The Jewish community should be happy about this....

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http://chronicle.com/news/article/6092/clinton-announces-million-dollar-
scholarship-program-for-palestinian-students


March 9, 2009
Clinton Announces Million-Dollar Scholarship Program for Palestinian 
Students
Ramallah, West Bank — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has 
announced a new million-dollar scholarship program to help Palestinian 
students enroll at Palestinian and American universities.

Mrs. Clinton announced the Middle East Partnership Initiative during a 
visit to this Palestinian town last week. The four-year program will 
support about 10 scholarships each year for disadvantaged students to 
attend four-year courses at Palestinian universities. The program will 
also offer 25 “opportunity grants” to enable promising but disadvantaged 
young Palestinians to apply to American-accredited institutions in the 
United States or the Middle East, a State Department official told The 
Chronicle.

Once funds are approved by Congress, Mrs. Clinton hopes to begin the 
program in the 2010-11 academic year. The money is in addition to $900-
million in aid to the Palestinian Authority announced by the secretary 
last week at the donors’ conference, in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.

During her visit to an American-sponsored English-language teaching 
program in Ramallah, Mrs. Clinton said the opportunity grants would 
create “a larger pool of capable young men and women from places like 
the West Bank and Gaza” who can “compete along with students in other 
countries for the opportunity to further their academic training in 
America.” The secretary spoke on a youth program aired by Palestinian 
Authority TV.

Last year several Palestinian students from Gaza who were awarded 
Fulbright scholarships ran into difficulty entering Israel to complete 
the application process, and two of them were subsequently denied entry 
visas to the United States on security grounds.

Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Consulate in 
Jerusalem, said efforts were being made to enable Gazans to participate 
in American-sponsored projects despite the security challenges.

“We’ve had several dozen Gazans participate in our programs over the 
last few months, both educational and professional,” said Ms. Schweitzer-
Bluhm.

“It is difficult,” she said. “It’s a challenge to bring Gazans to 
participate in these programs, but we go through great lengths to try 
and facilitate their participation, and we have advance coordination 
with the Israelis to get them the necessary permits.” —Matthew Kalman

CMPQwk 1.42-21 9999 
Socialism can work until you run out of everyone elses money .....


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