Scholasticide is a local issue

By Lauren Palmieri     10/22/24 11:00pm

Editor’s Note: This is a guest opinion that has been submitted by a member of the Rice community. The views expressed in this opinion are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of the Thresher or its editorial board. All guest opinions are fact-checked to the best of our ability and edited for clarity and conciseness by Thresher editors. 

One year of genocide and scholasticide — the process of intentionally and systemically destroying education and knowledge — in Gaza has revealed Israel’s apparent imperialist mission of not just eradicating Gazan life, but also Palestinian pasts and futures. As we have the privilege of  learning in newly built classrooms and Rice celebrates the re-opening of the academic quad, no universities have been left unscathed in Gaza. 

On Oct. 11, 2023, Israeli occupation forces decimated the Islamic University of Gaza’s library and main buildings, before proceeding to annihilate a range of libraries in the coming days and weeks. Archives have been destroyed. Teachers and students have been killed.  

---

---

Though we are privileged to share knowledge within university spaces, we should not become  comfortable with Rice’s complicity. As an institution that invests in “a portfolio of oil and gas royalities,” Rice has not only been culpable in the genocide and scholasticide in Gaza, but has directly profited from it. With a Chevron Energy Graduate Fellowship program and the Shell Auditorium in McNair Hall, these material and intellectual connections to the oil industry do not go unnoticed. Yet, Rice has not been transparent about the specificities of these investments other than labeling them as “natural resources,” leading to calls for disclosure and divestment from SJP activists across campus.

We owe it to our fellow students and colleagues in Gaza to expose the duplicity and deceit of universities that pride themselves on paving the way for more enriched, diverse futures while funding and profiting from genocide.  

Epistemic violence is not limited only to the blatant destruction of universities and libraries: It is perpetuated through discourse, through narratives that engage in genocide denialism and perpetuate colonialist tropes. 

Rice’s own Baker Institute is a think tank fueled by ex-Iraq War officials like director David Satterfield and guest speaker Condoleezza Rice. Its ideological discourse — such as inviting speakers who have explicitly denied the ongoing genocide in Gaza — seemingly bolsters and justifies American imperialism in the Middle East. In a university that encourages and profits from these dehumanizing dialogues, we must question the narratives it produces.  

Israel’s destruction of spaces of learning reminds us that libraries and universities are not static  buildings — they are centers of community and culture where ideas are exchanged. Knowledge  threatens settler colonialism. Knowledge production is vital for revolutionary thought. For many  Palestinians and scholars like Samar Saeed, “liberating the land [is] tied to liberating one’s mind and soul through the  accumulation of knowledge.”

The scale and rapidity of scholasticide in Gaza is unlike anything we have witnessed. This  destruction of knowledge cannot be undone. Though libraries can be rebuilt, archives cannot be  rewritten. Scholars cannot be replaced. Generations of Palestinians will struggle to find  education without infrastructure, as schoolchildren in Gaza strive to maintain normalcy and  preserve their futures by gathering for lessons in tents.  

Israel’s destruction of knowledge — supported by the United States and by Rice and other American universities — offers us a warning of how far imperialists will go to destroy, hinder and eradicate  revolutionary thought. As students and scholars of an institution complicit in genocide and scholasticide, we must not only call for divestment but use our knowledge to resist these imperialist narratives and support our colleagues in Gaza. 

We must challenge the colonialist narratives we hear on our own campus. These events at the Baker Institute that perpetuate American imperialism should not be tolerated. We cannot let oppressive narratives become the dominant one. We must familiarize ourselves with anticolonialist vocabulary and the words of Palestinians, and popularize narratives that support Palestinian liberation and emancipatory futures. 

---