Demonstrators in Montreal demand Canada call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza

CBC
Sat, November 4, 2023 

People filled Place-des-Arts square from Clark Street to Jeanne-Mance Street to show their support for Palestinians in Gaza. (Erika Morris/CBC - image credit)

The streets of downtown Montreal were flooded with people showing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday amid what they call a major humanitarian crisis. They demanded that Canada call for an immediate ceasefire, place an arms embargo on Israel and work to end the blockade on Gaza.

"Free free Palestine," they chanted as they flew Palestinian flags and set off red, white and green smoke.

People filled Place-des-Arts square from Clark Street to Jeanne-Mance Street before marching down René-Levesque Boulevard toward the CBC/Radio-Canada offices where they criticized its use of the words "conflict" and "Israel-Hamas war."

The protest was one of more than 30 across Canada organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), which mobilizes Palestinians and Arabs in the diaspora. Protests were also held in Washington, D.C.

Sarah Shamy, an organizer with PYM in Montreal, said people have a responsibility to support the "right to Palestinian liberation against colonial domination and racist occupation."

"What we are seeing now is the people of the world, and in Montreal specifically, demanding an end to this genocide and standing for justice and human rights wherever we are," she said.

"This shows that people refuse to be complicit and they refuse for state leaders to do this in our name."

Bara Abuhamed of Montreal 4 Palestine said the amount of people in the streets shows that national leaders "do not represent their people" after Canada abstained from calling for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce at a United Nations (UN) Annual Assembly in October.

'Grave risk of genocide'

Earlier this week, seven UN human rights special rapporteurs issued a statement in Geneva saying the Palestinian people "are at grave risk of genocide" and called for a ceasefire. The rapporteurs also said Israel's strike on a refugee camp inside Gaza was a "brazen violation" of international law.

The director of the New York office of the UN high commissioner for human rights, Craig Mokhiber, resigned saying Israel's military actions in Gaza are "textbook genocide" and accused the UN of "failing" to act.

Marie Lamensch, a project coordinator at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University, said she believes Israel is committing war crimes.

"It doesn't seem at the moment that the Israeli army or government is trying to minimize the loss of life. We're seeing so many people killed. … It's a question of proportionality," she said.

"If you tell someone to leave a specific area but they have nowhere safe to go, you can say 'Israel warned them,' but where are they supposed to go?"

Sarah Shamy addresses the crowd of protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza at Place-des-Arts. 

(Erika Morris/CBC)

Israeli officials said about 1,400 Israelis and foreigners were killed since Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel. Since then, Israel has launched attacks on Gaza, killing nearly 9,500 Palestinians as of Saturday, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

About 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70 per cent of the population, have fled their homes over nearly a month of bombing and a ground assault from Israel, according to the UN.

Shamy says she believes that protesters will continue to demonstrate until a ceasefire is called.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against the United States' pressure for a "humanitarian pause" on Friday. He said there would be no temporary ceasefire until the 240 hostages held by Hamas were released.

As some foreign nationals began leaving Gaza, protesters stressed Canada must act to protect the lives of Palestinian civilians.

"They have been under a brutal and suffocating blockade where nothing goes in or out. It's a land, water and air siege and so I think Canada needs to take a proactive role in ensuring that the lives of these 2.2 million people… are saved," said Shamy.

Protesters blocked entrances of the CBC/Radio-Canada building as they criticized media coverage of Gaza.

 (Erika Morris/CBC)

Protest at CBC/Radio-Canada

The protest ended outside the CBC/Radio-Canada offices on René-Levesque Boulevard, where about 50 protesters blocked the entrances holding banners and spray-painted "call it genocide" and "justice for journalists in Gaza" on the ground.

They accused the CBC, and other media outlets, of favouring Israel and using language they say dehumanizes Palestinians. They also urged journalists to stand in solidarity with the journalists who were killed by Israeli bombs in Gaza.

More than 30 journalists have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate.

"We're supporting those of you who already do important work," said Sarah Boivin, a spokesperson for Independent Jewish Voices Canada, "and to condemn calls on the media to inaccurately report, that is ultimately resulting in the murder of journalists."

Police investigating after car drives through pro-Palestinian rally in East Vancouver

CBC
Sat, November 4, 2023 

Jews Against Genocide Vancouver say around 100 people, mostly Jewish, attended the pro-Palestinian demonstration in East Vancouver on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023.

 (Micki Cowan/CBC - image credit)

Police are investigating after a vehicle drove through a pro-Palestinian demonstration in East Vancouver on Friday.

