Academics around the world are volunteering their time to support students in Gaza amid Israel’s ‘educide’ or ‘scholasticide’ in the occupied Palestinian territory. And they’re calling for financial support to help these students to access their courses online.
Israel’s “systematic targeting” of educational institutions in Gaza
In January 2024, the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) wrote to the UK government to denounce Israel’s “systematic targeting” of educational institutions (and people belonging to them) as “part of a genocidal strategy aimed at destroying in whole or in part the Palestinian education system within the Gaza Strip”. BRISMES vice president and law professor Neve Gordon called this process “educide”.
UN experts added in April 2024 that:
With more than 80% of schools in Gaza damaged or destroyed, it may be reasonable to ask if there is an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as ‘scholasticide’
They said:
These attacks are not isolated incidents. They present a systematic pattern of violence aimed at dismantling the very foundation of Palestinian society
For now, a resumption of normal learning seems like a distant hope. But academics around the world are now fundraising to help provide online learning for Palestinian students from occupied Gaza.
Essential solidarity to resist educide in Gaza
Academic Solidarity With Palestine explains that:
Our project aims at helping Gazan students resume their studies, through online teaching.
We are gathering a team of external professors in all subjects, able to teach in Arabic or English, who would teach online to Palestinian students, wherever the local faculty is unable to teach. The credits awarded for the course will be validated by the students’ own universities in Gaza.
We have partnered up with An-Najah university (Nablus, West Bank), which sets up the virtual classrooms and organises the courses
The group’s fundraiser says:
To date, over 350 courses have been offered with the help of more than 3,500 volunteer professors worldwide. Students in Gaza currently have access to their courses only via the Internet. Unfortunately, Internet is very unreliable in Gaza. This is why we are seeking funding for e-sims, which will allow them to connect to the Jordanian or Israeli networks, in order to continue their studies.
You can support these efforts on GoFundMe here.
Featured image via the Canary
