On Jan. 17, the Israeli military detonated 315 mines to destroy Gaza’s last standing university, al-Israa University, located south of Gaza City. For 70 days prior, the Israelis occupied the university as a military base, posting snipers in its buildings and using it as a detention and interrogation center. According to university authorities, prior to the detonation Israeli soldiers looted the university museum, which contained 3,000 artifacts dating back as far as the Roman era. With al-Israa University’s destruction, Israel has now destroyed or damaged all of Gaza’s 12 universities, and also targeted 280 government schools and 65 UN schools, many of which were sheltering civilians when they were attacked. Al-Israa University Vice President Dr. Ahmed Alhussaina joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss Israel’s war on Gaza’s educational and cultural institutions.
Following that report is a talk given by the late Refaat Al-Areer. Professor Al-Areer was the co-editor of the 2015 anthology Gaza Unsilenced, and the editor of and a contributor to Gaza Writes Back in 2014. He was a founder of the website wearenotnumbers.org . A native of Gaza City's Shijaieh neighborhood, he received his M.A. in Comparative Literature from the University College of London (U.K.). This is a TED Talk he gave in 2016, called 'Stories Make Us'.
Professor Refaat Al-Areer, was killed on December 4th 2023 by an Israeli airstrike, along with his sister and four children. Professor Al-Areer reportedly had gone to stay at his sister's apartment after he had been threatened by Israeli intelligence that they knew his whereabouts and would strike the school where he was seeking refuge.
Why was he targeted? He was a professor of literature, but an outspoken critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. His last poem, written in November 2023 while under the rain of Israeli bombs, is as follows:
- KBOO