Universities slam Belgian refusal to evacuate Gaza students

Belgium’s top universities condemn the government’s refusal to help 13 students from war-torn Gaza who received scholarships at Belgian universities reach the country.

Brussels set aside plans to evacuate the Palestinian students last week, in a case that has split the coalition government.

The rectors of the European country’s top 10 universities express their “dismay” at the move in a letter, accusing the administration of using the students as “bargaining chips” in “disgraceful political horse-trading.”

Centrist Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot has advocated in favor of evacuating the students, but has faced opposition from the Flemish conservatives party of Prime Minister Bart De Wever, according to a government source.

“They must not be treated as bargaining chips or as variables to be adjusted in political debates on migration,” the rectors write of the Gaza students.

“Their cases must be assessed for what they are: those of students and researchers who have been awarded scholarships on the basis of their academic merit and who have all expressed their intention to return to their home countries to contribute to their reconstruction.”

The students are among about 1,500 Palestinians in Gaza currently waiting to reach Belgium, having been granted the right to do so, mainly under family reunification rules, according to several NGOs.

Yet evacuations from the territory are proceeding at a trickle, with activists and now the universities accusing the government of deliberately slowing down the process.

“Discussions in recent weeks also show that the obstacles cited do not stem from insurmountable constraints but rather from a lack of political will,” the university chiefs write.