Wanna destroy a people in whole or in part? In other words, commit genocide – as genocide is defined under international law?

You don’t need gas chambers, firing squads, and deep ditches.

Just destroy their schools and universities. Bomb their libraries, archives and cultural institutions; seize their historical records. Make it as hard as possible to go to their kids to go to school.

According to a late August report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 10,600 children and 400 teachers had been killed in Israeli military operations by August 2024, and more than 15,300 students and 2,400 teachers injured.

“With more than 80% of schools in Gaza damaged or destroyed,” a group of UN experts declared in April, “it may be reasonable to ask if there is an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as ‘scholasticide’,” the experts wrote.

The GPM spoke with the statement’s lead author.

First, listen to this: two attorneys for the government of South Africa, in January, arguing South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, in The Hague. Tembeka Ngcukaitobi is a South African lawyer and legal scholar, and a member of South Africa’s Judicial Services Commission. Blinne Ni Grahleigh is an Irish human rights and international law expert at Matrix Chambers, in London.

Listen to Ngcukaitobi and Ni Grahleigh in today’s podcast. Click on the play button above, or go here.

Little kids go to school in Hebron, occupied Palestine (David Kattenburg)

Numbers speak louder than words.

Since Israel’s assault on Gaza began, back on October 7, at least two thirds of the besieged enclave’s educational facilities have been damaged or destroyed. Israa University, the last remaining higher educational institution in Gaza, was demolished on January 17.

Today, over 600 thousand Gazan students have no access to education.

Or books. Thirteen Gaza public libraries are now in ruins. Some 200 heritage sites, 227 mosques and three churches have also been damaged or destroyed. Among these, Gaza 7th century Omari Mosque, a center of Islamic faith and learning, demolished in an Israeli airstrike back in December. A Hamas stronghold, the Israeli military said.

Gaza’s Central Archives, repository of 150 years of Palestinian history, is reportedly in ruins.

Over the past year, Israeli military forces have killed at least 5500 students, 260 teachers and 95 university professors. The GPM reached out to Farida Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education.

Listen to our conversation in today’s podcast. Click on the play button above, or go here.

Palestinian astrophysicist Imad Barghouthi – jailed by Israel on multiple occasions

Getting an elementary, secondary or university education in Palestine these days is one thing. Doing top-drawer scientific research is another. That’s what Yousef Najajreh has been doing for quite a number of years, under Israel military occupation and apartheid. Najajreh is a molecular pharmacologist in the faculties of Bethlehem and Al-Quds Universities, in occupied Palestine.

I’ve spoken and hung out with Yousef on a host of occasions, most recently this past May. Here’s a conversation of ours from back in 2022 – in the midst of Covid – in the wake of Israeli government legislation clamping down on visits by foreign academics to Palestinian campuses.

From Yousef, we’ll segue to Palestine’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, speaking to the International Court of Justice back in February, on the opening day of hearings on the legal consequences of Israel’s ‘prolonged’ occupation of Palestine.

Yousef Najajreh in his lab, Al-Quds University (David Kattenburg)