A Palestinian student, Ameer Alzerei, winner of the IUPALS – Italian Universities for Palestinian Students scholarship funded by UniTS, is on his way to Trieste.

Roberta Altin, the Rector’s Delegate for Development Cooperation, speaking from Milan airport where she welcomed the student who had departed from Amman (Jordan), commented: “With this initiative, the University of Trieste wishes to show its support for students and for the Palestinian population who in recent months have been facing extreme and unacceptable hardships. Both schools and universities have been destroyed, and as an Italian university network we are working to uphold the right to education for young Palestinian women and men.”

The IUPALS programme is an initiative conceived and promoted by CRUI – the Conference of Italian University Rectors. It will award 97 scholarships across 35 Italian universities to students from the Palestinian Territories so they can benefit from an international education by accessing academic programmes in Italy.

Most of the students are arriving in Italy over these hours and are making their way to the various university campuses that have offered their support.

The project—developed in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Universities and Research, and the Consulate General of Italy in Jerusalem—has also relied on crucial collaboration from the Guardia di Finanza, the Civil Protection and the European Civil Protection Mechanism, the Consulate General of Italy in Jerusalem, the Embassy of Italy in Jordan, the Crisis Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Terra Sancta Schools, and the Giovanni Paolo II Foundation.

The possibility of opening a corridor for students and scholars from Gaza has been a hard‑won achievement, since until now leaving the Gaza Strip had been permitted only for medical reasons or family reunification. The arrival of this first student was coordinated by the Development Cooperation Staff Unit in synergy with the Delegate for Mobility and International Relations, Prof. Elisabetta De Giorgi.