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The University of Cambridge has banned its Arabic students from studying in Palestinian territories as part of their year abroad.

The decision comes after a number of Cambridge students travelling there were either interrogated or deported by Israeli security.

The Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have been occupied by the Israeli state since the Six Day War of 1967 (although Israel officially disengaged from Gaza in 2005, its status as an occupied territory remains a matter of dispute in the international sphere).

Five students, four female and one male, faced difficulties when landing at Ben-Gurion Airport, in Tel-Aviv, throughout the 2016/17 academic year.

They are required as part of their course of study to spend eight months in a country where their chosen discipline is the first language.

Due to the instability of many Middle Eastern states, the choices available to Arabic students are relatively limited, with the majority opting for Egypt and Jordan.

The territories are the first place to be taken off of the list of acceptable destinations since Syria erupted into civil war in 2011, ending a long-standing partnership with Damascus University.

Most travelling to study in Palestine undertake an Arabic language course at Birzeit University, in Ramallah.

In order to get there, however, they must either fly to Tel-Aviv and travel by road, or fly to Jordan and navigate an Israeli-controlled border crossing.

Because the Israeli government doesn't offer student visas for study in the Palestinian West Bank, despite offering foreign student visas for its own institutions such as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, any student hoping to stay for longer than this was forced to leave and re-enter every three months.

As well as this, a recent intensification of security checks at Israeli security over the past year contributed to the obstacles faced by incoming students.

"I found out that a number of students, coming from different universities around the world, had been kicked out of Israel because they had admitted to studying in Palestine," says one student, 21, who asked to remain anonymous. She was deported after a six-hour interrogation and overnight stay in a detention centre earlier this year.

"You get forced into this catch-22 where you can't admit to studying there but you can't lie about it either."

The student was eventually deported and flown back to Luton Airport. It is understood she has been banned from entering Israel.

"I did nothing wrong. I didn't commit a crime or do anything illegal but once they realised I might be spending time in the West Bank their whole approach to me just flipped.

"The interrogators screamed in my face, yelling things like 'F*** you' and 'This is my country'. They said they had unlocked my phone and spoken to all my friends and family, saying I'd been working as a volunteer in Palestine - none of which was true. It was so surreal."

Another Cambridge student, aged 21, was refused entry later in the year after hours of interrogation when she tried to return to Israel via the Jordan crossing. Students from other universities around the world, in London, the US and Australia, have had similar experiences.

A spokesman for the Cambridge University Palestine Society said: "We were extremely saddened to hear that the Asian and Middle Eastern studies department have been forced to ban their students from studying in the West Bank on their year abroad.

"We understand, given the distressing interrogations and deportations these students have been subjected to, why the faculty took this decision.

"But it is incredibly unfortunate that Cambridge students will now be unable to study at one of the leading universities in the Middle East and denied the chance to see the effects of the occupation first-hand."

A spokesman for the University of Cambridge said: "Whilst we do not ban independent travel to, or study in, the Palestinian territories, students cannot choose to spend their Year Abroad in the West Bank for the time being due to recent difficulties faced by students in securing visa renewals from the Israeli authorities.

"This is regrettable but our first duty is to ensure that students are able to complete their year abroad in an Arabic-speaking region before commencing their final year of study at the University of Cambridge."

The Standard has contacted the Israeli Embassy for comment.