Dozens of people at the demonstration, organized by the group Jews Against Genocide Vancouver, had blocked the intersection of Clark and Venables streets to vehicles in all directions around 10:30 a.m, according to Vancouver police.

Videos shared on social media show a vehicle driving northbound on Clark through upturned neon buckets and protesters in the intersection's south side.

"It is alleged a driver entered the intersection as the protest was underway and was briefly surrounded by protesters before continuing through the intersection and driving away," Vancouver police said in a statement Friday afternoon.

Police are also "investigating reports that protesters attempted to open a door on the car while the driver was inside," said the statement.

Demonstrators calling for a ceasefire in Gaza blocked the intersection of Clark and Venables in East Vancouver on Nov. 3, 2023. (CBC News)

The videos show a person attempting to block the vehicle with a bike, but the vehicle veers left to get around them and into the intersection, driving closely by several protesters along the intersection's north side before continuing northbound on Clark.

Another person holding a large camera can be seen jumping out of the way on the north side of the intersection as the vehicle drives past.

The vehicle's driver-side window appears to be open, as well as the rear driver-side door, as it exits the intersection and continues north on Clark away from the protest.

Vancouver Police said in a news release Friday afternoon they have located the driver and are investigating the circumstances of the incident.

Jewish organizers say Israel doesn't 'speak in our name'

Omri Haiven, an organizer with Jews Against Genocide Vancouver, says the rally was organized to oppose "the ethnic cleansing and massacring of Palestinians" and call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The group is "a coalition of Jews around Vancouver who know that it is now our time to speak up against the genocide that is taking place in Gaza," Haiven told CBC News on Friday.

"We're a group of Jews who refuse to have Israel speak in our name."

The Canadian government has previously said it does not recognize Israeli actions against Palestinians as genocide.

Israel has struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and launched a ground assault in the weeks since Oct. 7, when 1,400 people in Israel were killed and more than 240 were taken hostage in attacks by Hamas, a militant group that governs the occupied strip, according to the Israeli government.

The actions have stirred global alarm at humanitarian conditions in the enclave and, according to a Saturday update from officials of the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, have killed more than 9,488 Palestinians.

More than half of those who have died are children, according to the ministry, and 144 Palestinians have also been killed in the occupied West Bank.

Canada is facing increased pressure to join calls for a ceasefire from the United Nations and humanitarian organizations including Doctors without Borders, a proposition Israeli officials have said they will not agree to.

On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for Hamas to release its hostages and for a "humanitarian pause" to allow water, food and medicine to be delivered to Gaza's more than two million residents, moves also supported by U.S. President Joe Biden.

Haiven says more than 100 people attended Friday's demonstration in Vancouver, one of several other pro-Palestinian gatherings taking place in Vancouver, Surrey, Victoria and Nanaimo this weekend.

On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered outside the Vancouver Art Gallery to call for a ceasefire and express their support for Palestinians.

About 800 people gather in St. John's in support of Palestinians

CBC
Sat, November 4, 2023 

Hundreds marched through the streets of St. John's, expressing support for Palestinians. (William Ping/CBC News)

Around 800 people marched through the streets of downtown St. John's on Saturday to show their support for Palestinians during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

The rally was part of a national day of action and coincided with protests in more than 20 other Canadian cities and hundreds of others being held across the world.

Organizer Elise Thorburn said the march is focused around three demands.

"An immediate ceasefire and end to the genocidal bombing campaign on Gaza," said Thorburn, explaining the demands.

"Lifting the siege on Gaza to allow for urgent medical aid and relief efforts, and an end to Canada's complicity in Israel's war crimes, genocide and colonization of Palestinian land."

Reem Abu-hendi, left, and Elise Thorburn were organizers of Saturday's march. 

(William Ping/CBC News)

Reem Abu-hendi, another organizer, said it's important to have these protests take place in Newfoundland and Labrador.

"It's part of our solidarity with Palestinians that are in Gaza, and we have a lot of Palestinian population here as well," Abu-Hendi said. "So it's our duty to help them."

Protestors marching down Water Street in St. John's.

 (William Ping/CBC News)

The event began with a number of speeches in Harbourside Park, followed by a march down Water Street. The protestors then gathered outside St. John's City Hall for more speeches and continued to march down Duckworth Street.

One of the speakers was Zaid Kay, who was born in Newfoundland but is of Palestinian descent.

