Category: Education

RAMALLAH, Monday– Over 220 scholars from 14 Latin American countries have recently condemned Israel as an apartheid state.

The scholars signed a statement pledging to refuse participation in academic exchanges or collaborations with, and to decline funding from complicit Israeli institutions or the State of Israel, as reported by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

The scholars further call on Latin American universities to suspend cooperation with Israeli institutions complicit in Israel’s regime of military occupation and apartheid, until Israel respects the UN-stipulated political and human rights of the Palestinian people.

Among the signatories are Afro-Dominican anthropologist Ochy Curiel, Colombian anthropologist Arturo Escobar, Maya-Kaqchikel thinker Aura Cumes Simón, Chilean historians Igor Alexis Goicovic Donoso and Sergio Grez Toso, Chilean artist Ingrid Wildi Merino, Argentine philosopher (based in Mexico) Silvana Rabinovich, Colombian philosophers María del Rosario Acosta and Laura Quintana, and Chilean philosopher Rodrigo Karmy Bolton.

Earlier this month, Amnesty International issued a detailed report finding Israel guilty of the crime against humanity of apartheid.

Amnesty’s report, which follows similar reports last year by Human Rights Watch and prominent Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, concludes that institutions should refrain from or cease activities that “contribute to maintaining the system of apartheid.”

Israeli universities have long played a key role in developing, maintaining implementing and justifying Israeli apartheid.

The pledge from Latin American scholars forms part of the unprecedented wave of effective solidarity measures from academics and academic departments around the world, prompted by Israel’s ongoing violent escalation of its brutal policies dispossessing Indigenous Palestinians.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Stanford University has announced that Bassam Dally, a Palestinian-Australian academic, has been listed among the 2% of scientists worldwide.

Dally’s research interests include combustion science, aerodynamics, heat transfer, applied optics, computational fluid dynamics, and renewable energy including wind, solar and tidal wave.

His current research is focused on developing cost-effective and innovative technologies that deliver carbon mitigation under the circular carbon economy approach. In particular, he is working on technology solutions to decarbonize heavy industries through flexible integration of renewable sources such electrification, hydrogen and ammonia combustion and concentrated solar thermal.

“A culmination of 30 years of cumulative effort and a journey of migration, hard work and perseverance,” Dally said in post he made on Facebook. “While I’m proud of my academic achievements, I’m also proud of my advocacy work and many contributions to the Palestinian community and cause.”

Dally is of Palestinian origin and is precisely from the village of Kafr Yassif, near the Galilea.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency

Israeli occupation forces detained six Palestinian students today and assaulted many others using teargas during an attack on the town of Sa’ir, in the occupied West Bank province of Hebron, according to witnesses.

Clashes erupted between the Israeli occupation army and Palestinian students shortly following an Israeli raid of the town. The soldiers fired live gunshots and teargas towards the students, causing many cases of suffocation from gas inhalation.

The forces also detained six Palestinian students during the clashes. They were identified as Jamal Jaradat, Saber Jaradat, Mohammad Arafat Jaradat, Yousef Jaradat, and Nizar Jaradat.

Earlier last night, the Israeli occupation forces detained six Palestinians, including two siblings, during a raid of Silat al-Harithiya town in the northern West Bank province of Jenin.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research condemned the Israeli occupation storming of Birzeit University at dawn Tuesday.

The Ministry decried in a press statement the Israeli military raid into the university campus, resulting in the sabotaging of the campus contents, attacking its guards, injuring a student with a rubber pullet, and arresting another from his home in Kafr Ni’ma town, west of Ramallah.

The Ministry stressed that “these attacks constitute a severe violation of all international laws and conventions that criminalize any violation of the sanctity of universities and educational institutions.”

It also emphasized on the fact that “these attacks will never break our will; Rather, we will be more adherent to the education and learning process.”

In this regard, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has renewed its call to the Union of International Universities, Union of Arab Universities, and all international and human rights institutions to expose these violations and attacks against educational institutions.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the raid as an integral part of the incessant Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people and a gross violation of international norms and laws.

It called upon the international community and competent United Nations organizations, particularly the UNESCO, to speak out against Israeli assaults on educational institutions and take all necessary measures, under international law, to ensure protection of the Palestinian people along with its educational institutions.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

The Israeli army closed this morning and without warning the checkpoint that separates Shufat refugee camp from its environs and Jerusalem city center curtailing movement of students commuting to their schools outside the walled camp and employees working in the city who missed their classes and work, reported WAFA correspondent.

