Resources | Scholasticide in Palestine

This page will be periodically updated with links to scholarship, reports, and public statements regarding Palestinian education as well as Israeli attacks on Palestinian teachers, students, and educational infrastructure.

History of Palestinian Education

A.L. Tibawi, Arab Education in Mandatory Palestine: A Study of Three Decades of British Administration (1956)
Khalil Nakhleh, “Palestinian Intellectuals and Revolutionary Transformation” (1980)
Sarah Graham-Brown, Education, Repression and Liberation: Palestinians (1984)
Khalil Mahshi and Kim Bush, “The Palestinian Uprising and Education for the Future” (1989)
Munir Fasheh, “Community Education: To Reclaim and Transform What Has Been Made Invisible” (1990)
Munir Fasheh, “The Reading Campaign Experience within Palestinian Society: Innovative Strategies for Learning and Building Community” (1995)
Ibrahim Abu Lughod, “Palestinian Higher Education: National Identity, Liberation, and Globalization” (2000)
Ami Ayalon, Reading Palestine: Printing and Literacy 1900–1948 (2004)
Yamila Hussein, “The Stone and the Pen: Palestinian Education during the 1987 Intifada” (2005)
Munir Fasheh, “Literacy at Times of Crisis: Lessons from Palestine” (2008)
Ela Greenberg, Preparing the Mothers of Tomorrow: Education and Islam in Mandate Palestine (2010)
Gish Amit, “Salvage or Plunder? Israel’s ‘Collection’ of Private Palestinian Libraries in West Jerusalem” (2011)
Ido Zelkovitz, Students and Resistance in Palestine: Books, Guns and Politics (2014)
Neve Gordon and Michal Rotem, “Bedouin Sumud and the Struggle for Education” (2017)
Rachel Mattson, “Libraries Under Occupation: A Conversation with Palestinian Librarians” (2017)
Karma Nabulsi “Traditions of Liberation Education” (2018)
Mezna Qato, “A Primer for a New Terrain: Palestinian Schooling in Jordan, 1950” (2018)
Gabi Baramki, Peaceful Resistance: Building a Palestinian University Under Occupation (2019)
Mayssoun Sukarieh, “Decolonizing Education, a View from Palestine: An Interview with Munir Fasheh” (2019)
Chiara De Cesari, Heritage and the Cultural Struggle for Palestine (2019)
Munir Fasheh, “Experiments in Radical Pedagogy in Palestine” (2019)
Giovanna Fassetta, Nazmi Al-Masri, Alison Phipps, eds., Multilingual Online Academic Collaborration as Resistance: Crossing Impassable Borders (2020)
Deanna K. Roberts, “Libraries and Access to Information in Palestine: Impacts of Military Occupation” (2020)
Progressive Librarian, “Libraries and Archives Under Occupation: Special Issue on Palestine” (2021)
Nur Masalha, Palestine Across Millennia A History of Literacy, Learning and Educational Revolutions (2022)
Kamal Moed, “A Memorable Educator from Palestine: Ahmad Samih Al-Khalidi (1896–1951)” (2022)
Anne Irfan, “Why Palestinians Are Known as the World’s “Best Educated Refugees” (2023)
Majid Al-Haj, Education Among Indigenous Palestinians in Israel: Inequality, Cultural Hegemony, and Social Change (2024)
Yafa El Masri, “Decolonizing Education in Bourj Albarajenah: Cosmologies of a Palestinian Refugee Camp” (2024)
European Training Foundation, “Mujawarat: A Dialogue Based Adult Learning Approach in Palestine” (2025)
Bill Williamson, Lifeworlds and Change in Palestinian Education: Liberating Learning (2025)

Israeli Attacks on Palestinian Education (Pre-2023)

