Education as Resistance

Abstract

Palestinian access to higher education under the Israeli occupation is heavily restricted, amounting to substantial violations of international human rights laws and norms. The obstacles Palestinian university students face range from movement restriction to university closure to detention, on which this research focuses specifically. The detention of university students is often politically motivated—evidenced in the deliberate targeting of student government representatives, pending graduates, and those sitting for final exams, for example—as the Israeli occupation forces have identified the potential for empowerment inherent to university education, which poses an undeniable threat to an oppressive regime. As a result of this restricted access and in conjunction with its potential for political, social, and economic empowerment, Palestinians have attached a heightened cultural meaning to education, likening it to resistance. Accordingly, in Palestinian society, the struggle for education is linked to the wider struggle for liberation, and the former is considered to be integral to the success of the latter. This thesis will thus focus on the historical and social trends by which the connection between education and resistance developed in light of obstacles to access such as student detention.