The struggles of education during the occupation

ABSTRACT:
This research aims to answer the main question what did Palestinians
do to not make education a struggle? Throughout this research other
indirect questions were answered, like: did the war affect the people
education wise? Did Palestinians overcome this struggle? Interviews
were conducted to answer the main aim of this research. And the
indirect questions were answered by the analysis of the interviewees
answers as well as outside sources.

INTRODUCTION:
A research has documented that Palestinians particularly after 1967
survived horrifying events that were very intense, and they have always
struggled with cruel military rule and a lack of civil, political, and human
rights. (Allen, 2008). All these events have affected youths, where
another research reported that a lot of young Palestinians are reluctant
on whether they should leave their homeland because of the
occupation or not. (Phoenix, 2016).
With all these struggles the education struggle remains a question, a
researcher has documented that During the time of the wars the
education system in Palestine, specifically within the west bank and
Gaza strip were under the guidance of Jordan and Egypt. The textbooks
provided were based on Jordanian and Egyptian educational
philosophies. However, after the wars settled the Israeli military force
took control over the Palestinian educational system. Basically, the
same books were used in the academic institutions but were censored
by the Israeli military’s education director. Years later in the 90’s,
Palestinians started to design their own textbooks and embedded
materials about Palestine, and they took responsibility for it (ALAYAN,
2015).
These researches have shown the struggles of Palestinians in general,
however although the information provided by the researches are
historical facts and are based on real life evidence, they still do not
answer the aim of this research. which is: what did Palestinians do to
not make education a struggle? therefore this research aims to answer
this question.

METHODS:
To answer the main question of the research, an interview was
conducted with my grandparents, both with different educational
backgrounds, my grandfather studied his primary and secondary
studies in Palestine but in different cities and for his higher education
he has a bachelor’s degree from Qatar university. My grandmother on
the other hand only has primary educated, meaning she was educated
till fourth grade as she had to take care of her twin siblings.
Interviewing different people with various background information in
order to get a wider range of answers instead of focusing on a specific
background.
Another interview was made with a man (Anees) with different
educational backgrounds from different Arab countries. He took his
degrees from Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. This interview was mainly
conducted to back up the information gathered from the first
interviews.
RESULTS:
When asked about the origins of the curriculum given, all interviewees
agreed that the curriculum given to them during school was a Jordanian
curriculum and not Egyptian. Of course, given that they all studied in
the same cities maybe other cities were taught with the Egyptian
curriculum but regardless all agreed that there were barely any
noticeable differences between the Jordanian curriculum in Jordan and
the Jordanian curriculum in Palestine. My grandmothers’ point of view
is what stood out for me during this part of the interview. She was only
educated till the fourth grade, so I asked how did she come to the
conclusion that the curriculums aren’t that different?, and she said that
she started teaching her children and would get educated on the
world’s history from them, but she mentioned that they didn’t study
about Palestine in schools a lot or focus on it, and that’s how she taught
them about the Palestinian history. Her kids were taught in Qatar and
so was I, however the biggest difference is that they at least got a brief
idea of the Palestinian conflict but my generation came we weren’t
taught all these things, although our generation might even be more
important to get educated on this issue.
Both my grandfather and Anees said that as far as they know the
curriculums weren’t under the control of Israel, and that they didn’t
censor parts of textbooks, the curriculums were under the control of
Jordan mostly. But then again different cities might have different
experiences.
Those were the interviewees answers to the questions asked, to get an
overview of the education studies by the eyes of students during the
occupation. However, what does their answers mean? Therefore
further analysis to their answers has been done to answer the research
question.
Discussion:
Like any war in the world this war paused the education for students,
they couldn't get to their schools, some even didn't continue their
journey of learning, or even didn’t get the chance to start a family.
However, this war specifically is different, The holocaust and the wars
that happened in Palestine were never mentioned in the books of
people in other countries, nobody was ever taught that Palestine was
suffering and needed other countries help, and if you were a citizen in
those countries and you wanted to know about this information you
had to listen to the biased media coverage or look up documentaries
for yourself. So, the first part will discuss what exactly did Palestine do
to not make education a struggle in war -for their people-. And will then
discuss the effect of other people’s knowledge on this issue.
First, what exactly did Palestine do to not make education a struggle in
war:
They taught their children about the truth in the war that they are
suffering from. And this can be seen through my grandmother’s
answer, although she was educated till the 4th grade she still had
information about the conflict -in details- to share with the next
generations. This wasn’t achieved only through her hard work, but also
via her country, and what it did to help keep the name of Palestine
high, pure and truthful. They would always have events/festivals with
Palestinian songs in the background even during the rough times, as
well as reading from books, magazines and TV series and
documentaries all clearing the name of Palestine that the false media
shows.
Secondly, to not make education a struggle to their people they had to
make their own textbooks, with Palestinian philosophers writing them,
therefore after 1994 Palestinians tried to embed their own information
into the Jordanian textbooks, and then years later they tried to come
up with their own curriculum to teach their students. To show the
world that you are capable of doing the most even at your worst times.
This was supposed to be taken as an opportunity to other countries to
do the basic minimum and teach their children about Palestine -not
necessarily in textbooks but as stories or outside school activities- and
that they overcame this struggle to let kids see Palestinians as role
models and tell future generations about it. This of course branched
out and Palestine now has a bunch of Palestinians schools in a number
of Arab countries studying the Palestinian curriculum, for example
Qatar, Lebanon etc.
Lastly, what is the education of outsiders on the knowledge of the
Palestinian conflict? This would be the next step for this research, and
this would be your role as a reader, to share the Palestinian point of
view to the world, change the medias biased perspective, tell the world
about what's happening, share what you learned to your countries, and
bring out new generations that raise the name of Palestine and is proud
of what they have done in their history. It's not hard Palestinians have
done their best to raise their voice and overcome this struggle and to
share their curriculums with other countries, but are other countries
willing to raise awareness about what's happening in Palestine?
CONCLUSION:
To conclude Palestine Palestinians struggled with overcoming achieved
overcoming the struggles of education during the war and right now
they're trying to achieve spreading the knowledge of the truth about
their country and their culture to everyone outside.
Reference:
Allen,L, Getting by the Occupation: How Violence Became Normal
during the Second Palestinian Intifada. In 2008, pp. 453-487.
Palestinian University Students: Narrating Life Under Occupation by
Aisha Phoenix. In 2016
The Holocaust in Palestinian Textbooks: Differences and Similarities in
Israel and Palestine by: SAMIRA ALAYAN in 2015