As the academic year continues for students around the world, any form of formal education has been stripped away from the children of Gaza. On the other side of the West Bank apartheid wall, where Israeli settlers have built homes, schools and towns on Palestinian land, the children of the colonisers do not learn about the Palestinian people in their history lessons at all, rather the Palestinians are dehumanised and painted as barbarians who only want to kill Jewish people. With this brainwashing, the majority of the children in "Israel" have no compassion for the genocide their own state is committing. Rather, they believe it is correct and the Palestinians must be exterminated so that they can live peacefully. What is happening in front of our eyes is a terrifying process of how miseducation can strip the simple aspects of humanity from people.
Firstly, it must be remembered that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians did not start on October 7th but from 1948 and there have been multiple violations against them. Videos show how young Israeli children are interrogated in their classrooms, asking about their opinions of Palestinians. They smile in glee as they say that Arabs will become the slaves of Jews. This video is from 2012 but even recently, there have been images of children writing messages on missiles that will be dropped on Palestinian civilians. As aid trucks have been doing their utmost best to bring aid into Gaza, masses of Israeli people have blocked the trucks, going as far as setting up tents so that trucks cannot pass through. They claim that they are stopping aid from reaching Hamas, but in reality, thousands of Gazan women, children and men are starving with no access to food.
Moreover, there has been a video released by the IDF where children sing a song claiming they will destroy the Arabs. Now, it is important to remember that they are children and minors. They have not researched or interacted enough with the Palestinians so it is clear that the hatred is taught to them. It is in their families, their school curriculums and their laws that restrict the freedom of Palestinians. Moreover, it is in the mandatory enlistment to the IDF that all Israelis must do. Yet, despite this brainwashing, there are teenagers who have been imprisoned for revolting against the IDF and choosing to not be a part of genocide. The fact that they are incarcerated says enough, many youths are scared into enlistment and harming others as the consequences of this are long-term jail time.
As bombs rain upon the people of Gaza, families have begun to take refuge in the UNRWA-funded school which also soon became a target. A place of education suddenly turned into a refugee camp as thousands of people were forced to flee their destroyed homes. Moreover, Israel has destroyed more than 325 schools in Gaza, the healthcare system was declared as collapsed a few months ago, and undoubtedly, the education system has been destroyed too. It must be taken into account the number of children that have had countless human rights being taken away from them, education being one of them. Around the world, students start new semesters, but for the children of Gaza, the horizon is dark as they are either murdered by Israeli bombs or look around to see their families and friends being killed. This itself is a heinous form of punishment as it hinders the progress of a nation - their academic qualities cannot be achieved to the best due to the mental and physical trauma that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Their ability to function and move on after this genocide ends will be difficult and perhaps, this is exactly what Israel plans to do. Moreover, the students who have achieved great things such as the 120 students who achieved 99% in their exams in Gaza are being killed, and sources of knowledge that is needed for the people are being erased. Not only is their aim to destroy the land and erase Palestinian history but also to break their spirit.
Despite their efforts, we still see many young students shining through, using the education they managed to grasp and put it into use. Several of the heroic journalists who report the reality of Gaza graduated from Gaza Islamic University which was bombed last month. In the face of loss and sorrow, they use their degrees to document to the world the atrocities that their people face. In addition to them, the young doctors who studied hard helped with surgeries and injured patients. On the other hand, 100 Israeli doctors signed a petition urging the bombing of Gaza. The purpose of a doctor is to nurture human life and save it but racism and hatred are so deeply embedded within a group of Israelis that morals do not exist when it comes to harming Palestinians. All of this makes us question, what is the point of their education if they do not have a drop of humanity and compassion within them?
Although Hamas has been labelled as a terrorist organisation by the West, it is essential to remember that many members are young men who lost their basic human rights and watched their whole lives being destroyed piece by piece. These youths were stripped of their right to education, access to food, basic shelter, proper healthcare and so much more. It comes as no real surprise that they are resisting against the state that causes this loss. What is shocking, however, is the hypocrisy of the West; when young Ukrainians resist Russia, they are praised, encouraged, and given the title "Freedom fighters", yet the Palestinians who do the same things are labelled as "Terrorists". With the long-standing racism and Islamophobia that exists in the West, perhaps it should not come as any surprise – nevertheless, the double standards are very clear.
Moreover, those in the West who are speaking up and are being the voice of the Palestinians are being silenced and censored. Children in school are being punished and suspended for simply saying the phrase "Free Palestine". An eight-year-old boy was reprimanded and suspended by teachers for having a Palestine flag sewn on his coat. Multiple parents protested but responded with flimsy excuses of not wanting to mix politics and education. University students who tied up ribbons to honour the martyred Palestinians saw that they were taken down the next day. UCL honoured Dr Rafat Al Areer as he was an academic and former alumnus of the university, yet UCL stayed silent. University Provosts shut down questions about Palestine when they are asked and send out notices of there being "support" for students but no real acknowledgement or change is being made.
The voices for Palestinians have become like silent screams, people protest and shout for ceasefires but their wish to end ethnic cleansing and genocide are labelled as being "anti-Semitic". It is hard to realise that withholding education from the Palestinians, brainwashing Israeli children in schools and silencing students who want an end to this genocide is also a weapon of the West. Although the people fighting back may not have artillery weapons and arms, we continue to support the Gazans with our pens, voices, and hearts.