UN rapporteur warns of systematic destruction of education in Gaza

United Nations special rapporteurs warned on Thursday about the systematic destruction of education and media in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Farida Shaheed, the rapporteur on the right to education, delivered these remarks during a briefing at UN headquarters in New York. She addressed the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People regarding the ongoing crisis.

Shaheed stated that the world continues to witness scholasticide, which she defined as the systemic obliteration of education. She described the situation in Gaza as horrendous. According to her assessment, ninety-eight percent of schools and all thirteen universities have been destroyed in the enclave. This widespread damage has severely impacted the educational infrastructure available to Palestinian children.

The rapporteur reported that almost twenty-one thousand Palestinian students have been killed. She noted that this loss equates to a classroom of children every day during the war on Gaza. Shaheed explained that this destruction aims to uproot Palestinian society. She characterized scholasticide as multigenerational because it dismantles the foundation of society. It seeks to erase history and destroy a sense of collective self among the population.

In the occupied West Bank, ten out of forty-eight schools were demolished in East Jerusalem last September. Shaheed cited two hundred twenty-four security incidents in the first half of the year. These events affected one hundred fifty-two schools and over twenty thousand students. At least eight hundred fifty-nine educational personnel were also impacted. Settler violence has displaced at least one thousand seven hundred children from school since the beginning of the period.

Since October 2023, Israel has killed nearly three hundred journalists and media workers in Gaza. Shaheed argued that silencing witnesses conceals crimes and makes impunity part of the plan. She noted that more than one thousand five hundred Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire was announced last year. The rapporteur urged states to suspend arms transfers and protect journalists. She warned that history will judge those who merely watched the events unfold.