Along the route of the march, people with loudspeakers encouraged the crowd to chant slogans like 'Free Palestine.' 

(William Ping/CBC News)

"My dream is to explore the olive groves of my ancestors, to watch the sunrise over the Dead Sea, to walk with my father through the home he was expelled from in 1967," Kay said.

"My dream is a secular, democratic, multicultural, binational state from the river to the sea where all people live in freedom and equality, no matter their race or religion. My dream is a free Palestine."

Speaking afterwards, Kay said people should be focusing on human rights.

After a series of speeches outside St. John's City Hall, protestors then continued to march up Duckworth Street. 

(William Ping/CBC News)

"People should be coming together right now and acknowledging that what we're seeing is not right," Kay said. "As a matter of humanity, we have a duty to speak up. And I think if we don't, then our children will never forgive us and we'll live to regret it."

"We hear so much about the right of Israel to exist and to defend itself, which I don't dispute, but I wish there would be more discussion of Palestine's right to exist and defend itself," Kay said.

The protest attracted a wide demographic of St. John's residents, all gathered to show their support for Palestinians.

(William Ping/CBC News)

Saturday's protest was the latest one in St. John's in a string of weekly events since the latest Israel-Hamas war began on Oct 7. At that time, Hamas killed around 1,400 people. Since then, Israel has launched attacks on Gaza with nearly 9,500 Palestinians having been killed by Saturday, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

Despite the heavy emotions surrounding the protest, Thorburn was impressed with the attendance for the event on Saturday.

The protestors returned to Harbourside Park at the end of their march.

 (William Ping/CBC News)

"This is a historic day for us here in Newfoundland and all across Canada," she said. "These are probably the biggest mass anti-war protests that have taken place in support of Palestine ever in North American history."

"The support is growing," Thorburn said.

"We want peace. We want an end to this violence. We want a ceasefire now."

Thousands march outside U.S. Consulate in Toronto in support of Palestinians

CBC
Sat, November 4, 2023 

Protesters hold Palestinian flags outside the U.S. Consulate in Toronto on Saturday. (Kyaw Soe Oo/Reuters - image credit)

As Palestinians in Gaza reported Israeli airstrikes across the region on Saturday — including in an area where Israel had told civilians to seek refuge — thousands of Torontonians took to the streets to join pro-Palestinian rallies across Canada calling for an immediate ceasefire.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 9,448, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East says 72 of its staff members have been killed.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the fighting, and at least 241 hostages taken from Israel are being held in Gaza by the militant group.

Five hostages have been released since Oct. 7.

Demonstrations were set to take place in more than two dozen Canadian cities Saturday. Many come in the wake of a national call for demonstrations by the Palestinian Youth Movement, a grassroots organization with chapters in Canada and the United States that's calling for a ceasefire in the conflict.

'Nowhere that's safe'

In Toronto, demonstrators rallied outside the U.S. Consulate on University Avenue near Queen Street.

Dalia Awwad, a member of the youth movement in Toronto, said the goal was to make it clear to Canada's government how they feel.

"There's nowhere that's safe in Palestine right now," Awwad said. "Our politicians need to represent our voice, which is [why] there needs to be an immediate ceasefire."

Awwad said she wants Canada and the U.S. to unite in the call for an immediate ceasefire to stop what she calls a "genocide" against Palestinians.

On Thursday, a group of seven United Nations human rights experts, known as special rapporteurs, issued a statement saying they are convinced "the Palestinian people are at a grave risk of genocide."

On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with U.S. President Joe Biden and said they discussed what he described as the urgent need for a "humanitarian pause" in the war. Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday that a ceasefire would give Hamas a chance to regroup for another attack.

Awwad said she has family members in both the West Bank and Gaza, and they've had loved ones killed in the Israeli airstrikes.

"My brother-in-law has lost … 24 members of his family, seventeen of whom are children," she said.

Rachel Small attended the rally with a group called "Jews Say No to Genocide." Small said the idea that all Jewish people stand with Israel is incorrect. 

 (Alexis Raymon/Radio-Canada)

Rachel Small attended the rally with a group called "Jews Say No to Genocide." Small said the idea that all Jewish people stand with Israel is incorrect.

"We're seeing the killing of thousands, nearly half of them children. And we're also being told that this is being done in our name as Jews," Small said. "We say: absolutely not. We reject that."

Small also wants Canada to call for a ceasefire in the conflict. Small says there were hundreds, if not thousands, of Jewish Torontonians at Saturday's rally calling for an end to the violence.

