In the Occupied Palestinian Territories, however, Israel routinely blocks international scholars from reaching Palestinian universities and places severe restrictions on their movement, preventing them from fulfilling their scholarly duties and depriving Palestinian students of critical educational opportunities. These actions infringe on Palestinians’ right to education as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Right to Education in Palestine
Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights presents a specific reason for the Right to Education: “Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.” Consistent with the spirit of the entire declaration is the belief that people need to have the freedom to develop their lives to the fullest. Hence the need to have access to work, health, education and housing. And alongside these and others, is the right to justice and freedom of expression. Therefore, an attack on the right to education is an attack on the ensemble of rights that allow individuals to participate fully in the world.
While instances of Palestinian schools being bombed, demolished or invaded by soldiers who destroy equipment and physically harass students, staff and faculty comprise the most direct attacks on Palestinians’ right to education, Israel’s tactic of creating a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare for any international scholar wishing to teach at a Palestinian university constitutes a subtler part of the same broad assault.
Groupe Gaulliste Sceaux 