Around a hundred leading European academics have condemned “Israel’s systematic annihilation” of the educational system in the Gaza Strip.
The scholars have signed a protest petition titled, “Annihilation of Gaza Education: Israel is systematically erasing the entire educational system,” formulated by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
In the petition, the academics condemned Israel’s physical and cultural liquidation of Palestinian civilians in the strip and express deep concern about the Israeli army’s continued targeting of academics, educational institutions, and cultural heritage sites there.
The scholars pointed to knowledge and education as fundamental to human civilization worldwide, but emphasize that for an occupied people like the Palestinians, education plays a distinctly vital role in society.
They said education preserves hope and freedom against oppressive, apartheid-era, and depressing policies.
According to official reports, 70 percent of the strip’s universities have been completely demolished.
Also, the Palestinian Ministry of Education says around 5,000 students have been killed and thousands others injured during the ongoing airstrikes.
All this has been documented in the petition. The written appeal stresses such attacks on civilian objects constitute a grave breach of international law and fall under the definition of genocide.
It also calls for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions supporting the occupation of Palestine.
Over 180 British academics have also recently signed a separate petition denouncing the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, specially targeting of academics and students.
At least 31,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been confirmed killed and over 72,000 others injured so far during Israel’s genocidal war, which began following Operation Al-Aqsa Storm by Gaza-based resistance movements on October 7, 2023.
For months now, the United Nations and aid groups in the region have been condemning the Israeli regime for either failing to provide safe passage to humanitarian organizations or preventing aid from passing checkpoints and holding up aid along the border.
