https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-02-08/ty-article-opinion/.premium/as-gazas-lives-and-homes-are-destroyed-so-is-its-higher-education/0000018d-8906-d970-a5ed-8976424f0000?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_content=author-alert&utm_campaign=Anat+Matar&utm_term=20240208-17:43As Gaza's Lives and Homes Are Destroyed, So Is Its Higher Education
Anat Matar Feb 8, 2024
On
January 17, the last university that remained intact in the Gaza Strip
was bombed and completely destroyed. The Israel Defense Forces used
large quantities of explosives and didn't leave a trace of Israa
University, south of Gaza City.
According to reports, in the
preceding 70 days, Israeli forces used the university building as a
military base and detention center for the interrogation of Palestinian
detainees before they were sent to unknown destinations.
So it's
clear that the university building wasn't considered dangerous. It's
also clear that the explosion occurred inside the building and wasn't
the work of an airstrike.
The
IDF says the incident is under investigation, as if this were an
unusual event. But a look at the broader context proves that there was
nothing really exceptional here when it comes to the destructive policy
carried out since October 7. That policy is a continuation – a very
intensified one – of Israel's policy on Palestinian academia.
For
more than 40 years, Palestinian universities have suffered systematic
harassment by the Israeli occupier. At various times, campuses have been
ordered closed, while during "routine" times, the inviting of guest
lecturers has been banned, as have departures abroad for training and
conferences. Restrictions on movement in the West Bank have impeded
studies and the students themselves, and staff members have frequently
been arrested.
In Gaza, the situation has always been worse,
particularly with the blockade and ban on importing construction
materials to rebuild the classrooms that have been destroyed in every
Israeli assault. This comes on top of the restrictions on importing
books and other instructional materials. Cooperation between academic
institutions in the West Bank and Gaza has also been severely crimped.
This
prevents Gazan students from completing courses at West Bank
universities, which are better equipped. These students also have very
limited opportunities to leave the enclave for conferences or additional
study. A number of times, students have been awarded scholarships from
prestigious universities in Europe and the United States only to be
relegated to the prison that is Gaza.
All this has
immeasurably worsened since October 7. In the West Bank, classes are
being held mainly online and with virtually no campus life due to
the roadblocks that have gone up around every West Bank community as the
settlers ramp up their violence. Many faculty members and students have
been arrested, and many have been sent into administrative detention
– detention without trial.
The destruction of Gaza's universities
began with the bombing of the Islamic University in the first week of
the war and continued with airstrikes on Al-Azhar University on November
4. Since then, all of Gaza's academic institutions have been destroyed,
as well as many schools, libraries, archives and other educational
institutions.
We Israeli academics must make our voices heard against the destruction of Gaza's higher education.
It's
important to note the destruction down to the foundations of Gaza's
main municipal archive, with its historical documents, as well as the
municipal library and two branches – in Beit Lahia and Gaza City – of
the Edward Said English-language library. Historical buildings and
archaeological sites have also been bombed and potential finds lost.
Beyond
the destruction of infrastructure, hundreds of students and many
faculty members have died in the bombings. Sources say that at least 94
faculty members from Gaza universities have been killed in the war.
Recently
it emerged that Fadel Abu Hein, an internationally known psychology
professor from Al-Aqsa University, was among the dead. He specialized in
trauma among children – he also researched the trauma suffered by
Gaza's kids during the frequent bombing. According to news reports, he
was shot by a sniper.
At the end of November, the Jabalya home of
the Islamic University's president, the physicist Prof. Sufyan Tayeh,
was bombed; he and members of his family were killed. At the beginning
of December, a guided missile killed writer, poet and researcher Refaat
Alareer, who taught literature and creative writing at the university.
His sister and other family members were also killed.
Palestinian
academic life has been almost completely destroyed and will need many
years to rebuild. If and when that happens, it will require new
equipment, the reconstruction of university buildings, and most
importantly, the return of the faculty members and students who survive.
Many of them are scarred emotionally and physically, and some have lost
parents.
Those who remain will be recovering from months of
displacement, loss, hunger and disease. Palestinians in Gaza repeatedly
talk about the sense of loss over the destruction of homes, which also
means the loss of books and other educational materials.
Intellectual
life is the lifeblood of every society. Palestinian society is known
for its high rate of people with higher education. Despite the
isolation, the occupation and the blockade over the years, this society
has produced highly regarded intellectuals and scientists such as
sociologist Salim Tamari, economist Jihad al-Wazir, playwright and
artist Ibtisam Barakat, film director Elia Suleiman and political
scientist Khalil Shikaki.
A few key Palestinian academics have
been assassination targets, while others have been arrested and
imprisoned. History teaches that the destruction of higher education in
Gaza and the methodical harassment of students in the West Bank isn't
"collateral damage" but part of Israel's policy of erasing not only the
physical infrastructure but also the spiritual.
Israel's academic
institutions don't mention this destruction and its ramifications for
the future of both the Palestinian and Israeli societies. On the
contrary, all their announcements praise the army's actions during the
war without casting the slightest doubt on the justness of the methods.
And university heads condemn groups of academics abroad who express rage
at the catastrophe that Israel is sowing in Gaza, including the
deliberate erasure of spiritual and cultural life.
I believe that
we Israeli academics must make our voices heard against the destruction
of Gaza's higher education and the harm to its other educational and
cultural institutions. We must not be silent in the face of the mass
killing of students and our colleagues, or the mass arrest of others.
As
academics, as well as researchers, lecturers and students, it's our
duty to raise our voices against the killing and destruction to demand
accountability from the government responsible, and to save who and what
can still be saved.
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Dr. Anat Matar is a lecturer at Tel Aviv University's philosophy department and a member of the group Academia for Equality.