Ahmed Abu Shaban is Associate Professor of Agriculture and Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Al-Azhar University-Gaza. Currently, he is a visiting professor at York University, Toronto. We spoke about his early life and education in Palestine as a native of Gaza studying under Israeli occupation, his research on sustainable food systems in Gaza and the decades-long Israeli assaults that have rendered the Palestinian population vulnerable to engineered scarcity, as well as repeated attacks on university infrastructure leading up to the current genocide. Professor Abu Shaban also offered insights into Palestinian attempts to develop resilience in the face of ongoing settler colonialism.   

The interview is divided into three parts:

Part 1: Early life, education at Al-Azhar University-Gaza, and experiencing the first and second Intifadas as a student and instructor 

 

Part 2: Research on agriculture, food systems, and Palestinian resilience in the face of systematic Israeli assaults on the totality of the “food value chain”

 

Part 3: Assaults on higher education before and after 2023, and the struggle for education under genocide

 

Transcripts coming soon.

Further reading: How Israel destroyed Gaza’s ability to feed itself (Aljazeera, July 2 2024)

 

Mkhaimar Abusada is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, and currently a visiting professor at Northwestern University. We spoke with him about his early life and education in Palestine as a child of refugees and his graduate studies in the United States, his experience teaching political science at Al-Azhar University from the late 1990s, and what has become of his university, his colleagues, and his students since the onset of the Gaza genocide in 2023.

The interview is divided into three parts:

Part 1: Early life, education in Jabalia refugee camp and Birzeit University, and graduate study in the United States. 

 

Part 2: Teaching political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, 1997-2023.

 

Part 3: The unfolding genocide, 2023-present.

 

Transcript coming soon.