Last December, UNRWA Commissioner-General @UNLazzarini welcomed the overwhelming vote by the UN General Assembly to renew UNRWA's mandate as “an acknowledgement of the international community’s responsibility to support the humanitarian and human development needs of Palestine Refugees pending a just and lasting solution to their decades-long plight.”

 

Last December, UNRWA Commissioner-General @UNLazzarini welcomed the overwhelming vote by the UN General Assembly to renew UNRWA's mandate as “an acknowledgement of the international community’s responsibility to support the humanitarian and human development needs of #Palestine Refugees pending a just and lasting solution to their decades-long plight.”

https://x.com/UNRWA/status/2026175363383013484/photo/2

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies] 

“The underreported silent war: record levels of violence in the occupied West Bank since October 2023. More than 1,000 Palestinians — almost a quarter of them children — have been killed. Attacks by Israeli settlers continue unabated, with Palestinian communities being constantly intimidated, uprooted and their livelihoods ruined. Impunity reigns....

 UNRWA

@UNRWA

 

“The underreported silent war: record levels of violence in the occupied West Bank since October 2023. More than 1,000 Palestinians — almost a quarter of them children — have been killed. 

 

Attacks by Israeli settlers continue unabated, with Palestinian communities being constantly intimidated, uprooted and their livelihoods ruined. 

 

Impunity reigns. 

 

Tens of thousands of people remain displaced a year after the launch of Israel's operation "Iron Wall" - the largest displacement since 1967. 

 

Their homes are now gradually demolished to prevent their return. 

 

UNRWA remains key in the emergency aid operation, despite immense challenges. 

 

While global attention has been focused on Gaza, the flagrant disregard for international humanitarian law in the West Bank has been normalised. It has to stop before it is too late.” —

@UNLazzarini

 

https://x.com/UNRWA/status/2017872757699072174/photo/1 

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]   

In 1948 "The tiny Gaza Strip, only 1.3% of Palestine, became a temporary home for 2.3 million Palestinian refugees. The Israeli attacks against them, by land, air, and sea, and with a complete siege, never stopped for 75 years." SALMAN ABU SITTA JANUARY 4, 2024

https://www.plands.org/en/articles-speeches/articles/2024/i-could-have-been-one-of-those-who-broke-through-the-siege-on-october-7

BY SALMAN ABU SITTA 

Yes, I could have been one of those who broke through the fence had I been much younger and was still living in the concentration camp called the Gaza Strip.

My story is the same as all of them. On May 14, 1948, my family on our land, “Ma’in Abu Sitta,” was attacked by a Haganah force of 24 armored vehicles. The force destroyed and burnt everything. The soldiers demolished the school that my father built in 1920; they stole the motor and equipment in the flour mill and well pump; they killed anyone in sight.

On that day, when Ben-Gurion announced his state, I became a refugee. We were pushed into the prison compound called the Gaza Strip, 4 kilometers away from my home.

I was not alone. Palestinians living in 247 towns and villages in southern Palestine were driven to this enclave by dozens of massacres, such as in Bureir, Abu Shusha, Ed Dawayima, and many others. The tiny Gaza Strip, only 1.3% of Palestine, became a temporary home for 2.3 million Palestinian refugees. The Israeli attacks against them, by land, air, and sea, and with a complete siege, never stopped for 75 years.

I went to school in Egypt, but my cousins never wavered to cross the barbed wire called the Armistice Line and tried to return home, in the same manner of October 7. They crossed the barbed wire and attacked the occupiers of our land. They retrieved an elderly relative who remained, they watered the remaining cattle, and they generally tried to restore life to Ma’in Abu Sitta, our land. 

I can never forget my cousin, Hassan Madi, with his smiling face and pleasant demeanor. He used to come back to tell us what happened to our groves and what the settlers did to our place. He was a very brave fida’i. He used to sneak into the settlers’ camp and listen to them talk. He was killed by a mine buried on his route. 

Fifteen other young people from my family were killed in the couple of years after 1948. In the period from 1948 to 1956, an estimated 5,000 Palestinians were killed trying to return home. 

