PAS program to establish connections with Spanish universities, promote Arabic teaching and learning

Tagreed Abed, director of the Palestine and Arabic Studies Program (PAS) at Birzeit University, has recently met with First Secretary of the Palestinian Diplomatic Mission in Spain Khaldoun Masri and discussed the prospects of academic cooperation with Spanish universities.

In their meeting, on October 3, 2021, Abed and Masri discussed promoting student exchange between Spanish universities and the PAS program at Birzeit University, and they explored encouraging students to learn Arabic by publishing the program’s learning material in Spanish. Additionally, they considered ways of exchanging academic expertise between Birzeit University and Spanish universities. The PAS program will facilitate the organization of  holding lectures on the history of the Palestinian cause and the prolonged Israeli occupation and its system of settler colonialism and apartheid.

Masri noted that the Palestinian embassy in Spain is willing to offer introductory lectures for Spanish students before enrolling at Palestinian universities to give them a brief overview of Palestinian culture and social life. Such courses, he added, would allow Spanish students to understand events as they really happen in Palestine, beyond the international discourse that misrepresents the country as a “dangerous” place to live in.

The cooperation with Birzeit University, according to Masri, would answer many Spanish students’ requests for quality Arabic education.