NEW YORK: While moving her laboratory to another building, Dr. Karen Avraham, an associate professor at Tel Aviv University in Israel, found a jar of olives. She knew Hashem Shahin, one of her doctoral students and a Palestinian, must have brought the olives when he was still able to get there.

With the increased fighting in the region, he has not been allowed to enter Israel from the West Bank, and he has not been able to get to Avraham’s laboratory or to attend classes since June 2000.

Shahin was the first student accepted to Tel Aviv University through a joint graduate programme with Bethlehem University in Palestinian territory. The programme - developed by Avraham and her Palestinian collaborator, Dr Moien Kanaan, an associate professor at Bethlehem - has, in effect, been delayed indefinitely by the turmoil.

The escalating violence and increased travel restrictions are taking their toll. Recently, King sent small tubes of DNA to Kanaan by Federal Express, but the package was confiscated at the Tel Aviv airport. Israeli customs officials would not release the supplies, even when presented with letters from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The bigger problem is the West Bank closings. During the last 18 months of fighting, Bethlehem University has been closed three times, for a week or two each time. The closings abruptly halt all work in Kanaan’s laboratory.

Even when the university is open, Kanaan and his students often can no longer travel to visit families being studied. Many of the scientific collaborations between Israelis and Palestinians have dissolved since the current round of fighting broke out.

Avraham and Kanaan agree that their partnership continues because of the strong personal ties that were established. “That is the most important thing,” said Avraham, ”the bridges that are built between people and the openness.”—Dawn/NYT News Service (C) New York Times.