Make education institutions contributors to peace, not war

Brendan O’Malley  03 November 2023

For the past few weeks our news bulletins have been filled with distressing images of victims from both sides in Israel and Palestine, and warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe.

This comes on top of the ongoing tragedy of war in Ukraine and the conflict in Sudan.

I was invited to speak at the Magna Charta Observatory conference on ‘Universities and reconstruction of cities: the role of research and education’, held in Lodz, Poland, on 23-25 October.

The subject of this talk could not have been more timely. But current events also show that it could not be more challenging either.

But what do we mean by ‘reconstruction’ or indeed by ‘conflict’? Is reconstruction about removing rubble, rebuilding homes, schools, universities and civilian infrastructure?

Conflict can take many forms and damage to infrastructure is only one of many impacts. Students drop, teachers leave, families flee the area, education may be closed down indefinitely, education investment shelved for years.

There is fear, despondency and the psycho-social trauma affecting many individuals, sometimes for years.

Beyond that, the deep, bitter divisions in society are entrenched by war.

As Graca Michel wrote: “The destruction of educational infrastructure represents one of the greatest developmental setbacks for countries affected by conflict.” It hinders the ability of societies to recover after the war.

Mostly today, conflicts are between factions within national boundaries, not war across borders and when the fighting is over and the dead are counted, we can expect the divisions to be deeper than ever, and reconciliation a distant dream.

Even if we resurrect all the buildings levelled by bombings, rebuild all the walls smashed by rockets, fill every shell hole, smooth over every pockmark gouged by shrapnel, it may only count as putting a sticking plaster over the wounds of history instead of addressing the causes of the conflict that brought destruction and death.

Without real peace, anything you rebuild can be destroyed again, whether immediately if conflict is still simmering, or later as conflict resurfaces.

Although I am editor-in-chief of University World News, for this talk I am drawing not just on our articles by journalists and academic experts but on my many years of research leading the first three global studies on Education under Attack – as a consultant for UNESCO and later for a coalition of UN and other international NGOs, the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA).

Education under Attack is now a regular global report on targeted military and political violence against education institutions, students, teachers, academics and other personnel.

It is about bombings, assassinations, forced disappearances, illegal imprisonment and kidnappings, mostly in countries embroiled in conflict or authoritarianism – and mostly carried out by state armed forces and non-state armed groups.

Sometimes education buildings are attacked because they are perceived as being used as a camp or an operating base or a place for weapons storage for opposing troops.

An example of this is Israeli air strikes blowing up the buildings of the Islamic University of Gaza – a member of many international university networks – only a fortnight ago, alleging that it was being used for political and military purposes.

During my research (2006-14), I visited conflict zones, talked to leaders of schools and universities where institutions had been bombed, teachers or academics had been shot or blown up and education trade unionists had faced death threats or imprisonment – places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Thailand, and the West Bank and Gaza.

I have also separately reported from conflicts and conflict-affected countries including Kosovo, Northern Ireland and Cyprus.

For the Education under Attack reports, we researched facts about the extent and nature of attacks, but we also gathered information about motives and impact. And we devised recommendations for governments, and education stakeholders on how to prevent education institutions, students and teachers or academics being targeted.

These reports were used to galvanise UN agencies and INGOs (international non-governmental organisations) to put attacks on education as a distinct item on their agenda and to be addressed through their programmes. They also influenced the work of the UN Security Council in making attacks on schools a higher priority in its monitoring and reporting and listing of parties involved in grave violations against children in armed conflict.

In follow-up projects we went out to conflict-affected countries such as Pakistan and the Philippines to pilot training guidance on how to protect education from attack.

Initially there was a lot of focus on schools and later we also developed a strong focus on higher education – with the Scholars at Risk network becoming a key partner.

Universities are the key providers of higher education so are concerned about how and why they are being targeted, but attacks on schools also matter to them, since not only do the schools provide their pipeline of potential students but universities train school teachers and university education researchers help to shape education policy and practice.

For schools and universities, I believe there are two key aspects of reconstruction after conflict. One is reconstruction of their own facilities and educational communities, the other is their role in the reconstruction of society around them and the establishment of lasting peace.

For both their own safety and as key education stakeholders, and as anchor institutions in their community or city, universities have a key role to play in the prevention or avoidance of attacks specifically targeting education and also resilience in the face of attacks. But they also have an important role to play in providing research, analysis and moral leadership on conflict throughout wider society.

