Palestinian Education Ministry reported that ‘Israel’ has killed at least 8,572 Palestinian students in Gaza and 100 in the occupied West Bank since October 7.
Additionally, at least 497 teachers and administrators were killed and 3,402 were wounded. Hundreds of educational institutions, including 65 run by the Unrwa, were also bombed and vandalised.
Experts called this Scholasticide and it has several features, starting from killing the destruction of schools and universities and the killing of custodians of knowledge.
Due to Gaza war, outlined by ICJ as plausibly genocidal, scholasticide has shifted from systematic destruction to total annihilation of education with 80% of schools have been destroyed since 7 October 2023, according to the UN.
Through the physical destruction of educational and cultural infrastructure, scholasticide obliterates the means Palestinians can sustain and transmit their culture, knowledge, history, memory, identity and values across time and space. It is a key feature of genocide.
‘Israel’ also killed the custodians of knowledge. In April 2024, Israeli army has killed at least 5,479 students, 261 teachers and 95 university professors in Gaza, alongside archivists and librarians, according to UN experts.
Approximately, 90,000 Palestinian university students have had their studies suspended; many were forcefully displaced through genocide, as Gaza has become uninhabitable. This could contribute to the group’s geographic disintegration.
“We built these universities from tents. And from tents… we will rebuild them once again,” said Gaza academic who considers educational spaces as sites for learning, revolutionary struggle, cultural preservation, and cornerstone for empowering society towards liberation.
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