24 January marks the International Day of Education. This year, the occasion is celebrated under the theme “to invest in people, prioritize education”, to urge States to implement their international commitments and initiatives. Education is indeed a prerequisite for promoting the rule of law and respect for human rights, building stable societies, contributing to poverty eradication, and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), the right to education is systematically violated by the Israeli authorities, whose apartheid policies against Palestinians affect key components of the educational process at all educational levels—ranging from attacks against students and teachers to destruction of premises and equipment.

Due to Israel's legal and physical fragmentation of the Palestinian people, the challenges and obstacles Palestinians face in exercising their right to education vary depending on where they live. In occupied East Jerusalem, Palestinian schools face punitive measures for refusing to teach the Israeli curricula. In the occupied West Bank, many Palestinian students are obliged to pass through Israeli checkpoints to reach their schools, not to mention almost daily raids and attacks on schools, colleges, and universities, as well as arrests, killings, and assaults on students and teachers by both Israeli soldiers and settlers.

In the occupied Gaza Strip, Israel’s 16-year-long settler-colonial closure and related regime of severe restrictions on freedom of movement limit the ability of Palestinian students to study at institutes and universities abroad or in the rest of the OPT, as well as the ability of Palestinian academics and researchers to participate in international conferences. In addition, students may be arbitrarily detained by Israeli authorities when they leave Gaza through Erez.

More generally, Israel’s closure policies against Gaza—part of the collective punishment and apartheid regime to which it subjects more than two million Palestinians in the Strip—have severely hampered the development of the energy sector and resulted in a chronic electricity deficit affecting the adequate provision of educational services, including by preventing the operation of devices in science laboratories necessary for training and education. On top of that, the crisis of Gaza’s education system has been further exacerbated by the lack of schools and overcrowded classrooms, which have led to the implementation of a double-shift system and the use of the courtyards of large schools to build new ones. All these challenges have undermined Palestinians’ right to education and to enjoy an adequate learning environment.

Gaza’s dire economic and humanitarian conditions resulting from the closure have led to a sharp deterioration in living conditions, rising unemployment rates—particularly among college graduates—and increasing poverty rates. Many students in Gaza have been unable to pay university fees or purchase books and notebooks, and their families have had to postpone their studies or prioritize men’s education over women's.

Gaza’s education sector is also repeatedly subjected to both limited and full-scale military attacks by Israel, including through deliberate targeting of educational facilities or nearby premises. Alarmingly, Al Mezan’s documentation also shows that since 2008, Israel killed 1,383 Palestinians enrolled in educational facilities in the Gaza Strip, inflicted total and partial damage to 571 educational facilities—including 538 schools—and arrested 143 Palestinian students.

Al Mezan stresses that education is a basic human right that empowers people to overcome poverty and destitution. The daily practices and crimes of the Israeli authorities constitute serious violations of human rights conventions, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and international humanitarian law, which prohibits attacks on educational facilities.

Accordingly, Al Mezan calls on the international community to fulfill its moral and legal obligations vis-à-vis the Palestinian people and to pressure Israel to cease its practices and assaults on Palestinian educational facilities and end the closure and blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip, as this hampers any development efforts exercised to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for Palestinian students in Gaza. Al Mezan also calls on UN agencies and international donor institutions to strengthen cooperation with educational service providers and support local efforts to develop the education system.