On August 10, an Israeli bombing of the al-Tabin school in Gaza killed more than 100 people sheltering there, many of them children. It was one of 17 deadly attacks on schools in the Gaza Strip in the past month, according to the United Nations. Learning spaces, transformed into shelters for the displaced, have become recurring targets in the war, as the lines between combatants and civilians have become blurred.
This week, tens of thousands of children should be celebrating the start of the school year. Instead, they are living the nightmare of scholasticism, a word coined specifically to describe the destruction of education in Gaza.
Dr Karma Nabulsi of Oxford University coined the term during the Israeli attack on Gaza in 2008-2009, when schools, the Ministry of Education and other educational buildings were targeted. Today, the devastation caused to Gaza’s education system is unimaginable: thousands of students and hundreds of teachers have been killed and hundreds of schools damaged or destroyed in the last 11 months.
This deliberate destruction of Gaza’s education system threatens not only the future of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children, but also the international humanitarian regime and our collective moral compass. It seems that global society is slowly accepting the unacceptable. The normalization of violence against schools is a glaring indicator of a deeper crisis in our global values, where the protection of the innocent is no longer guaranteed and the very fabric of our humanity is unraveling.
The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols explicitly state that attacks on schools constitute a violation – and yet they continue. According to data collected by UNICEF, as of 6 July, 318 schools in the Gaza Strip had been directly targeted. Dozens of attacks have taken place since then.
The debate over whether the August 10 attack on al-Tabin school was legal or not, due to the presence or absence of Hamas fighters in the school, is a debate that misses the point. Schools are for learning. Such military actions are a direct attack on the fundamental rights of civilians, especially children.
Beyond the obvious and unnecessary harm caused to children and young people, attacks on schools inevitably escalate tensions, undermining efforts to reach a just and lasting resolution.
The right to education is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is a right even in times of war, as stipulated in the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention. How can this right be guaranteed to Palestinian children if their schools are reduced to ruined walls and craters?
Unfortunately, attacks on schools are not limited to Gaza. According to UNICEF, since the escalation of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, more than 1,300 schools have been damaged or destroyed.
According to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA), incidents targeting education and military use of schools increased by nearly 20% in 2022 and 2023 compared to the previous two years.
The international community’s ability to enforce the protections enshrined in international humanitarian law, particularly the Geneva Conventions, is increasingly being undermined. These laws, ratified by more than 190 countries, require the protection of civilians, including children, during armed conflict and provide for the prosecution of violators.
Yet these commitments have failed to protect children in Gaza and other conflict zones. While calls for immediate measures, such as a ceasefire and humanitarian assistance, are essential, they are no substitute for decisive action to uphold international law.
When the international community tolerates violations of international law for months or even years, it normalizes its erosion. This gradual acceptance weakens international norms, making once unthinkable acts tolerable. When the targeting of schools becomes increasingly acceptable, it is a fundamental betrayal of the core principles of the international legal regime and the protection of civilians.
The choice before us is stark: either we act resolutely to uphold the principles of humanitarian law and protect the innocent, or we allow our shared values to deteriorate unchecked. The world cannot afford to remain indifferent, because the price of inaction is measured in the lives and futures of children.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
