Education Repression Liberation Palestinians

Deals with effect of the repression and dispersion of the Palestinians on their access to education, the quality of the education they receive, and their response to it, focusing on Israel (within its 1948 borders and the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip), and Lebanon. Also briefly examines the way in which other Palestinian communities in the Arab world have evolved and how they have been affected by national educational policies in the host countries and the role of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in providing education to the Palestinians.

Includes statistical tables.

This book makes a major contribution to educational research and literature in exploring process of educational reform in the period of Political transition in Palestine. It is aimed at describing the journey of changing Palestinian primary education and the legacy of establishing the first national education system in Palestine as well as the introduction of a number of educational reforms. The introduction of new educational reforms was urgently needed in order to achieve quality education in Palestinian schools. This was particularly crucial after the prolonged military occupation, which left the education system in a perilous situation and lowered education achievements for a whole generation. The book explores an attempt to retrieve Palestinian education after a prolonged period of military occupation and to rescue the education system from collapsing. It tells the story of reshaping national identity and reviving Palestinian heritage and culture. Therefore, this book is the first one of its kind that captures the story of education reform against a background of struggle that should not be forgotten. It documents a unique period of time in Palestinian history and highlights the beginning of an education system in Palestinians’ hands. Moreover, this book presents real life stories from Palestinian schools and shows the real struggle over power and control in the education system in Palestine.

Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s seven-week bombing campaign and ground invasion of Gaza in the summer of 2014, resulted in half a million displaced Gazans, tens of thousands of destroyed homes, and more than 2,000 deaths—and, yet, it was only the latest in a long series of assaults endured by Palestinians isolated in Gaza. But, following the conflict, polls revealed a startling fact: for the first time, a majority of Americans under thirty found Israel’s actions unjustified. Jon Stewart aired a blistering attack on Israeli violence, and a video of a UN spokesperson weeping as he was interviewed in Gaza went viral, appearing on Vanity Fair and Buzzfeed, among other sites. This book traces this swelling American recognition of Palestinian suffering, struggle, and hope, in writing that is personal, lyrical, anguished, and inspiring. Some of the leading writers of our time, such as Junot Díaz and Teju Cole, poets and essayists, novelists and scholars, Palestinian American activists like Huwaida Arraf, Noura Erakat, and Remi Kanazi, give voice to feelings of empathy and solidarity—as well as anger at US support for Israeli policy—in intimate letters, beautiful essays, and furious poems. This is a landmark work of controversial, committed literary writing.

After the 1994 Oslo Accords, Palestinians were hopeful that an end to the Israeli occupation was within reach, and that a state would be theirs by 1999. With this promise, international powers became increasingly involved in Palestinian politics, and many shadows of statehood arose in the territories. Today, however, no state has emerged, and the occupation has become more entrenched. Concurrently, the Palestinian Authority has become increasingly authoritarian, and Palestinians ever more polarized and demobilized. Palestine is not unique in this: international involvement, and its disruptive effects, have been a constant across the contemporary Arab world. This book argues that internationally backed authoritarianism has an effect on society itself, not just on regime-level dynamics. It explains how the Oslo paradigm has demobilized Palestinians in a way that direct Israeli occupation, for many years, failed to do. Using a multi-method approach including interviews, historical analysis, and cutting-edge experimental data, Dana El Kurd reveals how international involvement has insulated Palestinian elites from the public, and strengthened their ability to engage in authoritarian practices. In turn, those practices have had profound effects on society, including crippling levels of polarization and a weakened capacity for collective action.

"This timely volume critically assesses the state of education in Palestine, reframing the discourse on Israel-Palestine through the lens of education, and arguing for a paradigm shift in the way education in the region is studied, managed, and experienced. Foregrounding the voices, commentaries, and reflections of Palestinians as well as touching on differing elements of educational experience that define Palestinian identities, the book highlights that educational change in Palestine is inseparable from the need to change the politics and understanding of education in western societies. Chapters introduce the holistic concept of the lifeworld curriculum which proposes the idea that education cannot be conceived solely in relation to physical, educational spaces, but in addition should acknowledge the conceptual spaces of civil society, communities, and the world of work (the basic structures of Palestinian lives), in order to reinforce the idea that circumstances teach. Ultimately challenging western educators to rethink their approaches to education and learning in order to build a stronger global platform for human rights, democratic engagement and justice, this book will be of value to scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students in international and comparative education, multicultural education, and educational change and reform more broadly"--

Presents the history of modern Palestine and biographies of important Palestinians.