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With all 12 of Gaza’s higher education institutions destroyed by Israeli bombs, what next for students, faculty, and the future of Palestinian learning?

In this episode of The Impact Room, host Maysa Jalbout, explores the impact of the war on higher education in Gaza, on both students and teaching staff, as well as the institutions themselves.

We feature interviews with academics trying to keep university teaching going, against all the odds, hear personal stories about life under bombardment, and offer practical ways everyone can help counter the educide.

This episode was recorded on Thursday June 27 – day 265 of the conflict. If you haven’t already, make sure you listen to our earlier interviews with Palestinian medic Dr Ghassen Abu Sittah, and PCRF founder, Steve Sosebee.

Education is central to Palestinian identity and has been an active form of resilience for a people who have for generations had their homes, rights, and livelihoods stolen. It is well known that despite all the challenges of living under occupation, literacy rates in Gaza are among the highest in the world.

In a bid to keep people learning, An Najah National University in the West Bank, in partnership with UNIMED, the Mediterranean Universities Union, and the Palestinian Student Scholarship Fund (PSSF), is spearheading an initiative to share technology and resources to create an e-learning scheme for students in Gaza.

The main aim, explains Dr Saida Affouneh, An Najah's dean of the Faculty of Education, is to keep students and lectures in Gaza to protect the long-term health of institutions and stem the brain drain out of Palestine.

Dr Ihab Nasr, the Dean of Applied Medical Sciences at Al Alzhar University, is one of many academics who has chosen to leave Gaza. He spoke to The Impact Room from Edmonton, Canada, where he has moved to begin a new life with his wife and five children. Dr Nasr is currently teaching nutrition modules via Birzeit University in the West Bank as part of the Rebuilding Hope initiative.

Also working to support students in Gaza is Professor Mahmoud Loubani, a UK-based cardiothoracic surgeon and chair of PalMed Academy, a branch of PalMed Europe, which promotes better healthcare for Palestinians at home and overseas.

In March this year, PalMed Academy launched the Gaza Educate Medics (GEM) initiative to establish a virtual medical college, leveraging the expertise of volunteering academics and consultants worldwide to educate Gaza’s medical students.

Brian Cox was reading “If I must die”, the last poem written by Palestinan academic Refaat Alareer.

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. Find us on social media @PhilanthropyAge

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Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah is no stranger to conflict zones, having spent decades volunteering for medical charities in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq. But the plastic and reconstructive surgeon says his latest experience in Gaza has no parallel.

The scale of the current suffering in Gaza, “the intensity, the ferocity, the viciousness, and the deliberate targeting of the hospitals”, he says, was like "a tsunami”.

Dr Abu-Sittah travelled to Gaza days after Israel began its bombardment in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas. He remained in the besieged enclave for 43 days, working mainly in northern Gaza as a volunteer for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

He was at Al-Ahli Hospital during the massacre on October 17, 2023, and was among the physicians who spoke to news media, surrounded by blood-stained bodies, in the attack’s immediate aftermath. He later gave evidence to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague about what he saw.

In this moving interview with Maysa Jalbout, Dr Abu-Sittah shares his experiences of working in Gaza and what it was like knowing his wife and children were watching him caught up in the attacks in real time on social media.

Since returning home to the UK, he has announced plans to set up The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund to pay for injured Palestinians to receive medical and rehabilitation treatment in Lebanon.

Children have borne the brunt of this latest chapter of conflict in Palestine. Before October 7, there were nearly 200 war-related amputations among young people in Gaza as well as some 2,000 adults living with amputations from earlier conflicts. Dr Abu Sittah says there could now be as many as 5,000 child amputees, with many losing limbs due to an inability to treat what would ordinarily be very salvageable injuries.

Children with amputations need new prosthetics every six to eight months as they grow and could require as many as 12 surgeries before they reach adulthood, he explained. In addition to the physical impact of their injuries, their mental health needs are also “life altering”.

Dr Abu-Sittah was born in Kuwait after his parents were forced from their homes in Palestine in 1948 and became refugees in Gaza. He studied medicine at the University of Glasgow and after completing his Specialist Registrar training in London, he went on to do fellowships in Paediatric Craniofacial Surgery and Cleft Surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Kids and then a fellowship in Trauma Reconstruction at the Royal London Hospital. In 2010 he was awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (Plastic Surgery).

Dr Abu-Sittah has served as an associate professor and head of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Aesthetic Surgery at the American University of Beirut (AUB) Medical Center, in 2015, became a founding director of the Conflict Medicine Program at AUB’s Global Health Institute, and in March was named Rector of the University of Glasgow.

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. Find us on social media @PhilanthropyAge

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Water scarcity is a growing problem around the world, especially in the Middle East, but climate change is only half the story.

In this episode of The Impact Room, we look at the social, economic, and geopolitical importance of water. We explore how its co-option, commodification, and unequal distribution is creating shortages affecting health and livelihoods and fuelling local and regional conflicts.

Join host Maysa Jalbout in conversation with:

• Professor Mark Zeitoun, the director general of the Geneva Water Hub and Professor of Water Diplomacy at the Graduate Institute of Geneva;
• Dr Danilo Turk, the former president of Slovenia, a candidate for UN secretary general in 2016, and a former chair of the Global High-Level Panel on Water;
• Dr Muna Dajani, a fellow at the Geography and Environment Department at LSE, and an expert on community struggles around rights to water and land resources in settler colonial contexts including Palestine and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

They discuss the gaps in global and regional water management, unpack what it means for water to be weaponised (as is the case in the besieged Gaza Strip) and make the case for more philanthropic support for frontline community organisations.

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. Find us on social media @PhilanthropyAge