After a gap of 2 years, we recently held the eighth undergraduate neurology course for the Palestinian medical students of Al Quds (Jerusalem) University. Having previously taught the first clinical year, our task this time was to teach the final year students.

Al Quds University, where the first Palestinian medical school was set up in 1994, had its campus built in what was a small town on the outskirts of Jerusalem. It now finds itself on the other side of the separation wall to Jerusalem (figures 1 and 2). The town, Abu-Dies, now much larger, fared worse because the wall divides it in two. A journey from Al-Tur, the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem to the university, which a few years ago took 10 min, can now take the best part of an hour. The university, with Jerusalem both in its name and its heart, is now isolated from Arab East Jerusalem and its affiliated specialist hospitals. Only some of the medical students are awarded permits to enter Jerusalem for training. Even with a permit, long delays at check-points mean being up at 04:00–05:00 hours to be on time for morning ward rounds. The same restrictions apply to patients. This has been the situation for some time, and in the words of the dean, …