Note that UN Sustainable Goal 16 is about the promotion of peace, inclusive societies with justice for all and accountable, inclusive institutions.

People are often not aware of the scale of the problem of targeted attacks on education worldwide. Here are some global figures from Education under Attack 2022 (GCPEA).

Global figures on attacks on education

2022: More than 3,000 attacks on education were identified in 2022, a 17 percent increase over the previous year, according to GCPEA.

Almost one-third of all attacks took place in just three countries: Ukraine, Myanmar, and Burkina Faso, with the war in Ukraine accounting for the majority.

2021-2022 More than 580 university students or personnel were injured, abducted, or killed worldwide, as a result of attacks on higher education, and another 1,450 were detained, arrested, or convicted. 80 attacks on higher education facilities (Education under Attack 2022).

2022-2023: Afghanistan denies higher education to all women.

Heavily affected countries

Among the countries most heavily affected by attacks over the years are:

2003-2008 Iraq 31,598 attacks on schools and universities, including 259 academics assassinated, 72 abducted and 174 held in detention (Education under Attack 2010).

2008-9 Gaza, in a three-week Israeli military operation 300 kindergarten, school and university buildings damaged (Education under Attack 2010).

2015: Kenya 142 students killed, 79 injured in Al-Shabaab attack on Garissa University College, others taken hostage (Education under Attack 2018).

February 2022-February 2023: 2,638 schools damaged, 437 destroyed in Ukraine; and 57 higher education institutions damaged, six destroyed, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Science and Education.

Attacks on HE and research freedoms

In higher education the methods of attack include all the physical attacks and threats to life mentioned above.

But they also include curbs on academic freedom and university autonomy. This can mean anything from banning people from attending international conferences and withdrawal of passports, to mass dismissals, unlawful detention without trial, imprisonment, torture and death sentences. And constant pressures on individuals to self-censor or openly support arguments they do not agree with.

These are methods used by anti-democratic, authoritarian or military governments who want to stymy open debate, clamp down on critical thought, and close down the space for alternative ideas to emerge.

Authoritarian governments will frequently enforce a restricted curriculum, banning certain subjects from being taught and banning certain topics from being researched or certain findings being published.

We see these methods used in very different situations all around the world, from Afghanistan, to Hungary, and Russia but also increasingly under right-wing governments in democratic countries, including certain states in the United States – witness the latest raft of measures restricting higher education passed in Florida, including the banning of funding for university diversity, equity and inclusion programmes.

In some states the national president has seized control of appointing university presidents – as did President Bolsonaro in Brazil, and President Erdogan in Turkey – instantly raising the pressure on universities to toe the government’s line.

The impact of threats to higher education was captured in 2006 by then UNESCO director general Koichiro Matsuura’s comment on the attacks on academics in Iraq: “By targeting those who hold the keys of Iraq's reconstruction and development, the perpetrators of this violence are jeopardising the future of Iraq and of democracy.”

Measures protecting education

The Education under Attack research showed that if you want to reduce the impact of attack and enable education to contribute fully to peace and development, there are broadly two approaches you can take.

The first is to improve protection and resilience in the face of attacks.

Protection measures can include everything from reinforcing walls, changing roofing materials to less flammable substances, ensuring all rooms have two exits to provide escape routes, and providing armed guards or military escorts.

They can include increasing deterrence in law by strengthening national and international law on attacks on education.

Or ending military use, which makes institutions a target. Even having military protection can make it a more likely target.

Or negotiating between armed parties to conflict to treat education institutions as safe spaces not to be used militarily and not to be attacked.

To date 118 states have signed up to a Safe Schools Declaration which commits states and other parties to measures to protect schools and universities from attack, including preventing use of education facilities for military purposes.

Mario Novelli and Ervjola Selenica, in an essay for Education under Attack 2014, underlined that a key step to defending higher education is to strengthen university autonomy and academic freedom.

Improving resilience

Resilience measures include changing location or switching to online provision, removing the institution as a target. A similar tactic can be used to help threatened students and academics.

Two good examples concerning institutions are two initiatives supported by the Open Society University Network funded by George Soros.

As Nathan M Greenfield has reported for University World News, the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) had 1,000 students enrolled, half of them women, when the Taliban seized power in August 2021. Before government control of Afghanistan evaporated a relocation to Qatar was negotiated and a virtual university set up.

Last fall, AUAF welcomed 100 students in person to Education City, Qatar but of course most of its students have not been able to get out of Afghanistan so the university, supported by Bard College in the US, is offering an online dual programme set by the two universities. In this way, in the words of its president, Ian Bickford, AUAF is keeping open a “lifeline to the outside world” for its students.

