The IAPH notes the “grave concern” expressed by UN experts in a report on April 18 2024 “over the pattern of attacks on schools, universities, teachers, and students in the Gaza Strip” including “the killing of 261 teachers and 95 university professors . . . which may constitute an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as scholasticide.”[1] Since this report raised the alarm, more colleagues and students have been killed and the remaining educational infrastructure has been subject to sustained attack. And yet, colleagues in Gaza and across Palestine have worked to continue to serve their students and the international research community in these most challenging of circumstances. We express solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues whose academic freedom and right to life is facing an existential threat and we commit to exploring how we might support their efforts to conserve and rebuild the university sector in Gaza and to participate in the global academic community. The IAPH specifically condemn this scholasticide in Gaza and the growing tide of repression of academic freedom and violence against intellectuals, scholars and students around the world.
[1] https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/04/un-experts-deeply-concerned-over-scholasticide-gaza