The term “scholasticide” emerged in the context of Israel’s long history of targeting Palestinian institutions of higher learning, culminating in Israeli forces destroying 95% of campuses and university buildings in Gaza from 2023 to 2025. We partnered with Taawon’s ISNAD program to document scholasticide and the determination of Palestinian scholars and students to resume teaching, researching, and learning.
Support a Student Through ISNAD
Special thanks to Rioka Hayama for design collaboration on this visual.
Taawon’s ISNAD program is an emergency higher education initiative that enables university students at Gaza’s three public universities to resume and complete their studies through distance learning. By covering tuition fees, ISNAD supports not only individual students but also sustains Palestinian universities and helps preserve Palestinian academic life amid ongoing genocide.
Israel’s assault on education is a deliberate strategy aimed at dismantling Palestinian knowledge production, identity, and futures. And yet Palestinians continue to defy scholasticide. They remind us that the Palestinian university is more than a physical campus or set of buildings. It is a collective commitment to learning, teaching, research, and survival. Despite displacement, destruction, and loss, Palestinian faculty and students persist—holding classes in shelters, sharing materials digitally, and preserving knowledge across generations.
Palestinian-led programs like ISNAD assert that education in Gaza is not a privilege. It is survival, dignity, and the foundation for recovery.
The post Scholasticide in Palestine first appeared on Dissident Voice.
This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Visualizing Palestine.