It has been a yr now of Israel’s genocidal struggle on the Gaza Strip. Israeli plane, tanks and warships have been indiscriminately bombarding the entire Strip. All points of life have been tremendously impacted. Tens of hundreds of civilian buildings have been destroyed, together with homes, faculties, universities, mosques, church buildings, hospitals, bakeries, and United Nations shelters.
Brutal Israeli assaults, together with the unlawful inhumane blockade, have spared no Palestinian. The official dying toll stands at almost 42,000, with about 100,000 injured and 10,000 lacking. Nearly all of the casualties are girls and kids.
Though I’ve by no means been affiliated with any militant or political group, my very own home was destroyed by an Israeli warplane on October 23, 2023. Since then, I’ve been residing with my massive household in deplorable circumstances at a UN faculty shelter.
In addition to the trauma of homelessness and displacement, we have been devastated by the lack of my beloved mom. She fell unwell and couldn’t obtain the medical care she wanted as a result of the Israeli army has largely decimated Gaza’s healthcare system. Her situation deteriorated, and he or she handed away on December 1, 2023.
As well as, I’ve suffered a profound skilled loss: my college, the Islamic College of Gaza (IUG) has been destroyed. It’s one out of 18 establishments of upper schooling in Gaza, which served about 87,000 college students earlier than Israel diminished them to ruins.
I joined IUG’s English Division in 1997 after I returned from the US, the place I had completed an MA in Linguistics at California State College, Fresno. Then I obtained a PhD in language improvement from Boston Faculty and returned to IUG, the place I continued to show and do analysis, publishing many articles in native and worldwide journals and collaborating in quite a few conferences, symposia and workshops. I’ve additionally supervised and served as an examiner of a number of MA theses in utilized linguistics.
IUG has 11 schools, serving about 17,000 college students, 63 p.c of them girls. All through the years, it has provided a superb tutorial setting, making use of varied applied sciences similar to laptop labs, e-learning Moodle and videoconferencing and different high-quality services, similar to libraries, gardens, gyms and playgrounds. It has awarded college students with bodily, visible and listening to disabilities scholarships and assisted them by an expert particular wants workplace.
The English Division is the biggest on the IUG, serving about 1,500 college students in six completely different programmes: BA in English, BA in English with a minor in translation, BA in English with a minor in media and journalism, BEd in instructing English, MA in linguistics and MA in translation.
I’ve at all times had an incredible ardour for instructing and maintained good relationships with my college students; for me, instructing is a mission. I contemplate IUG my second dwelling. Seeing it in ruins has damaged my coronary heart.
In October 2023, Israeli fighter jets attacked IUG, destroying a number of buildings. Then in November, Israeli floor troops with bulldozers and tanks invaded western Gaza Metropolis, razing extra buildings and setting others on hearth. After they withdrew from the world two weeks later, I went to see what was left of IUG. I used to be overwhelmed with grief, unable to consider my eyes: the whole lot was gone!
Over the previous 12 months, I’ve not been in a position to educate a single class. Even throughout the COVID pandemic, when the college was shut down, I used to be nonetheless in a position to give lectures on-line. My YouTube channel nonetheless has recordings of three on-line programs I’ve taught: Semantics and Lexicology, English Grammar 2, and Psycho-Sociolinguistics.
Because the begin of this struggle, Israel has restlessly focused Gaza’s infrastructure, together with telecommunication, which has made it unattainable for instructors to show on-line. Simply to examine my e-mail and WhatsApp messages, I’ve to stroll or bike an extended distance to buy an web ticket and use a really low-speed connection.
Regardless of the grave circumstances over the previous yr, I’ve tried to remain in contact with my college students. We talk by telephone calls, textual content messaging or WhatsApp and generally in particular person. We alternate greetings, inquire about well being, and discuss IUG and the English Division, unable to cover our sorrow and indignation. Nonetheless, I stay optimistic and decided not to surrender.
Optimism is a supply of resilience, which we Palestinian educators must nurture with a view to assist our college students and assist them address traumatic circumstances.
Even within the darkest of instances, there may be hope. That’s the reason I exploit the current tense on this article after I discuss my college. IUG is, not was.
I see a number of causes to be optimistic.
First, it’s not the primary time Gaza’s universities have been focused by the Israeli military. Earlier than the current struggle, Israel launched 4 different aggressive assaults on the Gaza Strip in 2008-9, 2012, 2014 and 2021. In every of those wars, Gaza’s universities have been severely broken and prevented from functioning to their full potential. Nonetheless, because of collective efforts, college buildings have been restored and the academic course of efficiently resumed.
Regardless that Israel’s assaults on Gaza proceed, emergency measures have been taken. The Palestinian Ministry of Schooling and several other Palestinian tutorial establishments have circulated petitions towards Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s universities, interesting to worldwide organisations and tutorial establishments to intervene swiftly and take efficient measures to make sure Palestinian college students’ proper to schooling.
Second, many journalists and human rights activists have reported on Israel’s concentrating on of Palestinian universities. These and different Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights have been condemned worldwide. This has strengthened worldwide solidarity with the Palestinian folks and can undoubtedly assist us with the longer term reconstruction course of.
Third, a number of main Palestinian universities within the West Financial institution have expressed their readiness to assist greater schooling within the Gaza Strip. Final March, Birzeit College launched its “Rebuilding Hope” initiative, which goals to offer sources to assist Gaza’s institutional infrastructure and help researchers and college students in accessing the information mandatory to finish their tutorial journeys.
The Palestinian Ministry of Schooling and several other native and worldwide universities have adopted the initiative, and happily, a number of thousand college students from Gaza’s universities, together with IUG, have already began on-line studying.
Fourth, IUG has additionally inspired college students to use for Erasmus+ alternate scholarships which offer the chance to review for a semester in Europe. A few of my college students requested me to jot down letters of advice for them; I did so with nice pleasure.
I’ve shared all this promising data with college students and acquaintances in Gaza. I’ve additionally referred English main college students to my on-line programs uploaded onto YouTube.
Just lately, one in every of my college students despatched me this WhatsApp message:
Expensive Professor, I’ve determined to proceed your Grammar 2 course by myself. [We started in September 2023 but couldn’t finish it because of the war.] Lately I’m watching your YouTube recordings, and I’m doing fairly effectively. I’m fascinated by extra observe; I would like the additional grammar workout routines file you beforehand uploaded onto the Moodle, which is inaccessible now. Sadly, I misplaced my laptop computer with all my recordsdata in an Israeli assault on my household’s home. May you please ship me the file?
What a remarkably resilient lady! I thanked her and praised her sturdy motivation and true affection for studying. I despatched her the file and informed her to not hesitate to ask me for assist.
Equally, I lately known as one in every of my MA college students, whose thesis I’m supervising. I inspired her to finalise her thesis for the viva voce. She fortunately welcomed the concept. By taking cheap precautions, I really feel we will organise this tutorial occasion someplace in Gaza, even in a tent at a college shelter.
The previous yr has been filled with immense ache and struggling for the folks in Gaza, however we should not lose hope. It is going to all go! Israeli oppression will finish! Gaza’s universities will likely be reconstructed! And Palestinian greater schooling will likely be revived!
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.