Therese Saliba, a 1995–96 Fulbright Scholar to the West Bank who taught at Bethlehem University, told The Nation that the Fulbright program appears to be constrained by the “dictates of [US] foreign policy and Israeli policy,” an assessment echoed by several other Fulbright scholars to the West Bank. Movement between the West Bank and Gaza was limited by Israeli restrictions, according to Saliba—a situation that has continued to this day. During her time at Bethlehem University, she said students who were from Gaza “became totally cut off from their families” as a result of Israel’s travel policies.

“Though there were helpful people in the Fulbright office, they couldn’t help us get around these Israeli-imposed restrictions,” Saliba wrote. “The deference to Israel surprised me even back then.”

In 2008, the Fulbright Program withdrew scholarships to seven Palestinian Fulbright scholars because Israel did not allow the scholars to leave Gaza. The program only re-awarded the scholarships after considerable public pressure.

One of the Palestinian Fulbright scholars who wished to remain anonymous said that the program invited her to write about her experiences in the West Bank for their Scholar Blog, but that they did not publish her piece, which referenced the Israeli occupation and Palestine. “They don’t use the word ‘Palestine,’” she said. Though the program, like the State Department, does not acknowledge Palestine as a nation, it has funded several Palestinian scholars’ research projects about the question of Palestine, including Ayoub’s research on Black solidarity with the Palestinian nationalism movement.

Jamal Nassar, a Fulbright scholar to the West Bank during the First Intifada and the dean emeritus of social and behavioral sciences at California State University–San Bernardino, said that it would be very hard for the Fulbright Program to “speak out in opposition to the position of the State Department.”

However, Nassar said, Fulbright scholars don’t have the same constraints. In the months since Israel began its siege on Gaza, Fulbright scholars have demanded that the Fulbright Association release a statement supporting its scholars in the West Bank and Gaza. In an open letter published in December 2023, more than 200 global Fulbright alumni called for the Fulbright Association to exert pressure on Congress for a ceasefire and provide support to Palestinian Fulbright alumni.

“We send this letter as the alumni of various Fulbright programs who have had the privilege of studying and engaging with a diverse set of people inside and outside the United States,” the letter states. “We appeal to you to be reminded of America’s fundamental values: humanity, justice, and freedom, and to join many around the world taking action against these aggressions.”

In July, a group of Fulbright scholars and alumni launched Fulbrighters for Justice in Palestine “to contribute to the international movement, end the genocide of the Palestinian people, end the occupation of Palestinian land, and support Palestinian liberation,” a representative of the coalition told The Nation.

The coalition’s demands include the facilitation of an immediate ceasefire, the release of a statement of solidarity with the Palestinian people from the Fulbright Program, and the termination of the Fulbright Israel Program. “We share a vision of a Fulbright Program that functions as a vehicle for true global cooperation and exchange—but this potential cannot be realized until the Program is untethered from the forces of occupation, starvation, apartheid, and genocide currently operating on the Palestinian people,” the group wrote.

After his return to the West Bank, Ayoub resumed teaching political science classes at An-Najah University. Though he did not get to complete his research, he and his students discussed a different topic: American liberalism, the principles upon which the Fulbright Program was founded. “The whole question of American liberalism is collapsing in front of our eyes,” Ayoub said, and it was Palestine that showed its fractures.