Page 59 - EW July 2024

viser for about 20 years, “and I’ve seen — in the past three,
four or five years — parents become even more litigious to
their children’s high schools, if things are not going accord-
ing to their plan”.
A common target for such alienation at the post-sec-
ondary level, she and other experts aver, is Columbia Uni-
versity. That Ivy League institution was the spark for the
nationwide explosion of student protest, right after Repub-
lican members of the US Congress called Columbia presi-
dent Baroness Shafik to Washington for a public hearing
that led her to immediately order police to clear a largely
peaceful gathering of student demonstrators from the lawns
of her New York City campus.
Parents opposed to pro-Palestinian activism often have
turned to institutions they see as offering a clearer commit-
ment to banning overt criticism of Israel, such as Brandeis Bombed Al-Azhar University, Gaza: perceived Hamas ties
University, with its historical Jewish roots. Some parents,
mirroring the political arguments made by congressional West Bank. The daughter of a former engineering lecturer
Republicans, also have suggested that they fear companies at the Islamic University of Gaza, her own institution, Al-
will not hire the graduates of such institutions, seeing the Azhar University of Gaza, was destroyed by the Israeli mili-
prolonged protest encampments as evidence that their stu- tary. “We started (the academic year) and only two weeks
dents don’t face rigorous academic demands. in, the war began. I was with my patients and (was) talking
to them, and now I do not know what happened to them,”
PALESTINE/GAZA she says.
The Israeli army claims that it found Hamas explosives
Struggle against educide and rocket parts at Al-Azhar, as well as part of a tunnel
TWO HUNDRED DAYS INTO THE INVASION of network. But the university, which was one of the biggest
Gaza by Israel, not a single university is left stand- universities in the Gaza Strip with about 15,000 undergrad-
ing. At least 95 university professors and 5,000 uates, has no affiliation to Hamas, Ms Shaqalaih insists.
students are reported to have been killed, while more than Most university professors in Gaza haven’t received their
500,000 children have been out of school for over seven salary since November, with many institutions telling their
months. staff to seek other jobs. Fabio Carbone, a senior lecturer in
“Everything was beautiful before October 7,” laments tourism management at the University of Northampton,
Besan Emad, an English translation student at Gaza Uni- who has been working to recruit academic tutors for univer-
versity trapped in Rafah, the southern city that, at the time sity students from Gaza, says no international organisation
of writing (May 22), was one of the last parts of the Gaza would give money to universities in the strip because of
Strip outside the control of the Israeli military. “We could their perceived ties to Hamas, “and the politics have noth-
find everything easily. We had AI we could use. But today ing to do with academia any more… the victims in this are
we have no internet, no resources and no university.” the students”, he says.
In the short term, the focus for Palestinian civilians flee- Beyond the destruction in Gaza, the situation in the West
ing Israeli attacks is survival. “The situation in Rafah is very Bank has also worsened drastically since October 7. The
bad… Israeli occupation has destroyed everything — hospi- number of checkpoints and searches by Israeli soldiers has
tal, schools, universities,” says Emad. increased significantly, and all the universities switched ini-
Yet, even in the face of a strategy branded “educide” — tially to online teaching in a bid to protect students.
an attempt to extinguish breeding grounds for intellectual Samia Al-Botmeh, an assistant professor of economics at
thought and liberty of expression within Palestine, as part Birzeit University in the West Bank, says that higher edu-
of the retaliation against Hamas’ October 7 attacks — efforts cation had been “substantially” affected. “There were also
to preserve higher education in Gaza and the West Bank heightened arrests of students and staff. We have more than
might offer an unlikely symbol of hope. Ms Emad is one 150 students, and five staff members in prison,” she says.
of a growing number of Palestinian students attempting to Most foreign scholars have fled. “Colleagues travelling
continue their studies in the harshest of conditions through internationally into Palestinian universities, either for joint
online learning, accessing tutoring offered by global schol- research projects or conferences, or wanting to teach a term
ars when she is able to get online. — it’s become impossible,” says Dr. Al-Botmeh.
Marah Shaqalaih is another Palestinian student access- (Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education and
ing online courses, with hers offered by universities in the The Economist)

JULY 2024 EDUCATIONWORLD 59