Despite ceasefire, Penn won't support study abroad in Israel

Penn Abroad may have closed the door on studying abroad in Israel this semester, but the window of opportunity might not be closed for good.

College sophomore Elliott Thomasson, a modern Middle Eastern studies major who plans to study in Israel next year, is confident that the current situation in Israel will not inhibit his study abroad plans.

Thomasson said that when he met with his advisor last week, she told him to "finish up the application and send it in, and hopefully in the next few weeks we'll have a cease-fire and it won't even be an issue."

Still, even though Israel and Hamas announced unilateral cease-fires at the beginning of the week and Israeli troops and tanks moved out of Gaza shortly after, director of Study Abroad Geoffrey Gee holds that there will be no change to the University's decision not to send the 11 students who planned to study abroad in Israel and Palestine this semester on their Penn-approved exchanges.

"There has not been a request, at this stage, from either of the schools or any of the students to revisit the policy, so I don't envision any change," Gee said.

But this restriction does not mean that Penn will prohibit students from participating in these programs in the future.

"This particular position for the spring is a one-time decision based on the event we had to deal with at the time," Gee said. "But we plan on returning to normalcy and having students study abroad in Israel in the future."

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