Naseer H. Aruri, “Universities under Occupation: Another Front in the War against Palestine” (1989)
JMCC, “Palestinian Education: A Threat to Israel’s Security?” (1989)
Birzeit University Public Relations Office, “The Criminalization of Education: Academic Freedom and Human Rights at Birzeit University during the Palestinian Uprising” (1989)
Human Rights Watch, “Second Class: Discrimination Against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel’s Schools” (2001)
Al-Haq, “The Right to Education Under Occupation: A Case Study of the Arab Orphan School, East Jerusalem” (2006)
Ismael Abu-Saad, “Palestinian Education in Israel: The Legacy of the Military Government” (2006)
Gish Amit, “Ownerless Objects? The Story of the Books Palestinians Left Behind in 1948” (2008)
Ameera Ahmad and Ed Vulliamy, “In Gaza, the Schools are Dying Too” (2009)
Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, “Palestinians, Education, and the Israeli ‘Industry of Fear’” (2010)
Al Jazeera English, The Great Book Robbery (2010)
Nur Masalha, The Palestine Nakba: Decolonising History, Narrating the Subaltern, Reclaiming Memory, ch. 4 (2012)
Rami Almeghari, “Israel Attacks My University — With Bombs and Lies” (2014)
Amy Shalaan and Samer Abdel Nour, “The Right of Palestinians to Education: Another Victim of Israeli Wars” (2014) [Arabic]
Hana Sleiman, “The Paper Trail of a Liberation Movement” (2016)
Friends of Birzeit University, “Palestinian Education: Barriers to Access” (2017)
Rona Sela, Looted and Hidden: Palestinian Archives in Israel (2017)
Birzeit Right to Education Campaign, “Ongoing Israeli Policies to Disrupt and Isolate Palestinian Higher Education” (2018)
Nick Riemer, “The Attack on Palestinian Universities” (2018)
Charlie Faulkner, “Gaza Scholarship Students Plead for Rafah Exit Permit” (2018)
Rona Sela, “The Genealogy of Colonial Plunder and Erasure – Israel’s Control over Palestinian Archives” (2018)
Daud Abdullah, “A Century of Cultural Genocide in Palestine” (2019)
Nadia Naser-Najjab, “Palestinian Education and the ‘Logic of Elimination’” (2020)
Ruwaida Amer, “Finishing School amid the Rubble of War and the Ravages of Disease” (2021)
Adania Shibli, “On Stealing Books and Missing Words” (2021)
Blair Kuntz, “Stolen Memories: Israeli State Repression and Appropriation of Palestinian Cultural Resources” (2021)
Basel Adra, “Schools for Sumud: How Palestinians are Resisting Israel’s War on Education” (2022)
Chandni Desai and Rula Shahwan, “Preserving Palestine: Visual Archives, Erased Curriculum, and Counter-Archiving amid Archival Violence in the Post-Oslo Period” (2022)
Law for Palestine, “Israel’s Arrest Policy against Palestinian University Students (in the West Bank and Israel)” (2023)
Anwar Qadah, “Education in Jerusalem: A Tool of Soft Colonialism” (2023)
Amina Abdulhaq, “Israel’s City Center Plan Threatens Palestinian Educational Institutions in Jerusalem” (2023)
Maya Wind, Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom, chs. 4-6 (2024)
Daoud Kuttab, “‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place’: The Challenge of Educating Palestinian Children in Jerusalem” (2024)
Esmat Elhalaby, “Toward an Intellectual History of Genocide in Gaza” (2024)

The Gaza Scholasticide (2023-Present)

