A Palestinian scholarship student due to begin a masters programme at Goldsmiths, University of London is worried that he may have to forfeit his place on the course thanks to the delay of his travel papers from the Israeli authorities.

Mohammed Awad, 28, was delighted to be accepted for a fully-funded place on the MA in Multilingualism, Linguistics, & Education at Goldsmiths’ New Cross campus, beginning 1 October.

The young man had applied for 10 different scholarships which would enable him to leave the Gaza Strip for the first time and fulfil his academic potential.

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Words “couldn’t describe [his] happiness” when Mr Awad won one of two annual Goldsmiths Humanitarian Scholarships for Palestinian postgraduates, he told The Independent.

“I worked hard for such an opportunity. It took one year of dedicated focus, attention and interest... I bought my suitcase and packed my luggage,” said the student from Jabalia, north of Gaza City.

However, subsequent red tape and lengthy delays at Cogat (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, the body responsible for implementing Israeli policy in occupied areas) in processing his application to leave Gaza mean that just a few days before his course begins, Mr Awad is still stranded in the coastal enclave without the necessary paperwork.

He now faces missing out on the beginning of the term - and in a worst case scenario, having to give up his place due to a lack of time and funds to restart the visa process again.

Mr Awad applied for a visa to exit Gaza through the Erez crossing in order to travel overland to Amman, where he would fly to London.

His UK student visa gives him a window of time in which to enter the country, which expires on 13 October. At this point it seems unlikely he will be allowed to leave before 24 October at the earliest.

It will cost Mr Awad $1300 (£967) to extend the entry period of his UK visa - funds which the student, who currently works as an English lecturer, says he does not have.

“My family cannot afford to finance my master’s degree because my father was a worker in Israel and since the closure of border, he’s unemployed most of the time. I have a big family, I have four brothers and four sisters. They work to support for my family and survive instead.

Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures Neve Dekalim, Gaza Strip, 12 September, 2005. Thousands of Palestinians from nearby Khan Younes enter Neve Dekalim at dawn to see this former Jewish settlement for the first time. Most people tried to find anything still usable in the ruins of the settlement's buildings destroyed by the Israeli army. © Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures Al Tufa'ah, Gaza Strip, 20 January 2009. Nadji Hessenin collapses in tears on his father's grave after burying his children Shourouk Nadji Hessenin, 13, and her brother Abdallah, 12, who were instantly killed upon returning to their house in She' Af Tufa'ah by a Hamas planted booby trap intended for Israeli soldiers. © Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures Rafah, Gaza Strip, June 2010. Most if not all the goods sold in this busy market street in Rafah are brought from Egypt through the tunnel. © Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures Ramallah, West Bank, 13 November, 2004. Sadness and emotion among the people who are coming to honour Palestinian President Yasser Arafat at his grave in the Muqata'a. © Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures Qalqilya, West Bank, January 2003. The only entrance to the city. Palestinian population movements are severely restricted by the Israeli army, no vehicles being allowed in or out some Palestinian cities for weeks on end. © Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures Jenin Refugee Camp, April 2002. In order to search for Palestinian activists, the IDF stormed and occupied the camp for nine days, razing an area the size of three football pitches in the centre of this densely populated zone, totally destroying 95 houses, damaging hundreds of others, leaving 3,000 people homeless. © Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures Ousama Jawabreh, 29, was killed when a public phone he was using in the old quarter of Nablus city exploded on 24 June 2001. © Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures Near Jericho, West Bank, July 2001. Most of the River Jordan valley is militarily closed to the Palestinians, allowing Jewish settlements to thrive on its water and natural resources. © Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures Kfar Kila, South Lebanon, 29 May, 2000. After the Israeli pull-out, thousands of SLA (Lebanese militia financed and trained by Israel in the occupied zone) rushed to this last point of passage in order to escape Israel; abandoning their cars and many of their belongings. For weeks, clothes hanging on the border fence were the only remaining signs of many personal and family tragedies. © Bruno Stevens Ground: Ten years of the Palestinian conflict in pictures Ain el Helweh Palestinian Camp, 15 May, 2000. School children demonstrate on the 52nd anniversary of the Palestinian exile, the 'Neqbah' ('catastrophe'). © Bruno Stevens

“My family has a lot of responsibilities beyond my dream to study in the UK,” Mr Awad added.

