Writing against erasure: A geography of resistance in Gaza

Abstract

This intervention bears witness to the scholasticide in Gaza: the systematic destruction of educational spaces and the killing of students and scholars as part of Israel’s ongoing occupation. Writing as a geography graduate and Master’s student at Al-Aqsa University, I document the transformation of my university from a space of learning into a site of displacement and mourning. Drawing on personal testimony, I recount the deaths of colleagues and mentors, including Dr Abdel Nasser Al-Saqqa and Dr Wiesam Essa, situating their loss within wider estimates that thousands of students and hundreds of educators have been killed (OHCHR 2024). This writing becomes an act of resistance against erasure. In bearing witness, it affirms that geographical knowledge endures beyond the destruction of classrooms, insisting on place attachment, memory, and return.