Educational Suppression, as a Tactic of Ethnic Cleansing A Palestine Case Study By: Zeena Hamed

Since October 7th, 2023, Ninety-Four University Professors in the Gaza Strip have been killed. This is not by accident.  Israel government controls the Palestinian census. Meaning they have access to every address and location of every university professor. These are calculated attacks against the Palestinian people and their access to education. 

This is an act of ethnic cleansing; an act of genocide. The Israeli attack on Gaza’s universities and schools shows there is no length at which Israel will not go to prevent Palestinian liberation. These attacks are an act of dilation and complete deletion of ancestral, cultural, and educational knowledge in the form of removing access to physical resources, such as manuscripts, textbooks, and the internet, and in the form of murdering distinguished scholars and removing their guidance from the population. 

Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank employ education as a tool of liberation. Education is directed towards providing communities with the necessary skills for economic development and self-sufficiency. Vocational training and targeted education align with the specific needs of the society. It’s crucial to recognize that education can be wielded as a source of empowerment and resistance. 

 

Palestine has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, coming in at 97.7%. Palestinians are historians, dedicated to accurately recording the reality they have been subjected to. They are linguists, scholars of multiple languages, and journalists, using their voices to reach Arabic speakers and English speakers alike. Palestinians are doctors and pharmacists, serving their communities in times of peace and war, dedicating their lives to service. Palestinians are engineers, who learn to build their communities themselves with the limited resources they have available. 

 

 

This crisis did not start on October 7th, 2023 As long as the occupation of Palestine has existed, Palestinians have been subject to stringent control mechanisms such as military presence, checkpoints, detention, and educational and spatial boundaries. In this world of regulation and suppression, Palestinians utilize members of their communities in education institutions to provide for and build their communities. These attacks are merely the latest acts of violence and preventative measures, to ensure any survivors will not have access to provide for their communities and rebuild after the non-stop bombardment of the Gaza strip. The targeting of Universities is the decimation of hope and opportunities for the youth. 

 

References: 

Title:  “How Israel has destroyed Gaza’s schools and universities.” 

Website:  Al Jazeera 

URL: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/24/how-israel-has-destroyed-gazas-schools-and-univer sities 

Accessed:  January 31, 2024 

 

Author(s): Protect Education in Insecurity and Conflict 

Title: “Educational Toll of Gaza War: At Least 2 Universities, 148 Schools.” 

Website: Protecting Education in Insecurity and Conflict 

URL: https://protectingeducation.org/news/educational-toll-of-gaza-war-at-least-2-universities-148-sch ools/ 

Accessed: January 31, 2024 World Bank. “Literacy Rate, Adult Total (% of people ages 15 and above) – West Bank and Gaza.” 

 

The World Bank, 2022, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS?locations=PS. Accessed 31 Jan. 2024.