If he does not make it to London by 1st November, Goldsmiths will be forced to cancel his place.

“We work flexibly to provide any student facing these kind of difficulties with help and support and do everything we can to ensure that those with an offer who want to come to study at Goldsmiths are able to," a spokesperson for the university said.

Mr Awad is not alone: according to Gisha, the Israeli NGO which helps protect Palestinians’ freedom of movement, 342 Gazans who have won places at colleges and universities abroad have applied to leave the Strip since January 2017. Only 73 have been granted permission, while seven were outright refused, 50 were returned or placed under review and 239 applications remain pending.

The Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee in Gaza (PCAC) advises students to allow 50 business days for applications filed to them to be passed on to Cogat and a decision made, but even that amount of processing time is often not adequate thanks to the Israeli body’s processing delays.

When contacted by The Independent Cogat provided a form showing that Mr Awad’s application had been submitted by the PCAC dated for 14 November.

Gisha, which has been helping the student, disputed this, saying that PCAC is often instructed by Cogat to date applications over a block period covering up to 70 days and there is no standardised timeframe guidance. Gisha also pointed out that the student’s application clearly stated his desire to travel by 14 September.

“It shouldn't be a surprise to us if the PCAC are following the orders given to them by Cogat,” Gisha spokesperson Shai Grunberg said. “What should be a surprise to us is that COGAT blames the PCAC for doing so."

"Mohammed Awad submitted his application for a permit as soon as he received his UK visa. Late by Cogat's timeframe, but Cogat knows full well he had no other option," the organisation said in a statement on its Facebook page.

Cogat did not respond when asked what its instructions to the PCAC had been.

Under the realities of the 10-year-old Israeli blockade, permission to leave Gaza is notoriously difficult to obtain for the enclave’s two million residents. There is no clear guidance issued by Cogat and the system is often described as 'Kafkaesque'.

There are three checkpoints out: two into Israel, and one at Rafah, the crossing with Egypt, which has largely been closed since Hamas, the militant organisation which rules Gaza, seized control of the Strip in 2007.

“Since Rafah has remained closed for extensive periods of time, Israel has come under pressure to allow students from Gaza to travel abroad via Erez Crossing and Allenby Bridge, and from Jordan to their destinations abroad. However, the policy on this issue is not fixed, and changes unpredictably and arbitrarily,” Ms Grunberg said.

“The result of the strict travel restrictions Israel imposes on Gaza residents is that many times approvals of exits, if received at all, are provided late, after the applicants' visas expired, or after the academic year has already begun.There are no guarantees a student from Gaza will be able to reach his/her destination on time, or even at all,” she continued.

In an letter to MPs urging them to intervene in Mr Awad’s case, Gary Spedding, a cross-party consultant on Israel and the Palestinian Territories, said he could not “stress enough” “the value of bringing Palestinians from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly that of the Gaza Strip, over to the United Kingdom for studies.”

“Despite being one of the most horrific places on earth in terms of humanitarian crisis at present, there is an impressive level of education in Gaza which is something that can definitely be harnessed in a future push for a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians. For people like Mohammed, this kind of educational opportunity is a chance in a lifetime,” Mr Spedding added.

Mr Awad is losing hope. He missed the chance to study in France in 2014 because of a delayed Cogat decision, as well as a professional development course in the West Bank last year.

“Israel and Egypt are killing my dream and the dreams of Palestinians,” he wrote on Facebook on Wednesday, after being told security clearance could take up to another 60 days.

How you can help

Write to your MP, asking them to raise Mohammed Awad’s case with the Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office. They can also write to Cogat asking for his exit permit to be expedited.