Universities want minister to help Palestinian students and researchers reach the Netherlands

The Palestinians are planning to study or conduct research in the Netherlands. To do so, they must first travel to Jordan to collect their visas from the Dutch embassy there.

The institutions are calling on the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tom Berendsen, to lend a hand, reports NRC. In a letter, they ask him to “actively work to get them onto the evacuation lists so that they can start work with us”.

The letter has not been made public, but is said to have been signed by the two Amsterdam universities, Radboud University Nijmegen, Leiden University, Maastricht University, and Utrecht University. The Hague University of Applied Sciences and the NIAS research institute also support the appeal.

Wageningen University, which previously assisted Palestinian students in a legal case against the State, has not signed the letter. A spokesperson confirmed this: “We too have questions about the Ministry’s stance, but have chosen not to make them public in this way.”

Earlier this month, the court ruled in an interim order that the minister must assist a group of 46 Palestinians in leaving Gaza. It would be a minor effort for the government to make diplomatic efforts to allow them to cross the border with Jordan, the judge stated.

A spokesperson for the minister has stated that the Foreign Ministry has already registered the Palestinian students and researchers with the Israeli authorities, shortly after the judge’s ruling: “The Netherlands is complying with the interim order.”