Another example is Smolny College, which was the only liberal arts and science institution in Russia, situated within St Petersburg University, as a result of the university’s ties with Bard College. It inspired many other institutions to adopt teaching and curricular practices that it pioneered in partnership with Bard.

Two years ago Russia’s prosecutor general’s office declared Bard an ‘undesirable foreign organisation’ and a threat to the Russian constitutional order and criminalised contact with it. Smolny now survives as the Smolny Without Borders Project, an online project launched by Smolny staff, to give an opportunity for students from Smolny College and everyone else disrupted by war in Ukraine to continue their studies, albeit operating on a small scale with a limited number of programmes.

Scholar rescue schemes, such as those of Scholars at Risk and the Scholar Rescue Fund in the US and CARA in the UK play a key role in supporting scholars both via international solidarity campaigns – to raise the political cost of continuing the threats – and by helping to facilitate temporary posts abroad to keep threatened scholars working in an academic role but in a safer place.

The challenge for scholar schemes like this is how best to provide support without creating a brain drain. Is there some commitment from scholars to returning to their country – and, or incentives – to help rebuild it once conditions allow?

How education can contribute to conflict

We must also think about whether education itself is contributing to conflict and how we turn that around so that education becomes a driver for peace.

Many education institutions are attacked because they or the education system represent a form of education provision perceived as imposing alien culture, religion, language or values and, or discriminating against a particular ethnic or other minority group.

For example, in 2014 we reported the example of the school system in the insurgency in southern Thailand that began in 2004, in which three of the four provinces were ethnic Malay Muslim in a country that was 90% Thai Buddhist. Since 2005 there had been frequent incidents of school teachers and personnel being assassinated, sometimes in class in front of their students; and a number of schools were being attacked each year.

The authorities first responded with military measures, posting guards and military patrols until they realised that enabled rebels to hit two targets with one detonation, schools and teachers along with enemy soldiers.

It took years for them to accept that the policy of using schools as a tool of assimilation was part of the problem. They were banning Islamic schools, Muslim attire, Muslim names and the Muslim dialect and the teaching of local Muslim history; and they were imposing Thai Buddhist teachers and Thai national history.

Eventually an agreement to hire local Muslim teachers, create a sixth day of school per week to allow for Islamic studies and teaching Malay and the local language helped reduce the sense of education imposing an alien culture.

Mahidol University played a positive role in this process of reaching a compromise by running an action research programme designed to help Patani-Malay speakers in school retain their identity but also achieve a Thai national identity. They did this by using Malay in the first two years of schooling followed by Thai.

The importance of understanding motives

What this example and others we found show is, first, that if you want to prevent education being attacked – which can also mean if you want it to be available to play a key role in reconstruction – you first need to understand not just the methods but the motives of the attackers.

Second, you can prevent attacks or conflict in different practical ways, including defence and deterrence, but you can only build lasting peace if you address the motives and causes of violence, which usually involves addressing deeply held grievances such as systemically unequal or unfair treatment.

Third, before you try to contribute to building peace or to prevent attacks on education you should evaluate with an open mind whether and how your own institution might be contributing to conflict yourselves. You might be surprised at what you discover when you do.

How education can contribute to peace

Across education in general there are certain key factors that must be addressed by policy-makers and education authorities and institutions to prevent education contributing to conflict. These include unequal access to provision and resources, biases in the curriculum, discrimination in access and in appointments of teachers and academics and in appointments to senior posts.

Study places and resources must be allocated fairly and transparently, using objective criteria to ensure progress towards good quality lifelong education for all.

This may require extra investment in education for groups neglected in the past, for instance if their secondary education unfairly lacks investment they may not be passing university entry exams to get to tertiary level.

But also, education content and methods of teaching and learning must be adapted to promote peace, mutual respect and understanding, human rights and responsible citizenship. As the series of handbooks Protecting Education in Countries Affected by Conflict (which I co-wrote) published in 2012 by the Global Education Cluster says policies, curricula, textbooks and methods of learning need to be adjusted to achieve these aims.

How you approach contested history, flawed versions of which are a barrier to understanding and inflame desire for conflict, is a major challenge. Part of the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for instance, is the continuing narrative in many Russian texts of the notion that Ukraine is not a real country, and does not have a legitimate separate identity.

Which language is the medium of instruction or perhaps of admission test is another issue of contention, potentially disadvantaging whole sections of the population in a muti-ethnic country.