She said that thousands of people were not able to leave the camp to their destinations this morning after the army abruptly closed the checkpoint to traffic causing a huge traffic jam.

Shufat refugee camp is located within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem but was separated from it with a huge 8-meter-high concrete wall and a checkpoint built in 2004 and has a population of more than 25,000 people. It is administered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

The checkpoint restricts the daily life of over 70,000 people living behind the wall.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Damascus, With participation of researchers from inside Syria and expatriates ,Higher Institute for Earthquake Studies & Research (HIESR) organized on Sunday its 1st international conference on Building Engineering entitled “Towards More Sustainable Facilities” at Reda Saaed Center in Damascus University.

The participants reviewed ,during several sessions, a set of researches about the latest technologies used at the construction field on the international level in addition to the optimal usage of the power and natural resources in a way that ensures its sustainability and allows developing smart and long-term systems that ensure the efficiency of the facilities along with preserving the environment.

President of Damascus University ,Muhammad Yasar Abdeen, said that organizing such conferences by Damascus University stresses its determination to secure all what is possible of technology to fulfill the society needs and achieve the self-sufficiency that constitutes the main pillar for supporting the national economy and contribute to comprehensive development with cooperation and partnership of all parties to benefit from the expertise and unify the national efforts of institutions and individuals till reaching the desires target.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

Syria and Pakistan signed an agreement on Monday to boost cooperation between the two friendly countries in the educational and cultural domains.

Minister of Education Darem Tabbaa, and Pakistani Minister of Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood signed the agreement which opens the door for the two friendly countries to consolidate cooperation and exchange expertise in the cultural and educational domains, according to SANA correspondent in the Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan.

The agreement was inked at the building of the Pakistani Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training in Islamabad.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

The Private Faculty of Theology, which is considered as the first of its kind in Syria for the study of Christian theology, was inaugurated in Damascus on Saturday.

The opening ceremony was attended by Minister of Presidential Affairs Mansour Azzam, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Bassam Ibrahim, Patriarch of Antioch and the whole East for Melkite Greek Catholic Yousef al–Absi and a number of Christian clergymen, and cultural and media activities.

In his speech, Patriarch al-Absi said that the college was established under the Legislative Decree no. 6 for the year 2019, issued by President Bashar al-Assad.

Appreciating Syria’s First Lady Mrs. Asma al-Assad’s great keenness, Patriarch al-Absi added that the opening of this scientific edifice comes to crown the long journey in the path of virtue and science that began years ago and hasn’t stopped.

The motto of the message that we carry is “virtue and science” which is reflected in the openness to all religions, holy books, and sacred religious teachings went on saying Patriarch al–Absi.

Patriarch Al-Absi expressed the hope that this college would be a small center for distinguished, contemporary oriental theologian thoughts, which interacts with its environment.

For his part, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research stressed that the college is the first of its kind academically on the level of Syria in terms of teaching theology and qualifying specialized and distinguished cadres who possess scientific and research capabilities.

Syria, which has rejected all forms of submission, proves today that it is the country of tolerance, the cradle of Christianity, the incubator of Islam, and the minaret of moderation in its cultural depth, rejection of extremism, violence, hatred and discrimination among the components of the Syrian society, the Minister asserted.

Based on the Legislative Decree no. 6 for the year 2019, the college, which is owned by the Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East of the Melkite Greek Catholics grants a university degree in theology only.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

Dozens of schoolgirls suffocated this morning when Israeli soldiers fired teargas at them as they were heading to their school in al-Lubban al-Sharqiya village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, according to local sources.

They said that the soldiers attacked the girl students near the school located on the main Ramallah-Nablus road, firing teargas in their direction and causing a large number of suffocation cases estimated at over 70.

A soldier hit one of the students with his gun causing her pain and bruises in the arm. She was taken to hospital.

Classes were disrupted as a result.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Syria and Iran have signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the domain of higher education and scientific research.

The memo was signed on Wednesday in Tehran by Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Dr. Bassam Ibrahim and Iranian Minister of Health and Medical Education Dr. Bahram Einollahi in the presence of the accompanying delegation to Ibrahim and Syria’s Ambassador to Iran Dr. Shafiq Dayoub.

The memo includes the provision of scholarships at the master’s and doctoral levels in various medical specialties, the exchange of researchers and faculty members, visits for qualification and training, participation in scientific activities and medical conferences in both countries, and the benefit of research published in scientific journals.

