- Jan 16, 2012
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In a recent letter to the editor of the Bulletin of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, Israel was accused of deliberately bombing and destroying Palestinian universities in Gaza, as well as killing faculty, students and administrator. The letter makes no mention of the killing, raping and kidnapping of Israeli men, women and children on October 7. It does not mention the thousands of rockets fired indiscriminately toward Israeli civilian centers by Hamas. Nor does it mention that Hamas weaponized hospitals, schools and civilian residences throughout Gaza, or that hundreds of Israeli soldiers have been killed and thousands injured in a war that includes lethal ambushes and booby-traps set by an enemy that intentionally embeds itself in a civilian population.
The writer, a professor at a Canadian university, asks Canadian institutions of higher learning to cut ties with Israeli institutions. He also mentions a call by 15 Palestinian universities for the international community to boycott Israeli academic institutions.
How many Palestinian universities are there in Gaza? According to Le Monde, there are 12 universities in Gaza. The Islamic University of Gaza, for example, has 15,000 to 20,000 students and the pictures on the internet portray a handsome cluster of buildings that would be a source of pride to the residents of any country in the world. (I do not know what it looks today after five months of war.) A pharmacy student at the University of Palestine in Gaza (20,000 students) is quoted as saying “Before October 7, Gaza was a pretty pleasant place,” and “My university, not far from the sea, was very nice.”
An Israeli journalist, Roi Yanovsky, who spent three months fighting in Gaza, reported that living conditions in Gaza City are far more luxuriousthan he was led to believe from reading and hearing years of press reports describing crowded and backward conditions—all blamed on the siege conditions imposed by Israel. He notes, “Gaza is a modern, beautiful and developed city—with large and well-equipped houses, wide boulevards, public spaces, a promenade by the sea, and parks. It looks much better than any Arab city from the Jordan River to the sea; it resembles Tel Aviv far more than Kafr Qassem or Umm Al Fahm.” Hardly “an open air prison.”
The writer, a professor at a Canadian university, asks Canadian institutions of higher learning to cut ties with Israeli institutions. He also mentions a call by 15 Palestinian universities for the international community to boycott Israeli academic institutions.
How many Palestinian universities are there in Gaza? According to Le Monde, there are 12 universities in Gaza. The Islamic University of Gaza, for example, has 15,000 to 20,000 students and the pictures on the internet portray a handsome cluster of buildings that would be a source of pride to the residents of any country in the world. (I do not know what it looks today after five months of war.) A pharmacy student at the University of Palestine in Gaza (20,000 students) is quoted as saying “Before October 7, Gaza was a pretty pleasant place,” and “My university, not far from the sea, was very nice.”
An Israeli journalist, Roi Yanovsky, who spent three months fighting in Gaza, reported that living conditions in Gaza City are far more luxuriousthan he was led to believe from reading and hearing years of press reports describing crowded and backward conditions—all blamed on the siege conditions imposed by Israel. He notes, “Gaza is a modern, beautiful and developed city—with large and well-equipped houses, wide boulevards, public spaces, a promenade by the sea, and parks. It looks much better than any Arab city from the Jordan River to the sea; it resembles Tel Aviv far more than Kafr Qassem or Umm Al Fahm.” Hardly “an open air prison.”
Gaza Could Have Been Another Singapore
Hamas, not Israel, is responsible for the tragedy that has unfolded in Gaza.
jewishjournal.com