"On July 9, 2024, Abu Hjeer earned a chance to keep pursuing a brighter future: She was accepted for a scholarship at the University of Tuscia in Italy to study artificial intelligence and archival science. She never imagined that the road to college would be paved with such pain; only days after her acceptance, Abu Hjeer's father and brother were killed in an Israeli attack while they searched for a bag of flour during the famine."
"At first glance, the scholarships appear to be a necessary humanitarian gesture. But behind them lies a difficult question, one that touches not only on education, but also on the future of Palestinian existence itself: Are these scholarships a path to survival, or the beginning of a new wave of migration that will drain Gaza of its youth and talent?"
All 12 universities in the Gaza Strip were destroyed or damaged by May 2024, and hundreds of university students and academics were killed. Some students and academics have received scholarships to pursue higher education in European and Arab countries and have been evacuated through border crossings closed to most others. Scholarship recipients face wrenching choices between pursuing education abroad and staying with grieving families amid famine, insecurity, and loss. Scholarships function as both lifelines and potential drivers of long-term migration that could drain Gaza of youth and talent. Individual stories illustrate the human cost and complex trade-offs involved.
Read at Truthout
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