For Immediate Release
Contact: austinacademicsfjp@gmail.com
Faculty to Hold Silent Vigil to Mourn Palestinian Scholars Killed in Scholasticide
Austin, TX – April 26, 2024
On Monday, April 29th, the final day of classes, at noon on the south steps of the Tower, faculty wearing graduation caps and gowns will gather for a silent vigil to mourn Palestinian scholars whom Israel has killed and Palestinian educational institutions that Israel has destroyed. Oxford Professor Karma Nabulsi coined the term “scholasticide” in 2009 when Israel damaged fourteen of Gaza’s fifteen institutions of higher education. But the term, combining the Latin prefix schola (school) and suffix cide (killing), also refers to Israel’s attacks on Palestinian educational life stretching back to the first Nakba of 1948.
“Universities in the United States have become ground zero for the Palestine solidarity movement,” said Karma Chávez, professor of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at UT. “But universities in Gaza have literally been bombed to the ground. As US scholars, we have an obligation to draw attention to how Israel is intentionally annihilating schools and universities and killing our colleagues.”
Since October 2023, Israel has killed more than 230 teachers, 94 professors, and 4,000 students, many of them medical and dental faculty and students caught in Israel’s targeted attacks on medical infrastructure. Because of Israel’s unceasing attacks, more than 90,000 Palestinian university students have been unable to continue their studies this year in Gaza.
“This cannot continue,” said Lauren Gutterman, associate professor of American Studies at UT. “We have an obligation to address the impacts of this genocide on the human right to education.”
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UT Austin Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine 