A group of Palestinian students and researchers is unlikely to take up scholarships at Belgian universities this fall due to disagreements in Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s coalition government over evacuating people from Gaza. Palestinians are currently unable to travel freely in or out of Gaza, which is under Israeli occupation, although a third country can request evacuation of students and researchers. Countries including Italy and the U.K. have set up systems to help Palestinian students take up study places abroad.
But while scholarship applicants in Gaza received offers in June to begin classes this fall at some of Belgium’s top universities — including the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Hasselt University and the University of Antwerp — Belgian evacuations from Gaza have come to a halt under the coalition government led by Flemish nationalist De Wever. The students’ case highlights the limits of Belgium’s pro-Palestine stance, one of the strongest in Europe — particularly when it clashes with the Flemish nationalist-led government’s anti-migration policy. Belgium has pledged to recognize Palestinian statehood, imposed sanctions on illegal settlements in the West Bank and urged the EU to do the same.
A spokesperson for Immigration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt, from De Wever’s N-VA party said: “Evacuations are the competence of the Foreign Office but it is true that there is currently no consensus on this within the government.” Anne Weyembergh, vice-rector at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, which is set to host two students and three postdoc researchers, argued that if other EU countries could organize student evacuations, then Belgium should, too. The exceptional circumstances in which the Palestinian scholars have earned their places in Belgium have not, so far, yielded any offer of help from the government. The obstacles facing them are partly procedural, mostly political.
POLITICO spoke to four of the scholarship recipients, who were told visas could only be obtained in person at a Belgian diplomatic post, such as the one in Jerusalem. Two of them have been able to successfully obtain visas with the help of lawyers in Belgium, suggesting solutions can be found even in Belgium’s rigid immigration system. But visas on their own are of little help.
None of the students and researchers offered funded places in Belgium currently have any way to actually get there. In a written statement, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said it facilitates and encourages the evacuation of students and researchers from Gaza at the request of a third country. But a spokesperson for Belgium’s foreign ministry, led by Prévot of the centrist Les Engagés party, said there was currently no decision in the coalition government to organize any more evacuations.
The department said it was “actively investigating” what could be done to help the students but that any decision on new evacuations would be the “responsibility of the government as a whole.” Two Belgian government officials, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said that the coalition was divided on just about everything related to Palestine. While Prévot’s foreign ministry says it is looking for solutions, the French-speaking centrist Reformist Movement party (MR), whose leader Georges-Louis Bouchez is known for his pro-Israeli positions, and De Wever’s New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) are said to be against further evacuations. MR and De Wever’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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