Academic Articles Published in the Education as Change Journal’s Special Issue on Higher Education Under The Occupation in Palestine

Birzeit University and Johannesburg University collaborated in order to shed light on the continuous struggle towards human rights and education, mainly higher education, in Palestine. It was to provide a stage to discuss and put through the issues of higher education in Palestine as a part of the internationally accredited journal “Education as Change”. This collaboration aims to showcase the reality of education under the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and to highlight the obstacles and imposed policies on it.

Therefore, the special issue around higher education in Palestine in Education as Change was launched, and Palestinian, South African, and global scholars of different fields were invited to study the reality of education in Palestine in order to provide studies around the political situation in Palestine, around the universities and colleges, and around the ways to challenge the continuous Israeli aims to delegitimize and demonize the Palestinian resistance. Recently, a number of scientific articles were published in the special issue revolving around education in Palestine under the occupation. 

Editor-in-chief Dr. Na-iem Dollie praised the articles published in the special issue while reiterating the necessity of shedding light on such important issues, he referred, in the editorial of the issue, to the genocide in gaza, and to what the education sector in Palestine faces; stating that these articles provide clear view on the daily threatened academic societies, those who live under repression and forced displacement, much like the ones the South African society went through during the Apartheid in 1994. Both Dr. Amir Khalil and Dr. Jehad Alshwaikh pointed out, as guest editors, in the editorial, to the educide as a form of the genocide the Israeli occupation carries out, and to its effect on the educational landscape through the policies and restriction imposed on it such as the closure of cities, the segregation of students, and many more which they go through continuously by the Israeli occupation. Moreover, the issue highlighted the genocide in Gaza Strip and its effects on the education sector.