“Rebuilding Hope” Birzeit University’s Initiative to Aid the Students and Higher Education Institutions in Gaza

Birzeit University has launched the “Rebuilding Hope” initiative to support the students and higher academic institutions in Gaza, and to enable them to advance their academic process. Birzeit University sees this as its social, national, ethical, and academic role; to have an interventionist role in Gaza in light of the Israeli Zionist occupation’s genocidal crimes, systematic murder of the student and academics, and the destruction of educational institutions.

The initiative will coordinate and consult with Gaza’s universities and institutions in order to develop the procedures needed to provide institutional support to the universities that strengthens its resilience and survival in face the Israeli occupations plans of academic destruction. This is done through institutional synergy and university education in order to rebuild Gaza physically and socially; in a challenge to the erasure logic that governs the Zionist settler-colonial occupation’s policies, and to strengthen the resilience of the Palestinians, especially in Gaza.   

This initiative is based on two concepts “Institutional mutual reinforcement” through providing as much as is possible to institutions of higher education, academics, and students in order to resume their roles in society, and “Rebuilding hope” by rebuilding possible and potential life in Gaza despite the genocidal destruction. This is to be carried out depending on the availability of necessary resources and the needs and visions of the universities in Gaza and their priorities. Thus, Birzeit University shall become a hub for Palestinian, Arab, and global initiatives aiming to support higher education in Gaza.

Moreover, this initiative operates on three axis of intervention: First, infrastructure and institutional synergy as There is a need to provide resources to support institutional infrastructure, assist researchers and students in accessing the knowledge necessary to complete their academic journey; to establish partnerships with universities in Gaza. Second, higher education in coordination with universities in Gaza: This entails mutual collaborations between academic faculty from Birzeit University and globally with those in Gaza universities, and building infrastructure to enable remote learning for students in Gaza adhering to standards of academic quality. Third, transformative research: This is done through partnerships between researchers at Birzeit University, universities globally, and universities in Gaza to undertake research and studies arising from the genocidal assault that are grounded in the priorities of the Palestinian community in Gaza.

In this regard, Birzeit University announced the start of the process of collecting academic data for university students in Gaza; inviting those who wish to aid themselves with the academic support in this emergency and distance education, to register their data on its website. It also invited all its partners from universities, research institutions, academics, individuals and people with humanitarian consciences to support and work together, and to contribute to the initiative by communicating via mail: [email protected]