This event will host representatives of Palestinian higher education institutions from the West Bank and Gaza to share their experiences of the challenges faced by students and staff over the past year and outline Palestinian-led initiatives for supporting and reconstructing the higher education system. Staff and students at the University of Edinburgh will also join the panel to discuss initiatives in support of the Palestinian education system and liberation. 

Speakers: 

Sundos Hammad, Birzeit University, Right to Education Campaign

Samer Abdelnour, Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh

Ziad, Edinburgh University Justice for Palestine Society (EUJPS)

Carlo Morelli, Senior Lecturer, University of Dundee 

“The deliberate targeting of our educational infrastructure is a blatant attempt to render Gaza uninhabitable and erode the intellectual and cultural fabric of our society. However, we refuse to allow such acts to extinguish the flame of knowledge and resilience that burns within us”
Unified Call from Palestinian academics and administrators of Gaza Universities, 29 April 2024

Join us to hear first-hand from the Right to Education Campaign (Birzeit University) about how Palestinian Higher Education institutions are resisting erasure through efforts to continue teaching and learning, despite the physical destruction of university campuses by relentless Israeli attacks. We will discuss the role of transnational solidarity in promoting the resilience and rehabilitation of Gaza’s education sector in partnership with UK universities and how boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns can confront UK Higher Education complicity in scholasticide.

This event is part of a national speaking tour organised by University and College Workers for Palestine and BRICUP with support from UCU and is hosted by UCU Edinburgh.

The Right to Education campaign is a grassroots Palestinian movement which began in 1988 in order to document, research and raise consciousness about the oppression of Palestinian students, teachers and academic institutions under Israeli military occupation. They work to empower students to claim their human right to education, to overcome the isolation of Palestinian educational institutions and to demand an end to the illegal Israeli occupation.