According to a United Nations report dated April this year, in the first six months of the war in Gaza alone, more than 5,479 students, 261 teachers, and 95 university professors were killed, and more than 7,819 students and 756 teachers were injured, with these figures growing by the day.
Furthermore, the degree of destruction of schools, universities, other educational facilities, and cultural sites is terrifying, either because they are damaged or because they have been completely razed.
The joint and massive destruction of infrastructures, related material, and immaterial heritage, but also human capital (students, teachers, staff) leads United Nations experts to express deep concern over ongoing “scholasticide” or “educide,” meaning that the systemic destruction of the Palestinian education system in the Gaza strip.
As a result of the war initiated by the Israeli government in retaliation for the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, around one million children and adolescents are now deprived of the right to education, without classes or any prospect of resuming academic activities shortly.
About higher education, the Irish lawyer Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, legal representative of South Africa, recently recalled at the International Court of Justice that “almost 90,000 Palestinian university students were prevented from attending university in Gaza”, of which 50% girls, with almost “all universities (…) damaged and destroyed, hundreds of teachers and academics killed, including university rectors and important Palestinian intellectuals”.
The consequences of this situation are immeasurable, with immediate effects, but also in the long term, not only for the students directly affected by the forced interruption of their educational path but also for the entire education system in Gaza and for the community in general, for whom the high literacy rates recorded in Palestine were a particular source of national pride. Furthermore, it compromises the level of development of this society, which is already fragile, marked by the successive impact of the occupation between 1967 and 2005, the blockade imposed by Israel since 2007, and the four wars it has gone through between 2008 and 2021.
Despite this context, higher education in Gaza has asserted itself and developed sustainably over the years since the creation of the first university in 1978—the Islamic University of Gaza. By October 2023, there were twenty-eight higher education institutions (HEIs), notably six universities, ten university colleges, one polytechnic, and two open universities.
Contrary to what one might think, in times of war, widespread violence, denial of the most fundamental rights, and extreme deprivation, preserving children’s access to education and guaranteeing young people the continuation of their education are not luxuries that families and the community can do without—not only because their future depends on them, but also because their survival depends on the existential minimum that education provides.
There is no child, no young person, no father or mother who, having lived in a context of fragility, violence, or armed conflict, does not recognize the irreplaceable role of access to education and does not consider it an absolute priority. Any war-torn country knows how crucial it is for reconstruction to have a capable and qualified generation of leaders prepared to give a path of peace and prosperity to weakened or ruined communities.
Nevertheless, the preservation and protection of basic education in emergencies, resulting from wars and conflicts or natural disasters, corresponds to a relatively recent concern on the international agenda, which has been progressively asserting itself through numerous initiatives and support programs by United Nations agencies, member states, regional organizations, and civil society organizations. However, in the field of higher education in emergencies, there is still a lot to be done in defining and framing this area of cooperation that intersects humanitarian concerns, development aid, and peace consolidation, in which HEIs are the key drivers. This is an area of intervention in which, from the outset, the European Union could play a unique role, not only due to its solid experience in the scope of Erasmus mobility programs but also due to its appetite for soft power tools in foreign policy. The new EU executive could explore including this priority in its program.
Portugal (… ) by the initiative of President Jorge Sampaio in the context of the Syrian crisis (…) have been able to respond to the calls (…) of welcoming students from Ukraine or Afghan female students banned from accessing higher education (…)
to welcome students from Gaza is now essential.
Interestingly, Portugal has an exemplary experience and unique know-how within the scope of “Higher Education in emergencies.” Triggered in 2013 by the initiative of President Jorge Sampaio in the context of the Syrian crisis, it was later consolidated in the legislative framework through the pioneer concept of the “student in humanitarian emergency” (Law of 2018 on the status of international students). Today it forms an integral part of the good practices developed by Portuguese HEIs, which have been able to respond to the calls for solidarity that different crises have motivated, as was the case, for example, of welcoming students from Ukraine or Afghan female students banned from accessing higher education in their country. Based on this experience, which dates back over a decade, launching a program to welcome students from Gaza is now essential.
To this end, Nexus 3.0 calls on official entities—government and parliament—individuals, civil society, companies, and, first and foremost, HEIs to join in this purpose and support us in achieving it.
Together, we will be able to feed the faint flame of hope among the rubble of the war in Gaza and shine that “little flickering light” that the Portuguese poet Jorge de Sena evoked. Each of us can make a difference. Let’s do it!
(Translation of an op-ed by Ana Margarida Nunes, board member of Nexus 3.0, published in the Portuguese newspaper Público on 25 August 2024)