In some conflicts these issues may need to be worked out before or as part of peace agreements.

Universities can have an important role in providing the research into understanding conflict and understanding particular conflicts to aid the search for compromises and solutions. International research can help encourage intercultural dialogue and understanding.

To echo the words of Sara Clarke-Habibi in an article for University World News (but put them in the current context of a protracted war in Ukraine and an explosive situation in Israel and Palestine with so many civilian lives at risk): university leaders can use this moment to reflect on how their institution can contribute proactively to the reduction of inequalities, frustration, radicalisation and violence in society.

Perhaps they can begin by considering “how they can better tailor the education and training they provide to contribute to individual and societal resilience, conflict transformation, sustainable development and socially just peace”.

This may mean, for instance, not confining peacebuilding to a particular discipline or department but taking a whole-institution approach, adopting conflict sensitive policies and integrating peacebuilding values, skills and competences across disciplines.

It also requires universities to work in partnership with communities to raise awareness, set peacebuilding agendas and develop capacities for societal change.

Brendan O’Malley is editor-in-chief of University World News. This is an edited version of a keynote speech he made at the Magna Charta Observatory conference, held in Lodz, Poland, on 23-25 October.

UNITED KINGDOM

Fall in foreign PhD students imperils science – Experts

Nic Mitchell  03 November 2023

An alarming fall in the number of research students from the European Union and a drop in new PhDs from China are threatening to have a ‘compound impact’ on the research output of the United Kingdom within the next five to 10 years, warn international higher education experts.

With UK universities and research institutions relying on more than 80% of PhD students coming from outside the UK in critical science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) areas like material sciences, alarm bells should be ringing at the 42% decline in European full-time PhD entrants in the last academic year (2021-22).

And it is not only the Brexit effect that is hitting the research talent pipeline to the UK.

“China has the most significant percentage of research students in the UK, with about 28% of entrants to PhDs, but those numbers are dropping as well,” said Dr Janet Ilieva, director and founder of Education Insight, at a webinar to unveil the latest update of her organisation’s Global Engagement Index (GEI).

The GEI was originally launched by Education Insight in October 2020 to measure what UK institutions are good at in terms of international higher education – “the things that really matter” – and not simply those things that regulators and rankers focus on, as University World News reported at the time.

Alarm bells in government

Ilieva’s warnings about the impact of the collapse in new international PhD entrants on the future of UK science were echoed by Simon Marginson, professor of higher education at the University of Oxford and director of the Centre for Global Higher Education, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and Research England, which hosted the webinar.

Marginson told an online discussion after Ilieva outlined the latest GEI findings: “There is no doubt that people in government are well aware of the problem of research capacity and not enough internationals coming in. I have had a couple of meetings with people who have indicated that this is ringing alarm bells in government.

“But I don’t know whether it’s getting through to the political space. That’s the problem. There is a kind of blockage between what the ministries can see and what the departments can see and what’s actually been done in the cabinet room at the moment. And maybe that’s going to have to be unlocked by the next election.”

Ilieva said that with countries cutting back on expenditure in higher education and British universities facing a continued financial squeeze, there is less money around for government-backed scholarships to fund PhDs from overseas or fee-waivers for talented overseas research students who lack their own financial means.

“It does look a bit bleak and I don’t think this conversation has received the prominence it deserves.

“The lack of PhDs will hit academic careers in the next five to 10 years, and it will have a compound impact on the research output of the UK as the highest concentration of European and Chinese academics are in the exact same areas that the highest concentration of PhD students are found,” said Ilieva.

Decline in geographical diversity

The latest edition of the GEI highlights another problem, particularly since Brexit: the increasing concentration of international students from a small number of countries. This is “particularly acute at the masters level” at many UK universities, Ilieva told University World News.

Analysis of the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Standard Registration Population data shows that UK higher education institutions recruited more than half of their masters’ entrants from one or two countries in 2021-22. This has been accompanied by a surge of students coming to the UK from Nigeria and India for masters’ degrees.

The HESA data used in the GEI also shows a big decline in the geographical diversity of full-time first-degree entrants between 2017-18 and 2021-22, with over half of UK universities now getting the majority of their international undergraduate students from just two or three countries.

Looking at trends in international student recruitment across all levels of qualifications, it is only postgraduate taught (PGT) degrees that are increasing in both numbers and market share, with international students now making up 67% of PGT students at British universities.

