The following is a running list of digitally-published ephemera collected and archived by the editors from social media platforms such as X and Instagram, which describe Israel’s scholasticide in Gaza. Social media offers a temporal continuity that other forms of media are not so quick to replicate. This ephemera offers a way to testify on each other's behalf. It is also a reminder—as many students and faculty around the world have gone “back to school” this fall—that there are no universities left in Gaza, that students in Gaza cannot attend school, that access to school and education everywhere is asymmetrically distributed and too often a site of violence.
At the same time, the posts demonstrate the determination to continue to share knowledge and to create new spaces for pedagogy in Gaza. And when archived and read together, beyond the feed, beyond the context of social media, these posts bear witness to and become evidence against genocide.
Haneen Salem (@haneen.maher.salem), September 10, 2024
I found Abdullah Al-Za'anin, 12 years old from Beit Hanoun, lying next to his school bag. His gaze was heavy with pain, so I asked him, "What are you doing here?" He quietly replied, "I'm looking at the school where I was supposed to be playing with my friends right now. But the war has forced me to live here, after my home was destroyed and my friends were martyred. My soccer ball is torn, but I still love studying. My bag, which once carried my books, now carries the weight of constant displacement. We, the children of Gaza, live in a state of loss. All I dream of is something simple: to play and study. Is that too much to ask? Is that a crime we should be punished for?" #childrennotnumbers
Nour Naim (@نُور NourNaim88), September 9, 2024
A man was selling books to falafel shops and bakeries in #Gaza, until a stranger came and said, “I’ve bought all your books. Let the children take whichever they want in honor of what should have been the first day of school.”
Maha Hussaini (@MahaGaza), September 5, 2024
Spotted in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip. For the 2nd consecutive year, around 700,000 Palestinian students in Gaza are denied their right to education due to the ongoing Israeli genocide. Yet, people still pause at this street stall, asking for the price of school backpacks.
PALESTINE ONLINE (@OnlinePalEng), August 27, 2024
“I didn't expect my school backpack would be used to carry belongings.” 12-year-old Shahad Abu Tayr dreams of going back to school and packing notebooks inside her school bag instead of clothes for every time she and her family are displaced in Gaza.
حسام شبات @HossamShabat, August 10, 2024
On these days, I was supposed to be walking the stage, graduating from college. Instead, I'm picking up bags of charred, dismembered bodies of women and children who were killed by Israeli occupation forces.
Sawporg (@sawporg), July 30, 2024
The Israeli occupation detonated a school in the Al-Qarara area, north of Khan Yunis. Most of Gaza's schools have been destroyed. All of Gaza’s universities & hospitals have been destroyed. #GazaGenocide #Scholasticide
PALESTINE ONLINE (@OnlinePalEng), July 15, 2024
Doctors from Gaza hold board exams for medical students in the reception and orthopaedic departments, showing greater determination amid the ongoing Israeli war on the besieged strip.
Eman (@emangaza48), July 13, 2024
This pile of rubble used to be my university. Israel destroyed every single university in Gaza. Along with more than 390 other educational institutions. This is scholasticide.
Gaza Great Minds (@GazaGreatMinds), July 13, 2024
Join the children for a school day in our tent in the south. The teachers try to give the students love and routine: Starting the day by greeting them at the door. #wewillreadagain
Nour Naim (نُور @NourNaim88), July 12, 2024
Today, #Gaza mourns the sudden loss of Wahiba Aboumutlak, a beloved Algerian teacher of English & French at Rosary Sisters School. Known for her dedication to educating & supporting Palestinian students, she passed away from a heart attack in Gaza, far from her family in Algeria.
Sawporg (@sawporg), July 12, 2024
Amidst genocide & #scholasticide Palestinians continuously practice sumud & fight for life. Anas Al-Qanou defended his doctoral thesis remotely from the remains of his home in Gaza. His PhD is in physics & nanotechnology from Malaysia University of Science and Technology.
Motasem A Dalloul (@AbujomaaGaza), July 11, 2024
Resilient Palestinian PhD student Anas al Qanoa submits and discusses his thesis from his partially destroyed house in Gaza!
UCU (@ucu), June 3, 2024
Incredibly important letter from our colleagues in Gaza “We built these universities from tents. And from tents, with the support of our friends, we will rebuild them once again.”
Fobzu (@fobzu), May 29, 2024
Urgent call from Gaza academics and staff to resist the ongoing campaign of scholasticide, support the rebuilding of demolished universities, and “refuse all plans seeking to bypass, erase, or weaken the integrity of our academic institutions.” Open letter by Gaza academics and university administrators to the world
UNICEF (@UNICEF), June 2, 2024
“I meet many children here in Gaza who tell me that they want to go back to school and that they miss learning and their friends.” In April, UNICEF's Tess Ingram visited a destroyed school in Khan Younis. Children need a ceasefire now.
Defense for Children (@DCIPalestine), May 28, 2024
Rimas, 11, survived for two days under the rubble of her family's home after Israeli forces bombed it in Gaza. Now, she and her family are displaced, and Rimas wants to go back to school.
TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza), December 12, 2023
A joyous session for children inside an UNRWA school used as a shelter for displaced people in Central Gaza.
UNICEF (@UNICEF), September 15, 2014
Gaza: half million students return to school - first week devoted to psychosocial support http://uni.cf/X3k9aL
سعد @sawtdakhili, August 23, 2014
Tomorrow it's back to school in #Gaza for schools who haven't been destroyed.
Tomorrow it's back to school in #Gaza for kids who still wake up every morning to teach the rest of the world life.
It's back to school tomorrow in #Gaza. I mean, for kids who didn't die.
Tomorrow it's back to school in #Gaza for kids who aren't traumatized.
“Back to School” is part of the second installment of the Gaza Pages, an ongoing editorial project at the Avery Review.