This is Democracy Now.

This is Democracy Now.

The War and Peace Report.

I'm Amy Goodman.

We continue now with part two of our conversation with Maya Wind, author of the new book,

Towers of Ivory and Steel, how Israeli universities deny Palestinian freedom.

Maya is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.

This week around a hundred leading European academics signed a petition titled Annilation of Gaza Education, Israel is systematically erasing

the entire educational system, they wrote.

They protested the Israeli military's destruction of six universities in the Gaza Strip since

October 7th, Islamic University, Al-ISRA University, Rabat University, Al-Azer University, Al-Axa University, and Al-Qut's Open University.

The Intercept recently reported that within the first 100 days of Israel's assault on Gaza.

The Israeli military destroyed every single university in the Gaza Strip.

Nearly 100 university deans and professors and three university presidents in Gaza have been

killed in the Israeli assault. Over 4,300 students, more than 230 professors,

teachers, administrators have been killed.

Myowind, we thank you for staying with us to talk about the significance of what has taken

place right now in the Gaza Strip to academia, to the students.

University education in the occupied Palestinian territories has been under siege

by the Israeli state, by the Israeli military for decades, including in Gaza.

Gaza universities have been subject to a debilitating illegal siege for over 17 years,

subject to repeated aerial bombardment and now most recently they have every single

...