Scholasticide

The highly controversial charge that Israel deliberately targeted educational sites in Gaza in an attempt to damage Palestinian identity.

Ameera Ahmad and Ed Vulliamy wrote in The Guardian:

A new word emerged from the carnage in Gaza this week: “scholasticide” – the systematic destruction by Israeli forces of centres of education dear to Palestinian society, as the ministry of education was bombed, the infrastructure of teaching destroyed, and schools across the Gaza strip targeted for attack by the air, sea and ground offensives.

The reporters quoted the Oxford academic and former P.L.O. representative Dr Karma Nabulsi as claiming that Israel has, since 1967, attempted the “systematic destruction of Palestinian education”:

Now in Gaza … we see the policy more clearly than ever – this “scholasticide.” The Israelis know nothing about who we really are, while we study and study them. But deep down they know how important education is to the Palestinian tradition and the Palestinian revolution. They cannot abide it and have to destroy it.