Universities support Palestinian students with scholarships

Amid mass rallies against Israel’s ongoing bombing of Palestine, Indonesia’s Syiah Kuala University in Aceh province is taking a further step by providing scholarships for 50 Palestinian students, after an agreement was signed on 16 November by the Palestinian Ambassador for Indonesia Zuhair Al-Shun and the university’s Rector Marwan.

An IDR110 million (US$7,070) donation by the university for the Palestinians was also announced. “This is a humanitarian call for Palestinians who are suffering from the Israeli invasion,” said Marwan, also urging more donations from people in Aceh.

Head of International Relations at Syiah Kuala University, Muzailin Affan, said the institution’s commitment to Palestine would not stop with these scholarships and donations: “We are seeking broader cooperation with Palestinian universities. Later we will have student exchanges and joint research.”

Scholarships for Palestinian students are also being provided by Indonesia’s Defense Ministry.

On 8 November, Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto welcomed around 22 Palestinian students. During a reception for Palestinian students at the Ministry of Defense office in Jakarta, he told the Palestinian ambassador the students would undertake undergraduate studies at the Defense University for five years.

Lieutenant General Jonni Mahroza, rector of the Defense University – which is also known as Unhan (Universitas Pertahanan) – told the university’s staff to act as substitutes for Palestinian students’ parents. “They are far from their families, who are in a very difficult situation,” he said.

The 22 students, who are from the West Bank, will study medicine, pharmacy, electrical engineering or information engineering after a one-year preliminary programme studying Bahasa Indonesia at the Unhan Language Training Centre.

Close ties with Palestine

Indonesia has close ties with Palestine, including funding the 140-bed Indonesian hospital that opened in 2016 in the north of Gaza City, staffed by Palestinians.

For more than a week this month, the Indonesian hospital was the only clinic in northern Gaza still treating patients, until it was targeted by Israeli forces on 20 November.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo strongly condemned the Israeli bombing of the much larger Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City on 17 October, where wounded Palestinians and residents were seeking shelter. (Israel and Western countries blamed the bombing on a failed rocket launch from within Gaza by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.)

Widodo denounced the attack as violating international humanitarian law.

A series of anti-Israel rallies has been taking place since earlier this month in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. One of the biggest of around two million people was held at National Monument Square, just next to the United States embassy.

Some demonstrators marched to the US embassy as Indonesia does not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel, and there is no Israeli embassy in the country.

The scholarship programme is part of the Indonesia-Palestine cooperation in education, signed by Subianto, the Indonesian defence minister, and Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Ibrahim Shayyeh in Jakarta in October last year.

“In future, we are ready to receive more students with this scholarship. This is one of the government’s commitments supporting the independence of the people of Palestine,” Subianto remarked.

Airlangga University in East Java has granted scholarships to five Palestinian students. Rector Professor Mohammad Nasih officially awarded the scholarships during the university’s 69th anniversary on 15 November in Surabaya.

Nasih said the university was very concerned about Palestinian students who are still unable to get in touch with their families in Gaza, a situation which could affect their education. “We are morally called on to give a hand,” he said in his anniversary address.

Support from Muhammadiyah

Indonesia’s second largest Muslim non-governmental organisation, Muhammadiyah, has long supported Palestine with education, health and humanitarian assistance. It has also built schools for Palestinian children in Beirut, Lebanon, which have been in operation for about three years.

“There are many Palestinian students studying in universities under Muhammadiyah administration in Indonesia – all with scholarships,” Professor Abdul Mu’ti, secretary general of Muhammadiyah, told University World News.

“We also provide short course fellowships for Palestinians who are interested in studying Islam and Muslims in Indonesia,” he said, adding that this is a long-term programme that has not been disrupted by the ongoing war.

Muhammadiyah is known as a modern and reformist Muslim organisation, whose core business is education and health. It has thousands of schools, universities and hospitals throughout Indonesia.

Muhammadiyah is also recognised as the richest Muslim group in Indonesia and is well ahead of the government in providing educational assistance and donations for Palestine.