The settlers set up prefab units on my land, which developed into Kibbutzim. Their names are current in the media nowadays. Nirim was built on my father’s land. I was born a few meters away from the Kibbutz site. Ein Hashlosha Kibbutz, a few kilometers to the north, is built on land that belonged to my father and his cousins, a huge wheat and barley field. Nir Oz was built on the land of my father’s uncle, Haj Mahmoud. His son Hamed, a civil engineer, devoted his life to the liberation of Palestine and was a key actor in forming the PLO in 1964, remaining in its executive committee for over 40 years. The fourth kibbutz on our land was named Magen. This is the site of Sheikh Nuran, a venerated site where women sought blessings for their newborns. This was the ancient site of St. Hilarion, a key figure in Christian Palestine. The site was his worshipping retreat in fourth-century Byzantine Palestine.

Today, when you hear the names of these kibbutzim, you must recall on whose land they were built. You must remember that the owners of this land have never given up their right to return home.

MAP 1: ORIGIN OF REFUGEES IN THE GAZA STRIP

This applies to over two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. When you hear talk about the hostages, remember they are the true hostages for over 27,000 days. They came from 247 towns and villages in southern and central Palestine. See Map 1 for the origin of Gaza refugees. They are crowded in camps at a density of 8,000 persons/km2.

Not only were they expelled and made refugees in 1948, but they were constantly attacked in camps in exile in 1953, 1956, 1967, 1971, and 1987, and with fierce regularity since 2006 up until today. In a twist unknown in colonial history, their ethnic cleansing has been upgraded in 2023 to a genocide of unparalleled proportions. The extent of its ferocity, the number of women and children killed, the vast areas of destruction, and the number of dropped bombs on such a tiny place in less than three months exceeds anything known in two world wars.

The Gaza Strip is bound by the Armistice Agreement signed between Egypt and Israel on February 24, 1949. See Map 2 of Gaza’s armistice line below. Article 2 of the Agreement states that the Line does not confer or deny rights to the warring parties. It is merely the line at which warring parties stopped on that date.

MAP 2: GAZA ARMISTICE LINES

Israel has no borders, neither by its own admission nor by any article in international law. In 1948, Israel occupied 20,500 km2  (80% of Palestine), of which only 6% was obtained through the collusion of the British Mandate. The rest was obtained just by military force.

One year after the official Armistice Agreement in February 1950, Israel complained that many refugees had crossed the line and suggested to Egypt that to avoid clashes, it should establish a temporary line called modus vivendi, provided that the original agreement remains in force. This reduced the area of the Gaza Strip from 555 km2 to the present 365 km2. As Map 2 shows, this temporary line became unofficially the regular line shown in maps and maintained by Israel.

There is a macabre element in this fact. Many of the attacked kibbutzim, Nirim, Nir Oz, and Ein Hashlosha, that were built on my and others’ land, actually fall within the Gaza Strip proper, as Map 2 clearly shows.

Israel has relentlessly tried to chew more and more of the Gaza Strip as a “buffer zone.” No international body ever contested Israel’s continued reduction of the tiny Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, the war against those young people who crossed the line to return home continues. They have to contend with falling bombs in Gaza and a relentless smear campaign abroad.

The false information and ugly defamation attributed to them, ... READ MORE https://www.plands.org/en/articles-speeches/articles/2024/i-could-have-been-one-of-those-who-broke-through-the-siege-on-october-7

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

Spring in Palestine by Ismail Shammout of Palestine

Spring in Palestine by Ismail Shammout
http://ismail-shammout.com/

Ismail Shammout was born in 1930 in Lydda – Palestine. 

During the Nakba of 1948, he and his family were forced out of their home during the assault of Jewish Zionist militant groups on their town. 

A long march on foot allowed them to settle in the refugee camps of Khan Younis in Gaza where he lived under very harsh conditions. 

In 1950 he managed to travel to Cairo to study arts from where he later earned a scholarship to study fine arts at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome. 

After he finished his studies, he moved to Beirut in 1959 where he married his fellow arts student from Cairo, the Palestinian artist Tamim El-Akhal (born 1935). Both lived and worked in Beirut until 1983 then moved to Kuwait, then to Germany and finally to Amman in 1994. 

Shammout died on July 3rd 2006.

