40+ Years of Fobzu
A history of supporting Palestinian education
Fobzu's Vision
Since 1978, Fobzu has been working to promote the advancement of Palestinian education under occupation and in exile. We believe in the liberating potential of education and the importance of showing Palestinian students, teachers and academics they are not alone as they confront obstacles to their academic freedom, right to education, and the realization of a free and flourishing society.
Over the past 40 years, Fobzu has furthered the cause of Palestinian education by raising awareness in the UK about the needs of Palestinian students and academics and their struggle, supporting educational projects and providing scholarships and bursaries to students in financial need.
Crisis in Palestinian education
Friends of Birzeit University was established by UK academics in response to the crisis facing Palestinian higher education in the 1970s. Just over a decade had passed since Israel had occupied the remaining territory of historic Palestine: East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The new occupation authorities imposed a range of measures on Palestinian academics and students, curtailing academic freedom and undermining the growth of Palestinian higher education.
Palestine’s first internationally recognised Arab university
By the mid-1970s Birzeit University had become an important centre of Palestinian national life, with students and academics attending from across historic Palestine and internationally. Originally founded as a girl’s school in 1924, soon after the occupation began in 1967 it had been transformed into Palestine's first internationally accredited Arab university, joining the Association of Arab Universities in 1976 and the International Union of Universities the following year.
Education under occupation
Birzeit University and students and faculty across Palestine were subjected to a range of hostile practices by the occupation authorities and responded by calling for international solidarity. In November 1974, the exile of Birzeit University’s first President, Dr Hanna Nasir was the first of a series of deportations and arrests of Palestinian academics and students. Birzeit faced closures, books and teaching materials were banned or confiscated, work permits were denied to faculty members, and students were harassed, arrested and tortured.
The call for international solidarity
Responding to calls from Birzeit University for international support, teacher and campaigner Eleanor Aitken proposed the formation of a committee of UK academics to mobilise support for Palestinian higher education. She approached her friend and historian of the Middle East, Elizabeth Monroe, and a number of other scholars and writers.
Monroe was a member of the first generation of Middle East scholars at the Middle East Centre at Oxford University where she also founded the Middle East Centre Archive. She became Fobzu’s first Chair (and later Honorary President) on a committee that was to include some of the UK’s leading scholars and writers on the Arab world.
The Early Days of Fobzu
Valerie Yorke was Fobzu's first Treasurer and one of its Founding Members. She is a scholar, consultant, and author whose specialisms include European and US policies towards the Middle East, regional security in the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and Jordan's water challenge.
Here she talks about the early days of Fobzu, including the political context which led to its formation, and about her experiences of visiting the West Bank in the 1970s and how these informed her thinking and writing on Palestine.
Elizabeth Monroe
In this video Valerie pays tribute to the vision, energy and commitment of Fobzu's Founding Chair, Middle East scholar Elizabeth Monroe.
Launching Fobzu
On 23rd June 1978, an inaugural meeting was held at Birkbeck College declaring the establishment of an "independent voluntary society financed by members inside and outside British universities who attach importance to preserving human rights and encouraging liberty of thought."
Friends of Birzeit University announced its mission "to help the University to preserve its academic freedom and maintain its educational standards".
40+ years of supporting Palestinian education
During its early years, Fobzu supported Birzeit University by raising awareness among the UK academic community about the difficulties of education under occupation, fostering cooperation between UK universities and Birzeit and campaigning on the treatment of Palestinian students and academics by Israel’s occupation authorities. Fobzu organised guest lecturers and delegations to visit occupied Palestine to demonstrate the solidarity of UK academics with their Palestinian colleagues.
Among the many who visited occupied Palestine were the historian Eric Hobsbawm (who later became a Fobzu Patron) and the Nobel-prize-winning scientist Dorothy Hodgkin. The novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch was one of a list of academics who volunteered to lecture in Palestine, although in her case, she was unable to undertake the trip.
Palestinian Education Today
The challenges currently facing Palestinian education under occupation and in exile are arguably even greater than they were when Fobzu was established 40 years ago. The expansion of university education in occupied Palestine is a source of hope, but students and teachers still face major obstacles. Palestinian higher education suffers international isolation, and the fragmentation of Palestinian geography associated with the blockade of Gaza, the Separation Wall, the isolation of East Jerusalem and the system of divisions within the West Bank undermine Palestinian educational life. Meanwhile, Palestinian refugees outside Palestine reside in various states of educational deprivation.
Fobzu’s scholarship programme supports students at Birzeit as well other universities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. We have also supported capacity building initiatives such as the Mental Health Counsellor Training project organised in partnership with the Centre for Continuing Education at Birzeit and financed by a grant from the Big Lottery Fund.
Fobzu campaigns on the right to education for all Palestinians and works to foster greater understanding in the UK about the challenges facing Palestinian education and the struggles of students and teachers to overcome them and transform their lives.
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