University,” he noted.

Saati said that video conferencing rekindled hopes of dozens of Palestinian researchers to carry on with academic career.

Similarly, Israeli detention bars failed to cripple Talaat Eissa from doing his PhD thesis in mass communications.

“It seemed as if Israeli prisons were turned into universities and classes teaching Islamic subjects and languages,” Eissa, who was arrested by Israeli occupation troops shortly after his commencement in 1990, told IOL.

General-Purpose Tech.

The video conferencing technology also proved to be general-purpose.

This Internet-aided service is of fundamental importance to the Palestinian Legislative Council (parliament) since Israeli occupation troops often restrict the movement of MPs between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

It is also heavily used by some Palestinian universities like the Ramallah-based Beir Zeit in graduation ceremonies so that students can celebrate with their loved ones though far in distance.

The UNICEF had warned that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian students can not attend school regularly because of incessant Israeli army incursions.

Many Palestinian children are now being schooled at home or in makeshift classrooms such as mosques, basements and alleyways.