Shammout, who himself experienced expulsion and refuge and accompanied later the birth of the Palestinian Revolution in the 1960s, became since the very early days of his professional live along with his partner Tamam El-Akhal the “artistic face” of the Palestinian Freedom Struggle. He has been long recognized as Palestine’s leading modernist painter. 

His experience of dispossession and the memories of beloved Palestine, the dreams of return as well as the dignity and pride of his people formed the soul of his entire art. 

The simplicity of the themes and his outstanding artistic skills let his works enjoy a widely spread popularity which significantly shaped modern Palestinian Art.  https://ismail-shammout.com/

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Photograph by Abdel Kareem Hana/AP in The Guardian Fri 7 Feb 2025 Jabaliya, Gaza A man sells bread from the rubble of his bakery destroyed by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabaliya

Jabaliya, Gaza

A man sells bread from the rubble of his bakery destroyed by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabaliya

Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP 

Jordan's former foreign minister, Marwan Muasher, tells MEE that Jordan is worried Palestinians will be displaced en masse: “What we have seen in Gaza is an example not just of killing Palestinians but of making Gaza uninhabitable and trying to affect a mass transfer of Palestinians into Egypt."

Former Jordanian foreign minister Marwan Muasher interviewed by Middle East Eye (MEE)

 

Jordan's former foreign minister says two-state solution is over

Jordan’s former foreign minister has told Middle East Eye that Arab countries need to abandon the two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. 

“Practically, that is not going to take place,” Marwan Muasher, who also served as Jordan’s deputy prime minister and opened the kingdom's first embassy in Israel in 1995, said of the two-state solution in a video interview with Middle East Eye.

The ex-diplomat, who is now vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said it should be replaced with a “rights-based approach in which the departure point should be equal rights between Israelis and Palestinians”.

“Then one can start talking about what shape of a solution we can arrive at. But any solution that does not involve equal rights is not going to be sustainable in my view.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Muasher said Jordan is very concerned that Israel intends the forceful transfer of large numbers of Palestinians to the kingdom.... READ MORE https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/jordans-former-foreign-minister-says-two-state-solution-over

  [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Jordan has always been concerned that Israel’s aim ultimately is to have mass transfer of Palestinians outside of Palestinian territory,” he said.

“Whereas that position was that of fringe groups in Israel 30 or 40 years ago, today they are part and parcel of the Israeli government.”

“The Israeli government is saying every single day that what they want is an Israeli state from the river to the sea, so that really is Jordan’s worry,” Muasher added.

“What we have seen in Gaza is an example not just of killing Palestinians but of making Gaza uninhabitable and trying to affect a mass transfer of Palestinians into Egypt.”

Dear America- Israel wants enemies & religious extremism so it can raise more funds and sympathy from US. Israel wants us duped- and we are.

The Land & Love by Palestinian artist Ismail Shamout who was born in 1930 in Lydda - Palestine. During the Nakba of 1948, he and his family were forced out of their home during the assault of Jewish Zionist militant groups on their town. A long march on foot allowed them to settle in the refugee camps of Khan Younis in Gaza

 My most recent letter sent to my elected officials 10/2/2024

Dear America,

ISRAEL INVADES AMERICA again and again with every Zionist spokesperson on TV news spinning pro-Israel propaganda for an Apartheid nation that wants the "Holy" land, but not the native non-Jewish men, women, and children of that land.

Palestine- Gaza, the West Bank, and now Lebanon all bombed aggressively by Israel as it targets homes, apartment blocks, schools, roads and infrastructures, obliterating families and communities with American made lethal weaponry.

Israel wants enemies & religious extremism so it can raise more funds and sympathy from US.  Israel wants us duped- and we are.

Homegrown corporate corruption insists that the very foreign man-made Apartheid nation called Israel has "the right to defend itself", while refusing to see or explain the very real plight and suffering of Palestinians as Israel cruelly persecutes, impoverishes, and displaces them.

We don't have a Fourth Estate empowering our democracy, we have Zionism unfairly influencing our elected leaders & voters, leading US astray from American ideals of real democracy with full and equal rights for ALL people, regardless of supposed race or religion.

Taxpayer money should not be funding weapons and excuses for war mongering Israel.