Chandni Desai, “The War in Gaza is Wiping Out Palestine’s Education and Knowledge Systems” (2024)
Nagham Mohanna and Nada AlTaher, “The War on Education: How Israel’s Destruction of Schools and Universities Will Set Gaza Back Decades” (2024)
César Domínguez, “Scholasticide: Educational Lawfare as a Marker of the End of Civilianness” (2024)
Ibtisam Mahdi, “The Decimation of Gaza’s Academia is ‘Impossible to Quantify’” (2024)
Samar Saeed, “Israel’s Continued Colonial Policy of Eradicating Palestinian Knowledge” (2024)
Alaa Arafat, “Education in Gaza is a Specter for Israel That It Seeks to Destroy” (2024)
Alfred Arian, Khalid Razak, et al., “Class Destroyed: The Rise and Ruin of Gaza’s Universities” (2024)
Khalid Dader et al., “Topologies of Scholasticide in Gaza: Education in Spaces of Elimination” (2024)
Marc Lamont Hill, “Palestine, Scholasticide, and the Responsibility of Educators” (2024)
Jadaliyya, “Gaza On My Mind: Gaza Scholars Speak Out on Scholasticide” (2024)
Mezna Qato and Basma Hajir, “Academia in a Time of Genocide: Scholasticidal Tendencies and Continuities” (2024)
Ruwaida Amer and Ibtisam Mahdi, “For Gaza’s Schoolchildren, Another Year of Destruction, Loss, and Uncertainty” (2024)
Rola Chahwan, “Gaza’s Archives and the Continued Destruction” (2024) [Arabic]
Jadaliyya, “Sustaining Higher Education in Gaza – With 6 Gaza Scholars” (2024)
Henry A. Giroux, “Scholasticide: Waging War on Education from Gaza to the West” (2025)
Dalal Iriqat et al., “Educide Amid Conflict: The Struggle of the Palestinian Education System” (2025)
Avi Shlaim, “Scholasticide in Gaza” (2025)
Rami Salameh, “Educiding Palestinian Higher Education: Ongoing Historical Perspective” (2025)

Public Statements and Reports on the Gaza Scholasticide

Birzeit University et al: “A Unified Call for Justice and Freedom in Palestine” (2023)
Athena Abadilla et al: “Open letter from North American academics condemning scholasticide in Gaza” (2024)
FXB Center for Health and Human Rights (Harvard University): “New study of satellite data shows: Israel’s assault on hospitals, schools, and water infrastructure in the Gaza Strip was not ‘random’” (2024)
United Nations: “UN experts deeply concerned over ‘scholasticide’ in Gaza” (2024)
Kamalain Shaath et al: “Open letter by Gaza academics and university administrators to the world“(2024)
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights: “Scholasticide: Israel’s deliberate and systematic destruction of the Palestinian education system in Gaza” (2024)
Palestinian Feminist Collective: “A feminist praxis for academic freedom in the context of genocide in Gaza” (2024)
American Historical Association: “Resolution to oppose scholasticide in Gaza” (2024)
Cambridge Faculty of Education et al: “Palestinian education under attack in Gaza: Restoration, recovery, rights and responsibilities in and through education” (2024)
UNRWA: “Education Under Attack: Restoring learning for children in Gaza” (2024)
United Nations: “Israeli attacks on educational, religious and cultural sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amount to war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination, UN Commission says” (2025)

Personal Testimonies from the Gaza Scholasticide

Ahmed Alhussaina: “Israel destroyed my university. Where is the outrage?” (2024)
Aya Al-Hattab: “Determined to graduate despite the horror” (2024)
Naderra Mushta: “Bringing back learning during genocide” (2024)
Reem Sleem: “A new life in Egypt, but it is still not home” (2024)
Aisha Qudaih: “Israel destroyed my education, but not my desire for an education” (2024)
Ohood Nassar: “Genocide will not stop me graduating” (2024)
Jannah Ahmad Abu Sitta: “Chargers, PDFs and studying under genocide” (2024)
Huda Skaik: “With campus destroyed, IUG resumes online classes” (2024)
Shojaa Al-Safadi: “Some things we can never rebuild” (2024)
Huda Skaik: “Education is resistance” (2024)
Ohood Nassar: “Will the occupation deprive me of my education?” (2024)
Mohammedwesam Amer: “Personal reflections on Israel’s war on education in Gaza” (2025)
Ahmad Abu Shawish: “When will I graduate high school in Gaza?” (2025)
Farida Algoul: “We insist on our human right to education” (2025)
Zina Nassar: “High school in a time of war” (2025)
Huda Skaik: “The power of education” (2025)

Additional Resources