Save Education... Save Palestine

In a time when worries pile upon people's chests like unyielding mountains, the discussion about education seems akin to beating drums in a desert where no one hears. Nevertheless, this pain remains worthy of being voiced; for what is truly painful is that education has become our last priority, the last item we remember, and the last door we knock on, as if the future of generations is not measured by the weight of the homeland, nor written with the ink of teachers, nor drawn on children's notebooks.

It is sorrowful that education is gradually turning into a commodity accessible only to those who can afford to catch the train of private schools, while the children of the poor stand on the sidewalks of waiting, waving their dreams like a drowning person waving their hands in search of a lifebuoy that does not come.

It is shameful that many years have passed since COVID-19, and after successive strikes, invasions, reduced working hours, and online education, we have not heard, despite all this, of a courageous, genuine government plan worthy of the magnitude of the disaster that has struck the educational structure at its roots.

Instead, we have seen, unbelievably, a widespread educational devastation akin to land hit by drought, and above this rubble, conferences with embellished lights are being built, glossy programs, and educational celebrations from an alternate world, a world that does not hear the cries of the weary teacher, nor sees the lost tears of the student, nor feels the pain of the mother who has become a teacher against her will. A world afflicted by schizophrenia; raising shiny slogans and boasting of elegant images that reflect nothing of the bitterness of reality.

What is terrifying is that we do not feel ashamed.
That we are not ashamed of the loss of the student, nor of the broken teacher, nor of the wound of the school, nor of a future being stolen from us while we watch.

And it is disgraceful... that we do not care.
That we wake up every day as if nothing has happened.
That we get used to educational loss just as we get accustomed to changing seasons, and accept the breaking of the educational process just as we accept the repetition of political pain.

The strike... a new wound on old wounds

The current strike is not just a stop in working hours. It is an educational earthquake that strikes the teacher, the student, and the school together. For five years, schools have been open one day and closed the next week, working hours have been reduced, lessons have been postponed, and curricula have fragmented under the weight of invasions, closures, and tensions.

How can a child build his mind in an environment that is destroyed every day?
How can a teacher teach when she has not yet received her rights?
How can exhausted schools graduate strong generations when they can barely stand on their feet?

Education... is not a small detail, but the soul of the homeland

Palestine, from which much has been taken, has continued to cling to one weapon that the occupation cannot confiscate: the Palestinian mind.
That mind that faced injustice with knowledge, defended identity with understanding, and raised the name of the homeland with its pens before raising it with anything else.

But this mind today is exposed to the most dangerous attempts to wear it down in decades.
Neglecting education is not an administrative error... it is a national crime.
Abandoning schools to their fates is not negligence... it is a silent demolition of the future.

For the teacher standing before the blackboard is the same one who carries the homeland on his shoulders, and the student sitting innocently before the lesson is a future scientist, or doctor, or engineer, or leader, or martyr writing history.

Letting them get lost is a loss for Palestine, not just for the school term.
Until when?
Until when will the student remain waiting for relief while his skills fall day after day?
Until when will the teacher stand broken, teaching while unable to protect his most basic rights?
Until when will education remain in a dying homeland besieged by closures, strikes, invasions, and reduced working hours?

Five years of chaos are enough to collapse an entire system, so how about a system that is already being fought against by occupation, economic pressure, and political unrest?

If we do not act now, we will wake up after years to a generation that does not possess the tools of knowledge, does not own the language of the homeland, and sees the school as nothing but a distant memory.
A call from the homeland
Save education... for it is the beating heart of Palestine.
Save the teacher... for he is its mind and conscience.
Save the student... for he is its future and life.
Save Palestine... for it rises with knowledge before anything else.

Education is not a luxury to be postponed, nor a sector to be bargained over.
Education is our last weapon, our deepest battle, and our most sacred cause.

And no nation has been defeated except when the light of its teachers has gone out, and its pen has fallen, and it has failed to protect its school seats.

Oh Allah, bear witness... that we write with ink that resembles blood:
Save education before Palestine is lost from the books of its children.