And Israeli groups such as AIPAC should be registered as agents for a foreign country.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

This terrifying tit-for-tat between Israel, Iran and its proxies will only bring more death and disaster - Lina Khatib in The Guardian ..." the scale of the humanitarian crisis is unprecedented "

In The New Yorker listen to his voice as Mosab Abu Toha reads his powerful poem Under the Rubble drawn from his most recent book “Forest of Noise.” #Gaza #Palestine #antiwar

“If we stay in our houses, they bomb us. If we shelter in a school, they bomb us.” Read @MosabAbuToha‘s poem on Zeteo

Jordan FM’s unusual assurance of security:"We're here members of a Muslim Arab committee mandated by 57 Arab and Muslim countries and I can tell you here very unequivocally all of us are willing to right now to guarantee the security of Israel in the context of Israel ending the occupation and allowing for the emergence of a Palestinian State independent state "

Nesrine Malik in The Guardian: With Gaza in ruins and Lebanon under siege, what defence remains for Israel’s actions? ‘Existential threat’ is a thin excuse: the out-of-control force that is pushing the Middle East to the brink is Israel itself

Palestine Refugees - Press Conference | United Nations Sep 27, 2024 UNWRA... On the polio vaccination campaign, coordinated with Israel, he said, “if there is a will, we can make it happen.” The campaign, he said, “was a complex operation” involving the Israeli government and various UN agencies, “but the one who administered the vaccine to the children below the age of ten, was primarily UNRWA

WATCH: King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein of Jordan addresses 2024 UN General Assembly

Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan on Israel-Hamas war: ‘The world has failed'

Dear America- American blood Arab blood Christian blood Jewish blood Muslim blood all blood is just blood. Stop arming endlessly escalating war. Just stop.

Dear America- We are in this collectively- no exceptions... Stop the hate- and the pollution of war.

Dear America- Don't let Israel drive a wedge between you and the truth.

Dear America, Please Help Stop Institutionalized Bigotry & Injustice

Dear America- Israel can not be trusted, and should not be subsidized

Don't give Israel the power to destroy the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, International Law, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights... and America.

Accusing peaceful pro-Palestine protesters of being "antisemitic" pleases Israel but it does not make any Jews any safer anywhere.

Send an honorable message far and wide- we believe in freedom of and from religion... and we believe in real justice, peace, and security for ALL !

 

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..."   https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

 

Israel attacked aid workers despite knowing their locations: Human Rights Watch documents eight Israeli strikes on humanitarian groups that had provided their coordinates in advance

Men walk through rubble past damaged buildings with humanitarian aid packages collected from a drop over the northern Gaza Strip on 23 April 2024 (AFP)

 By MEE staff

Published date: 14 May 2024 12:14 BST | Last update: 14 mins 14 secs ago 

Israeli forces have carried out at least eight attacks on aid convoys and premises in Gaza since October, despite aid groups providing their locations to Israeli authorities in advance, according to a new report. 

Human Rights Watch said in a report on Tuesday that the eight Israeli attacks killed at least 15 people, including two children, and wounded at least 16 others. 

They included attacks on World Central Kitchen, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), the International Rescue Committee and the American Near East Refugee Aid Organisation. 

In an Israeli air strike on MAP and the International Rescue Committee on 18 January, UN investigators who visited the attack concluded it was likely carried out with a US-made munition with parts supplied by the UK. The strike wounded three people. 

On 1 April, an Israeli attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy killed six international aid workers and their Palestinian driver, which Israel apologised for and described as a "mistake".

As with all of the eight attacks documented by Human Rights Watch, World Central Kitchen had provided Israeli authorities with GPS coordinates of its personnel in advance, but was still attacked. 

"Israel's killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers was shocking and should never have happened under international law," said Belkis Wille of Human Rights Watch. "Israel's allies need to recognise that these attacks that have killed aid workers have happened over and over again, and they need to stop."

'Cannot rely on deconfliction'

According to the UN, 254 of its aid workers have been killed since the war on Gaza began on 7 October. At least 169 Unrwa facilities have been impacted by Israel's war in 368 separate incidents. 

