This post is dedicated to Fadi, Majd, Mohammed, Muhammad, Arkan, Mahmoud, Ibrahim and his siblings, Wassim, Ibrahim, Samah, and the student collective who created the #WeHaveToStudy24 hashtag campaign. And to all the other Palestinian students and educators. And to Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, and the student movement for Palestinian Justice in the U.S. and throughout the world, whose voices will not be silenced.
Every day I think about the students in Gaza. I think about the teachers. The educators. The professors, administrators, and staff of the schools, colleges, and universities in Gaza. Those who have been killed by Israel, and those who are still alive but whose school and university buildings have been destroyed. Those whose education and careers have been violently disrupted or ended. Those who are still trying to learn and to teach despite the ongoing genocide.
During last week’s presentation, I talked a little about scholasticide in Gaza, and I also shared the stories of one student and two educators who I am personally connected to and am trying to raise funds for. I think about the three of them constantly, and I speak with them often. But I know there are also many many more students and educators who I did not talk about, who are also in need of recognition and support.
In December 2024 I wrote: “I have seen students in Gaza study by flame and torch light in the midst of falling bombs; students giving their thesis presentations in makeshift tents, wandering the destroyed streets after searching all day for water and food to now search for a signal so they can take their final exams. And I wonder, what world am I living in where no institution of higher education in the country I reside has expressed any public support for these students, nor any condemnation of the genocide and violence the U.S. government is funding and making possible?”
I also wrote how I could not understand why educators, college and university staff members, teachers, professors, and school administrators everywhere, all over the world, were not doing more for our colleagues in Palestine. Nearly every university and college building in Gaza has been destroyed, and the lack of response to this scholasticide from our educational institutions–or rather not just the lack, but in some cases the overt and violent suppression by educational institutions against students, staff, and faculty who are speaking out--is yet another example of how the United States has failed the Palestinian people, and the world.
And with today’s news of the arrest and forced disappearance of the Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil here in the United States, I will add that I also do not understand why educators, college and university staff members, teachers, professors, and school administrators in this country are not doing more to support Palestinian students and allies, no matter where they reside.
Palestine has been renowned for years as having one of the highest literacy rates in the world, and as being a place where education and reading are valued, supported, and highly esteemed. Education is integrated into Palestinian culture, heritage, and identity. Which is why Israel (with the support of the United States government) has always targeted it.
Quoting from the a statement published by the Scholars Against the War on Gaza, ‘Scholasticide’ is a term that was first coined by Professor Karma Nabulsi, who conceptualized it in the context of the Israeli assault on Gaza, Palestine in 2009, but also with reference to a pattern of Israeli colonial attacks on Palestinian scholars, students, and educational institutions going back to the Nakba of 1948, and expanding after the 1967 war on Palestine and the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
“The term combines the Latin prefix schola, meaning school, and the Latin suffix cide, meaning killing. Nabulsi used it to describe the ‘systematic destruction of Palestinian education by Israel’ to counter a tradition of Palestinian learning. That tradition, Nabulsi observed, reflected the enormous ‘role and power of education in an occupied society’ in which freedom of thought ‘posits possibilities, open horizons,’ contrasting sharply with ‘the apartheid wall, the shackling checkpoints, [and] the choking prisons.’. Recognizing 'how important education is to the Palestinian tradition and the Palestinian revolution,’ Nabulsi noted that Israeli colonial policymakers ‘cannot abide it and have to destroy it.’ During the latest Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, Palestine in 2023/2024, scholasticide has intensified on an unprecedented scale.”
According to a UN Report published in April 2024, more than 80% of the schools in Gaza have been severely damaged or destroyed, amounting to what appears to be a deliberate effort to destroy the Palestinian education system. This ‘scholasticide’ also refers to the targeting of teachers, students and staff, and the destruction of educational infrastructure. That same report explains,
“After six months of military assault, more than 5,479 students, 261 teachers and 95 university professors have been killed in Gaza, and over 7,819 students and 756 teachers have been injured – with numbers growing each day. At least 60 percent of educational facilities, including 13 public libraries, have been damaged or destroyed and at least 625,000 students have no access to education. Another 195 heritage sites, 227 mosques and three churches have also been damaged or destroyed, including the Central Archives of Gaza, containing 150 years of history. Israa University, the last remaining university in Gaza was demolished by the Israeli military on 17 January 2024.”
We need to do more, especially those of us who work in higher education in the U.S. And if you are reading this and that applies to you, and you are wondering what to do, how to respond, what we should be asking for, please read the Unified Emergency Statement by Palestinian Academics and Administrators of Gaza Universities, and then review their listed priorities for clarity and guidance. And while you are doing that, please also consider supporting the students and educators in Gaza through direct aid and donations.
—March 9, 2025
This post is dedicated to Fadi, Majd, Mohammed, Muhammad, Arkan, Mahmoud, Ibrahim and his siblings, Wassim, Ibrahim, Samah, and the student collective who created the #WeHaveToStudy24 hashtag campaign. And to all the other Palestinian students and educators. And to Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, and the student movement for Palestinian Justice in the U.S. and throughout the world, whose voices will not be silenced.