So, despite the media headlines over the summer predicting that UK-domiciled school leavers might be squeezed out by more ‘lucrative overseas students’, undergraduate international recruitment has flattened from the main sending countries: China, India and Vietnam.

“The only way the main recruiting countries like the UK and Australia can grow is by ‘stealing from each other’s market share’ unless they can create cost-effective pathways through transnational education programmes and articulation agreements, which enables the students to study part of their course in their home country,” said Ilieva.

Students from areas hit by conflict

Widening the discussion, Ilieva offered a glimpse of the future just around the corner, by pointing out that the real growth in student mobility was from countries like Syria and other states caught up with the “unstable state of affairs in the world”.

Using data from UNESCO, she said that Syria was already one of the largest sending countries of international students, with nearly 100,000 students studying abroad. That’s more than traditional sending countries like South Korea, Brazil, Nigeria and Pakistan.

The latest figures from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics show that in 2021 there were 47,483 Syrian students enrolled in Turkiye, with a further 16,653 in Germany; 6,558 in Saudi Arabia; 6,480 in Jordan and 1,476 in France.

“Possibly in five years’ time, maybe sooner, we will be talking more about how we engage with students from areas affected by conflict,” said Ilieva.

Marginson said the focus was already turning to how to cope with “forced mobility from failed states, military conflict, climate emergencies and the collapse in agriculture” and the relationship between migration and education.

“This is not something that the UK talks about much. And it is one of the differences between the UK and Australia. [They are] very similar countries in many ways, but Australians are open, policy wide, about seeing international education as a way to build their demography through migration.

“About 30 to 40% of international students eventually secure permanent residence and become long-term citizens of Australia. This is an accepted normal use of the international students’ route, and explains the appeal of Australia to Indian students,” said Marginson.

And it is why Marginson is certain Australia will overtake the UK and attract record numbers of international students, despite having a much smaller population.

“The UK cannot say [to international students] that we welcome the possibility that you could migrate because there is so much migration resistance for various reasons in the UK,” he said.

Link between migration and study

Marginson predicted that “the link between migration and study and mobility will play out again and again as an issue”, saying: “Students coming from war zones and climate nature emergencies won’t have a lot of money usually and so from a commercial point of view they are not as valuable as the middle class in China, with its business family incomes and the capacity to pull family incomes and savings together.

“And so there will be a lot of issues of conscience for the UK. Will it support and encourage students coming from war zones and climate change emergencies and subsidise them, or not?”

Dr Vangelis Tsiligkiris, an associate professor at Nottingham Trent University and founder of the TNE Hub, also took part in presenting the new data from the new GEI and suggested UK universities were now adopting “a more holistic” approach to global engagement. International mobility and transnational education were no longer just driven by financial motives, he said.

This has been accompanied by favourable changes in the regulatory environment in transnational education (TNE) partner countries, with TNE being seen as contributing to increasing access to higher education, especially for women and other disadvantaged groups in countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka, where it is difficult to afford the cost of studying abroad.

However, Tsiligkiris said there is still a need to move the UK government’s narrative away from only seeing international education as ‘export’ or ‘trade’ led.

TNE should be seen as capacity building, particularly in Official development assistance countries, and the UK’s internationalisation strategy for higher education needs to move towards a global engagement strategy to support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Two parts to the GEI

As for the GEI 2021-22, it once again highlights the individual strengths and weaknesses of different UK universities in two parts.

Section A concentrates on the demand side of global engagement and the relative success of international students at different UK universities. The B section looks at the supply side and the comparative performance of the institutional infrastructure to support internationalisation. It then gives an overall score, based on one to five stars.

One area in which the new Index was unable to offer a measurement was international graduate outcomes. HESA is no longer telephoning international students from outside the European Union, who have returned home after graduating from British universities to discover their employment or other status as part of cost-cutting move, as University World News reported last year.

This has led to a huge decline in the response rate as HESA now relies on emailing the graduates, many of whom will have changed their email addresses after leaving university and Ilieva said the 18% response rate was “not good enough” to include as reliable data.

Nic Mitchell is a UK-based freelance journalist and PR consultant specialising in European and international higher education. He blogs at www.delacourcommunications.com.

‘The UK caused the problems in Palestine, how can it solve them?’

Palestinian academic Saleem told Sky News that Israeli ‘facts’ should be questioned just as much as the media questions Palestinian facts. He added that a resolution to the conflict needs to be found but you can’t have a two-state solution with an occupation that has to end first.


November 4, 2023 

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