Workers from 11 humanitarian groups and agencies told Human Rights Watch that Israeli attacks have forced them to either suspend activities, reduce their staff or restrict their work in other ways. 

"I can't risk sending more staff into Gaza because I cannot rely on deconfliction as a way of keeping them safe," a senior employee at one organisation attacked by Israeli forces said. 

'Bullshit process and result': US report on Israel's Gaza conduct met with disappointment

Read More »

International law prohibits indiscriminate attacks targeting civilian objects, like aid convoys, that are expected to cause harm to civilians in a way disproportionate to any military advantage. 

In the genocide case against Israel, the International Court of Justice in January issued a provisional ruling ordering the country to enable the entry of urgent humanitarian aid into Gaza.

But since the ruling, Israel has been found to be defying the order by directly bombing aid convoys and impeding aid deliveries through delays and denials of entry.

"On one hand, Israel is blocking access to critical lifesaving humanitarian provisions and on the other, attacking convoys that are delivering some of the small amount that they are allowing in," Wille said. "Israeli forces should immediately end their attacks on aid organizations, and there should be accountability for these crimes."

Israeli civilians have also blocked entry of aid into the enclave, bringing aid trucks to a standstill by holding sit-ins, laying down large rocks and even attacking vehicles directly.

Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-attacked-aid-workers-despite-knowing-location

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

NPR: Israel seized control of the Rafah border crossing. The impact could be devastating

Thousands of Palestinians, including women and children, migrated from the neighborhoods in the east of Rafah and reaches the coastal side of the city of Deir al-Balah. Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images

Israel has seized control of the Rafah border crossing. The consequences could be devastating for civilians.

Since the beginning of Israel's war in Gaza, Palestinians have been pushed farther and farther south. At least 1.3 million people have now been squeezed into Rafah, a small area bordering Egypt. More than half of those people fled fighting in other parts of Gaza.

On Monday, Israeli forces dropped leaflets from the sky in Rafah instructing people to seek refuge in an "expanded humanitarian area" north and northwest of the city. The U.N. says now more than 75% of the Gaza Strip is under evacuation orders.

Less than 24 hours later, Israeli tanks rolled into the eastern part of Rafah, seizing control of the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza.

Israeli airstrikes had already been pounding Rafah for weeks, killing hundreds since late March — most of them women and children, according to hospital records.

No aid can pass through the crossing, and one of the area's main medical centers has shut down.... READ MORE  https://www.npr.org/2024/05/08/1198911436/rafah-border-crossing-humanitarian-crisis-israel-offensive-what-comes-next

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Handala- the Palestinian Refugee Child

“The child Handala is my signature everyone asks me about him wherever I go… His name is Handala and he has promised the people that he will remain true to himself. I drew him as a child who is not beautiful; His hair is like the hair of a hedgehog who uses his thorns as a weapon. Handala is not a fat, happy, relaxed, or pampered child. He is barefooted like the refugee camp children, and he is an icon that protects me from making mistakes.”

Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al Ali (1938 – 29 August 1987)

HANDALA posts on my blog

Al-Ali was born in 1938 or thereabouts in the northern Palestinian village of Al-Shajara, located between Tiberias and Nazareth (now subsumed by Ilaniya).^[9] He lived as an exile in the south of Lebanon with his family after the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, the Nakba, and lived in Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near Sidon,^[10] where he attended the Union of Christian Churches school. After graduation, he worked in the orchards of Sidon, then moved to Tripoli where he attended the White Friars' vocational school for two years.

Al-Ali then moved to Beirut, where he lived in a tent in Shatila refugee camp and worked in various industrial jobs. In 1957, after qualifying as a car mechanic, he travelled to Saudi Arabia, where he worked for two years.

