Israel has been waging a genocidal war in the Gaza Strip for a year now. Israeli planes, tanks and warships have indiscriminately bombarded the entire Gaza Strip. All aspects of life have been hugely affected. Tens of thousands of civilian buildings were destroyed, including homes, schools, universities, mosques, churches, hospitals, bakeries and United Nations shelters.
The brutal Israeli attacks, as well as the illegal and inhumane blockade, have spared no Palestinian. The official toll stands at nearly 42,000 dead, with around 100,000 injured and 10,000 missing. The majority of victims are women and children.
Although I have never been affiliated with any activist or political group, my own home was destroyed by an Israeli warplane on October 23, 2023. Since then, I have been living with my extended family in deplorable conditions in a school shelter of the UN.
In addition to the trauma of homelessness and displacement, we were devastated by the loss of my beloved mother. She fell ill and was unable to receive the medical care she needed because the Israeli army largely decimated Gaza’s health system. Her condition deteriorated and she died on December 1, 2023.
Additionally, I suffered a profound professional loss: my university, the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG), was destroyed. It is one of 18 higher education institutions in Gaza, which served around 87,000 students before Israel reduced them to rubble.
I joined the IUG English department in 1997 after returning from the United States, where I had completed a master’s degree in linguistics at California State University, Fresno. I then earned a doctorate in language development at Boston College and returned to IUG, where I continued teaching and research, publishing numerous articles in local and international journals and participating at numerous conferences, symposia and workshops. I have also supervised and served as examiner for several master’s theses in applied linguistics.
The IUG has 11 faculties, welcoming around 17,000 students, 63% of whom are women. Over the years it has provided an excellent academic environment, using various technologies such as computer laboratories, Moodle e-learning and video conferencing and other high quality facilities, such as libraries, gardens, gymnasiums and playgrounds. It awarded scholarships to students with physical, visual and hearing disabilities and assisted them through a specialized professional office.
The English department is the largest at IUG, welcoming approximately 1,500 students across six different programs: BA in English, BA in English with a minor in Translation, BA in English with a minor in Media and Journalism, BEd in English Teaching, MA in Linguistics and MA in Translation.
I have always had a great passion for teaching and I have maintained good relationships with my students; for me, teaching is a mission. I consider IUG my second home. Seeing it in ruins broke my heart.
In October 2023, Israeli warplanes attacked the IUG, destroying several buildings. Then, in November, Israeli ground troops, equipped with bulldozers and tanks, invaded western Gaza City, razing more buildings and burning others. When they withdrew from the area two weeks later, I went to see what was left of the GUI. I was overwhelmed by grief, couldn’t believe my eyes: everything had disappeared!
In the last 12 months, I haven’t been able to teach a single class. Even during the COVID pandemic, when the university was closed, I was still able to teach classes online. My YouTube channel still contains recordings of three online courses that I have taught: Semantics and Lexicology, English Grammar 2, and Psycho-Sociolinguistics.
Since the start of this war, Israel has relentlessly targeted Gaza’s infrastructure, including telecommunications, making it impossible for instructors to teach online. Just to check my emails and WhatsApp messages, I have to walk or cycle a long distance to buy an internet ticket and use a very low speed connection.
Despite the serious circumstances of the past year, I tried to stay in touch with my students. We communicate by phone, text or WhatsApp and sometimes in person. We exchange greetings, inquire about health, and talk about GUI and the English department, unable to hide our sorrow and outrage. However, I remain optimistic and determined not to give up.
Optimism is a source of resilience that we, Palestinian educators, must cultivate in order to support our students and help them cope with stressful conditions.
Even in the darkest times, there is hope. This is why I use the present tense in this article when talking about my university. The GUI is, and was not.
I see several reasons to be optimistic.
First, this is not the first time that Gaza universities have been targeted by the Israeli army. Prior to the current war, Israel launched four other aggressive attacks on the Gaza Strip in 2008-9, 2012, 2014 and 2021. In each of these wars, Gaza’s universities were severely damaged and prevented from fully functioning. However, thanks to collective efforts, the university buildings were restored and the educational process was successfully resumed.
Even though Israeli attacks on Gaza continue, emergency measures have been taken. The Palestinian Ministry of Education and several Palestinian academic institutions have circulated petitions against Israel’s destruction of Gaza universities, calling on international organizations and academic institutions to quickly intervene and take effective measures to guarantee students’ rights Palestinians to education.
Second, many journalists and human rights activists have reported on Israel’s attacks on Palestinian universities. These and other Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights have been condemned worldwide. This has strengthened international solidarity with the Palestinian people and will undoubtedly help us in the future reconstruction process.
Third, several leading Palestinian universities in the West Bank have expressed their willingness to support higher education in the Gaza Strip. Last March, Birzeit University launched its “Rebuilding Hope” initiative, which aims to provide resources to support Gaza’s institutional infrastructure and help researchers and students access the knowledge needed to successfully their university career.
The Palestinian Ministry of Education and several local and international universities have adopted the initiative and, fortunately, a few thousand students from Gaza universities, including IUG, have already started learning online.
Fourth, IUG also encouraged students to apply for Erasmus+ exchange scholarships, which offer the opportunity to study for a semester in Europe. Some of my students have asked me to write letters of recommendation for them; I did it with great pleasure.
I shared all this promising information with students and acquaintances in Gaza. I also directed English majors to my online courses uploaded to YouTube.
Recently, one of my students sent me this WhatsApp message:
Dear Teacher, I have decided to continue your Grammar 2 course on my own. (We started in September 2023 but couldn’t finish it because of the war.) These days I watch your recordings on YouTube and I’m doing pretty well. I’m interested in more practice; I need the additional grammar exercise file you previously uploaded to Moodle, which is now inaccessible. Unfortunately, I lost my laptop with all my files during an Israeli attack on my family’s house. Could you please send me the file?
What a remarkably resilient girl! I thanked her and praised her strong motivation and genuine affection for learning. I sent him the file and told him not to hesitate to ask me for help.
Likewise, I recently called one of my master’s students, whose thesis I supervise. I encouraged her to finalize her thesis for the defense. She welcomed the idea with joy. By taking reasonable precautions, I believe we can hold this academic event somewhere in Gaza, even under a tent in a school shelter.
The past year has been full of immense pain and suffering for the people of Gaza, but we must not lose hope. Everything will pass! Israeli oppression will end! Gaza universities will be rebuilt! And Palestinian higher education will be revived!
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
