Canadian advocates, academics urge reassessment of refused study permits for Palestinian students from Gaza

Rights advocates, academics and a Canadian party leader urged the government on Wednesday to reassess refused study permit applications from Palestinian graduate students accepted into Canadian universities, warning that promises of fair treatment have not been kept, Anadolu reports.

Speaking at a news conference in Ottawa on behalf of the Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk Network (PSSAR), Baher Abdulhai said: “Despite repeated assurances from government officials, students from Gaza are receiving refusals, rather than the fair resolutions they were promised.”

“What began as a crisis of endless processing times and delays turned into a crisis of fairness and accountability. Unfortunately, the government’s commitments have not translated into results,” he said.

Abdulhai said that of 37 students outside the Gaza Strip whom the network is tracking, about 30 have reportedly received refusals or remain without substantive decisions.

“To be frank, we are particularly concerned by reports of students undergoing extensive, aggressive, interrogative immigration interviews, only to receive refusals at the end questioning their credibility or alleged affiliations,” he said.

He noted that countries including Spain and the UK have evacuated Palestinian students from Gaza and waived their biometrics. “Canada must demonstrate comparable urgency,” he said, urging a temporary mobile biometrics unit in Gaza.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, who sits on the executive of the Canada Palestinian Parliamentary Friendship Group, said the students have “already been scrutinized and accepted by leading universities in Canada.”

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“These students being treated like this makes me ashamed to be Canadian,” she said.

Aaron Shafer, a professor at Trent University, said that “well over 100 Palestinian graduate students” have earned admission to leading Canadian universities. “But for over two years, the Canadian government has ignored their files.”

He noted that Palestinian students in Cairo faced lengthy interviews involving repeated questions about Hamas activity at their schools.

“Students should not be collectively penalized for receiving an education in Gaza,” he said, adding that security assessments “must be based on individual evidence, not assumptions about an entire population.”

He also urged a reassessment of all rejected Cairo applications and timely decisions on outstanding cases.

Corey Balsam, national coordinator of Independent Jewish Voices, said the group was appealing as Jewish Canadians because Jewish safety “has too often been invoked” as a reason against welcoming Palestinians from Gaza.

“We unequivocally reject that premise, which is rooted in anti-Palestinian racism, not reality,” he said.

Balsam, who studied and worked at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank, said: “With every single university in Gaza now in ruins, the absolute least our government can do is to allow Palestinian students already accepted to Canadian universities to pursue their education, their dreams, and their lives.”

Firaaz Azeez of the Humaniti Foundation said that “behind every application is a life, a life that’s on hold.”

He said humanitarian work should focus not only on survivability but on “stability and about the future,” and that “Canada must be held to the same standard.”​​​​​​​

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