 

 Handala

Handala, also known as Handhala (Arabic: حنظلة), is the most famous of Al-Ali's characters.^[14] He is depicted as a ten-year-old boy, and appeared for the first time in Al-Siyasa in Kuwait in 1969.^[14] The figure turned his back to the viewer from the year 1973, and clasped his hands behind his back.^[15] The artist explained that the ten-year-old represented his age when forced to leave Palestine and would not grow up until he could return to his homeland;^[16] his turned back and clasped hands symbolised the character's rejection of "outside solutions".^[15] Handala wears ragged clothes and is barefoot, symbolising his allegiance to the poor. In later cartoons, he is actively participating in the action depicted not merely observing it.^[15] The artist vows that his figure, Handala will "reveal his face to the readers again only when Palestinian refugees return to their homeland".^[17]

Handala became the signature of Al-Ali's cartoons and remains an iconic symbol of Palestinian identity and defiance. Handala has also been used as the web mascot of the Iranian Green Movement.^[18] The artist remarked that "He was the arrow of the compass, pointing steadily towards Palestine. Not just Palestine in geographical terms, but Palestine in its humanitarian sense—the symbol of a just cause, whether it is located in Egypt, Vietnam or South Africa.

Assassination

It is still not known who opened fire on Al-Ali outside the London office of Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas in Ives Street on 22 July 1987. He was subsequently taken to hospital and remained in a coma until his death on 29 August 1987.^[19] Although his will requested that he be buried in Ain al-Hilweh beside his father, this proved impossible to arrange

UN experts deeply concerned over 'scholasticide’ in Gaza 18 April 2024 “When schools are destroyed, so too are hopes and dreams.” Even UN schools sheltering forcibly displaced civilians are being bombed, including in Israeli military-designated “safe zones.” “These attacks are not isolated incidents. They present a systematic pattern of violence aimed at dismantling the very foundation of Palestinian society,” the experts said.

 

OHCHR

What are Human Rights

• Human Rights 75 Initiative
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Human rights day
• International Bill of Human Rights
• Economic, social and cultural rights

UN experts deeply concerned over 'scholasticide’ in Gaza

18 April 2024

GENEVA (18 April 2024) – UN experts* today expressed grave concern over the pattern of attacks on schools, universities, teachers, and students in the Gaza Strip, raising serious alarm over the systemic destruction of the Palestinian education system.

“With more than 80% of schools in Gaza damaged or destroyed, it may be reasonable to ask if there is an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as ‘scholasticide’,” the experts said.

The term refers to the systemic obliteration of education through the arrest, detention or killing of teachers, students and staff, and the destruction of educational infrastructure. 

After six months of military assault, more than 5,479 students, 261 teachers and 95 university professors have been killed in Gaza, and over 7,819 students and 756 teachers have been injured – with numbers growing each day. At least 60 per cent of educational facilities, including 13 public libraries, have been damaged or destroyed and at least 625,000 students have no access to education. Another 195 heritage sites, 227 mosques and three churches have also been damaged or destroyed, including the Central Archives of Gaza, containing 150 years of history. Israa University, the last remaining university in Gaza was demolished by the Israeli military on 17 January 2024. Without safe schools, women and girls face additional risks, including gender-based violence. More than 1 million Palestinian children in Gaza are now in need of mental health and psychosocial support and will suffer the trauma of this war throughout their lives. 

“The persistent, callous attacks on educational infrastructure in Gaza have a devastating long-term impact on the fundamental rights of people to learn and freely express themselves, depriving yet another generation of Palestinians of their future,” the experts said. “Students with international scholarships are being prevented from attending university abroad,” they added. 

“When schools are destroyed, so too are hopes and dreams.” 

Even UN schools sheltering forcibly displaced civilians are being bombed, including in Israeli military-designated “safe zones.” 

“These attacks are not isolated incidents. They present a systematic pattern of violence aimed at dismantling the very foundation of Palestinian society,” the experts said. 

The experts called on all parties to respect international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and to protect educational institutions, teachers, and students. “We remind Israel in particular of its obligations to comply with the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice on 26 January,” they said.  

The experts said they were equally appalled by the annihilation of the cultural sector in Gaza, through the destruction of libraries and cultural heritage sites. “The foundations of Palestinian society are being reduced to rubble, and their history is being erased.”

"Attacks on education cannot be tolerated. The international community must send a clear message that those who target schools and universities will be held responsible," the experts said, adding that accountability for these violations includes an obligation to finance and rebuild the education system.

"We owe it to the children of Gaza to uphold their right to education and pave the way for a more peaceful and just future."

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/04/un-experts-deeply-concerned-over-scholasticide-gaza

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]