Announcing the launch of Friends of Palestinian Universities: Responding to the Emergency Facing Higher Education in Palestine
In 1978, UK and Palestinian academics came together to confront an emergency facing the first internationally recognised university in Palestine, establishing The Friends of Birzeit University (FOBZU). After Birzeit received formal university status in 1975, it was immediately subjected to repressive measures by Israeli occupation authorities. The determination of Birzeit’s faculty and students to keep teaching and learning became a powerful symbol of Palestinian steadfastness.
Fobzu was founded to support this struggle, mobilising international academic solidarity and building lasting links between Palestinian and UK scholars. Over the past five decades, the organisation has defended Palestinians’ right to education, fostered academic exchanges, and strengthened connections across borders.
Palestinian universities: Pillars of existence and beacons of hope
Today, Palestinian higher education faces an unprecedented existential threat. Since October 2023, Israeli military attacks have systematically targeted Gaza’s universities, reducing entire campuses to rubble in an assault described as scholasticide. This campaign aims not only at physical destruction but at erasing the institutional foundations on which education in Palestine depends. Yet in the midst of siege, displacement, starvation, and relentless bombardment, Gaza’s faculty, staff, and students have responded with extraordinary determination. They have resumed teaching and research wherever possible, demonstrating to the world that education in Palestine endures. In May 2024, they declared collectively: “Our universities live on”– and called for urgent, direct international partnership to sustain them.
A renewed commitment
Against this backdrop, our mission has never been more urgent. Palestinian universities are enduring their gravest crisis in modern history, and our work must rise to meet it. Friends of Birzeit University is now Friends of Palestinian Universities, a new name that reflects both our historic roots and the scale of today’s emergency. The destruction in Gaza, combined with escalating attacks in the West Bank, demands urgent, coordinated action. Under our new name, Friends of Palestinian Universities renews its mission: to stand alongside all Palestinian universities, their faculty, staff, and students, as they fight to ensure higher education survives. We are committed to amplifying their collective voices, mobilising international solidarity, and building partnerships that will help safeguard education for today’s students and for generations to come. Palestinian universities remain beacons of resilience and hope, and with renewed purpose, we will work alongside them to ensure their light is not extinguished.
Join us in this fight to ensure that Palestinian universities live on.
