Birzeit University Participates in International Conference on Rebuilding Higher Education in Gaza

On April 14-15, 2025, Birzeit University took part in an international conference on rebuilding higher education in Gaza, organized by Hamad Bin Khalifa in Doha, Qatar. The conference brought together many Palestinian and international academics, researchers, and representatives from higher education institutions and organizations.

University president, Talal Shahwan, participated in the conference and emphasized the essential role of education for the Palestinian people as a means for individual development and economic and social empowerment.

As part of the session titled “Supporting the Resilience of Higher Education in Gaza,” Dr. Ibrahim Rabayah, professor of Political Science, presented a paper co-authored with Dr. Lourdes Habash, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Public Administration. Titled “Hybrid Governance for Rebuilding the Higher Education Sector in Gaza”, the paper proposed a practical reconstruction framework rooted in national ownership, inclusive engagement with local actors, and rejection of external conditionality. It also drew on international post-conflict reconstruction experiences and addressed the structural and political challenges facing the rebuilding of Gaza’s higher education sector—especially in light of the destruction of nearly 90% of university infrastructure, the loss of three academic years, and the killing of around 140 higher education personnel.

In the same session, Right to Education Campaign coordinator Sundos Hammad stressed the campaign’s experience in developing initiatives to counter the severe violations facing academic institutions in Gaza amid the ongoing war and to strengthen the resilience of universities on the ground. Hammad underscored the importance of genuine partnerships with the local academic community and global solidarity networks, highlighting the need to amplify—not replace, override, erase, or speak over—the academic voices in Gaza. She called attention to the dangers of “Scholasticide,” describing the targeting of universities as a deliberate systematic policy aimed at breaking Palestinian will and erasing identity.

Birzeit University’s participation in the conference reaffirms the central role of education in the Palestinian national project and the need to defend Palestinians’ right to accessible andliberated education in the face of ongoing destruction and exclusion under the Israeli occupation.

https://right2edu.birzeit.edu/in-gaza-the-schools-are-dying-too