NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8 APRIL 2024
Contact: academicsvsscholasticide@gmail.com
Faisal Bhabha, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
Heidi Matthews, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
Stephen Rosenbaum, UC Berkeley School of Law
Over 1,500 North American Academics Condemn Scholasticide in Gaza
Over 1,500 academics based at more than 270 higher education institutions in the United States, Canada and Mexico have signed an Open Letter condemning Israel’s systematic attacks on educational life in Gaza, to mourn these losses and to stand in solidarity with their Palestinian colleagues and students.
The signatories to the Open Letter denounce Israel’s indiscriminate bombing campaign and ground invasion of Gaza, which has resulted in mass civilian death, injury and widespread devastation for 2.3 million Palestinians. The signatories also deplore the attacks of 7 October 2023 by Hamas and other armed groups.
The right to education is an internationally protected human right enshrined in multiple human rights instruments to which Israel is a party. Scholasticide is the intentional and systematic destruction of educational infrastructure, educators and students. On 4 April 2024, the NBC News report “Class destroyed: The rise and ruin of Gaza’s revered universities” details how “universities across Gaza have been leveled.”
Whereas education had been a source of hope for Palestinians living under the nearly 57-year-long Israeli occupation of Gaza, today we are witnessing the destruction of educated futures on an unprecedented scale.
The Open Letter describes how the scholasticide is being carried out in violation of international human rights, humanitarian and criminal law. The signatories write :
“Denying access to education through the widespread and systematic destruction of educational infrastructure, along with deliberate and indiscriminate killing of educators and students, is an essential attribute of the collective punishment Israel is inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza”.
The Open Letter calls attention to the fact that all 12 universities in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged and thousands of university faculty, staff and students have been killed or injured.
To date, Israel’s attacks have also killed nearly 6,000 school-aged children with another 10,000 wounded. As of January 2024, more than three-quarters of school buildings in Gaza had been damaged.
The signatories call for academic institutions and scholars around the world to join them in condemning Israel’s attacks on educational futures in Gaza, insofar as “[s]cholasticide facilitates the physical and cultural erasure of the Palestinian people and is integral to rendering the Gaza Strip uninhabitable.”
The Open Letter makes seven calls to action:
- An immediate and permanent ceasefire and immediate and unconditional release of all hostages;
- Israel’s compliance with the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice;
- An end to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and its occupation, so that the educational sector can be rebuilt;
- Full access of United Nations agencies to the Occupied Palestinian Territories to carry out independent monitoring, investigation, and humanitarian coordination;
- All States that have suspended funding to UNRWA – the UN agency which runs many of the Strip’s now closed elementary and secondary schools – to immediately resume funding;
- North American universities, governments, NGOs and individual academics to support the reconstruction of educational institutions in Gaza, through financial and in-kind contributions; and
- State and individual accountability under domestic and international law mechanisms.
The Open Letter remains open for signature by any academic affiliated with a postsecondary institution in North America.
The Open Letter can be accessed and signed at https://forms.gle/m2c1UpLVXMHuJ3sA8.
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