Minister Ibrahim underlined the importance of the memorandum and its positive effects on the field of higher education, scientific research in medical specializations, and scholarships offered to graduates of Syrian universities.

Ibrahim noted that the cooperation between the two sides in the field of health, medical education and the qualification of human cadres has contributed to supporting the medical and educational sector, especially during the terrorist war that Syria faced over ten years, in addition to the unjust sanctions imposed on it and the Coronavirus pandemic.

In a relevant context, Ali Akbar Velayati, Head of the Board of Trustees of Iran’s Islamic Azad University (IAU), stressed during his meeting with Minister Ibrahim and the accompanying delegation the importance of scientific cooperation between Syrian and Iranian universities.

Minister Ibrahim and the accompanying delegation along with Ambassador Dayoub, also met Dr. Sorena Sattari, Iranian Vice-President for Science and Technology.

Talks during the meeting focused on the need to benefit from Iranian expertise and technology in the medical and engineering fields, in addition to reviewing the aspects of cooperation in the field of nanotechnology and the subsequent steps in this regard.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

Damascus, Education Minister ,Darem Tabbaa, discussed with a delegation of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) ,means of boosting cooperation between the ministry and the organization in a way that brings benefit to the educational process on several levels.

Minister Tabbaa stressed the importance of cooperation with UNICEF in order to achieve better education for students and support the educational process ,pointing out to the ministry’s plan in the field of returning the dropouts and reintegrating them through ‘Curriculum B’ programme that helps students catch up on their learning and pass two years studies in one ,in addition to teaching them a career that enables them to go ahead with their private project via the vocational schools.

He also talked about a plan for rehabilitating the schools in all provinces and supporting teachers in the remote schools.

Tabba pointed out to the plan of the ministry in the field of social emotional learning and its role in building the youth personality and promoting their skills ,stressing the continous work according to the health protocol and measures to protect health and prevent the spread coronavirus.

In turn, Deputy Representative of the UNECIF in Syria Dr.Ghada Kejah Je, highlighted the continuous cooperation with the Education Ministry in many fields ,especially in the domain of supporting interactive activities, life skills in addition to the social emotional learning, referring to its importance in enhancing the vocational learning to develop the student skills and provide them with expertise that qualifies them to enter the job market.

Source: Syrian Arab News Agency

RAMALLAH, Israeli forces today detained at least 17 Palestinians, including a university lecturer, from various parts of the occupied territories, according to various sources.

In the southern West Bank, the sources confirmed a raid in Hebron city, resulting in the detention of a Hebron University lecturer identified as Huthayfa Jabari, 31.

In the central West Bank, mayor of Ni’lin town, Imad Khawaja, said that a large Israeli military force conducted a large-scale detention campaign in the town, west of Ramallah, at around 4:00 AM, resulting in the detention of five Palestinian residents, including two former prisoners.

While in the town, the soldiers surrounded several houses. When the families took some time to open them, the soldiers hit the doors, smashing them, went inside, interrogated the inhabitants and conducted a thorough search and ransacking them.

The soldiers held scores of youths from the town, interrogated them and threatened to detain them should they continue to resist Israeli colonial settlement construction encroaching on the town’s lands.

The youths have been participating in the nighttime protests, dubbed Night Confusion, which last until dawn, during which they use various means, such as igniting rubber tires, to disturb the settlers and confuse the Israeli army. During ensuing confrontations, dozens suffered from suffocation due to tear gas inhalation.

Tensions have been running high in the town in the recent months following the leveling of some 300 dunums of the village lands at the site of al-Alem Mount (Jabal al-Alem) for the construction of a new colonial settlement outpost.

Also in the Ramallah district, Israeli forces rounded up four others, including a father and his two sons, from Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah city.

In Nablus district, Israeli military vehicles stormed Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus city, where soldiers searched several houses and detained two residents.

In East Jerusalem, Israeli police detained another after forcibly entering his family house and interrogating them in Ras al-Amoud neighborhood. They also detained a resident of al-Tur neighborhood, while in West Jerusalem, and another person from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Isawiyya.

In the southern West Bank, Israeli forces raided Doha town, west of Bethlehem, resulting in the detention of one person. They also conducted a similar raid in Dheisheh refugee camp, south of Bethlehem city, resulting in the arrest of a former prisoner.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency