“There’s no such thing as neutral education. Education either functions as an instrument to bring about conformity or freedom.” Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Education plays an essential role in imagining, shaping and transforming cultures and societies.
Like in other colonial contexts, Israel has used schools to establish racial differentiation, build and maintain the colonial power, and erase indigenous culture and history.
Palestinians in occupied ‘48, attend government-funded schools that, contrarily to Jewish schools, are under-resourced, understaffed, with poor infrastructure, and overcrowded. These schools have to follow the Israeli curriculum, which reflects the Zionist narrative in all subjects. Amongst others, it imposes students to celebrate Israel independence, increasing the collective trauma of the Nakba, that meant the displacement and dispossession of their families and communities in 1948.
In annexed Jerusalem, Israeli municipality authorities are pushing to censor the Palestinian curriculum still used by a few private schools and to impose the Israeli curriculum on all schools run by the municipality, to prevent education about the history of Palestinians and their collective and national identity. In protest against these policies, hundreds of Palestinian schools observed a general strike in September 2022.
In the West Bank and Gaza, schools are now run by the Palestinian Authority while schools in refugee camps are administered by the UN agency UNRWA. Israel has also been waging war on the Palestinian schoolbooks, lobbying international donors to stop funding Palestinian education with continuous smearing against Palestinian curriculum content.
In Gaza, Israel has repeatedly bombed schools. The ongoing full blockade and repeated bombardments have left schools damaged, under-resourced and overcrowded. Most schools have two shifts per day.
Palestinian universities, their staff and students face constant harassment by Israeli surveillance and occupation forces. Hundreds of students are arrested each year.
Israel is now imposing further visa restrictions for international visiting professors and students, further isolating Palestinian academia.