IMG_7642How Educated are the Palestinians? Education is one of factor that indicates how developed a society is. Education solidifies the knowledge, culture, and morals in a country. A common saying is that there are three factors which weaken a nation: ignorance, poverty, unemployment.

Are Palestinians well educated?

Palestinians are eager to gain additional knowledge and valuable experiences. Often, they seek to travel abroad to study when educational opportunities in Palestine are limited. In Palestine, there are many of national and international universities that offer different majors like Medicine, Engineering, Business, Media, Law and many others. These universities have good global reputation and have many achievements in several educational fields.    

What makes Palestinians educated?

While Palestinians naturally love learning, and are keen to educate their children and grandchildren, the occupation is the another factor that makes Palestinians more eager to be educated. Education is one of tools Palestinians use to oppose the occupation. They realize that being educated contributes to retaining their heritage, culture, and most importantly their history.

Education and peace between Palestinians and Israelis.  

Being educated means that you would likely understand the meaning of peace and coexistence. Palestinians understand that wars lead to nowhere, and thus they believe that peace is their only choice with the Israeli people. The Palestinian government seeks to get their right to have a state for Palestinians who live side by side with Israelis in peace and stability.  

Palestinians figures    

Here are some of Palestinians figures who had a great academic impact on the world.

 

  • Edward said

 

Edward Said was a Palestinian literary and a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University in the United States. He was a founding figure in the field of postcolonial studies.

Said was also a defender of the human rights of the Palestinian people and was described by Robert Fisk as the most effective voice in defending the Palestinian cause. Edward Said had been a member of the Palestinian National Council for decades.

Said, together with his friend Daniel Barinboim, founded the Western-Eastern Diwan Orchestra in 1999, consisting of Palestinian and Israeli children and Arab children from neighboring countries.

 

  • Mahmoud Darwish

One of the most important Palestinian, Arab, and international poets whose name was associated with the poetry of the revolution and the homeland.

Darwish is one of the most prominent contributors to the development of modern Arabic poetry. He wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Independence which was announced in Algeria. By 1977, he had sold more than a million copies of his Arabic works.

 

  • Antonio Saca

Elias Antonio Sque Gonzalez, born in 1965, is a Salvadoran politician and was the president of Salvador from 2004 to 2009.

Saca is a Salvadorian of Palestinian descent who was born into a family that emigrated at the beginning of the twentieth century from Bethlehem in the West Bank. He is a member of the National Republican Alliance Party of Salvador and is considered a conservative politician in Latin America.

Palestinian Youth Believe in Education

One of great initiatives in Hebron, Palestine was started by two young people who believe in the importance of education in developing their community. The initiative started when they established together an educational center called “The Excellence Center” in April 2011.

The two young men were aware of the importance of the English language, and its role in making their people more open to the world and learn about other peoples’ cultures. Most importantly, they wanted to give internationals the chance to visit Palestine, live, and interact with Palestinians and to learn more about the occupation of Palestine and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

For six and a half years, the center has hosted around 200 international volunteers, interns and Arabic language learners. Nowadays, the Excellence Center has a remarkable position among other centers in Palestine.