PHOTO: Islamic University of Gaza in 2018 on Wikimedia Commons
At the time of writing in September 2025, a new academic year should start in Gaza.
However, very few (if any) students will recommence their studies. The two-year-long Israeli military offensive, which has been deemed through both public and academic consensus as genocide due to extremely high Palestinian civilian casualty rates, has resulted in all universities being destroyed.
Throughout history, political and military conflicts have often led to the dismantling of educational systems and the loss of knowledge. From the Spanish burning of the Maya codices, to the destruction of Indigenous systems of knowledge in Australia, and the Nazi book burnings, history offers examples of how knowledge systems are targeted during periods of upheaval, including in Gaza today.
Around the world, intellectual activity is under siege. In the US most notably, “woke” universities have received funding cuts, and international students have had their visas revoked, many of which for trivial reasons. In India similarly, academic institutions critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the far-right Hindutva ideology have experienced mob violence and the revocation of independence. So, why do states suppress academic institutions? What power is it that they hold?
The developmental power of universities
Universities are not just houses of knowledge – they are strategic assets. For emerging states, the presence of a strong university system helps retain talent, foster innovation, and build the capacity to respond to crises without aid.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) network exemplifies this. In the 1990s, 60-70% of IIT graduates pursued opportunities abroad. By the early 2000s, emigration had declined significantly to 16%, allowing skilled professionals to remain in India and contribute to domestic innovation.
This has had positive benefits: during the COVID-19 pandemic, Delhi IIT developed and produced Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Rapid Antigen Tests, vaccines and low-cost ventilators. These goods were then exported to all the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries, (except Pakistan) to counter Chinese influence in South Asia. This provided India with an opportunity to redefine relations with Nepal, weakening Chinese influence in the Himalayan state.
As a result of India’s vaccine diplomacy, India was able to briefly recalibrate relationships with rivals like Pakistan. In 2021, Pakistani PM Imran Khan expressed solidarity with India and offered reciprocal aid to India in response to the vaccine aid India provided to the SAARC nations. Researchers have concluded that the vaccine diplomacy, which had been led by Indian universities, assisted India in asserting itself geopolitically against China.
Similarly, a flawed university system can lead to a decline in soft power. An underfunded and mismanaged education system can reinforce regional and sectarian divides, ultimately weakening a state’s ability to project its soft power. The erosion of soft power can limit access to partnerships, international visibility, and cultural influence. In Italy, stark inequality in funding between Northern and Southern universities resulted in an exodus of talent from underdeveloped southern regions to the wealthier north.
The resulting lack of Intellectual Property (IP) ownership leads to a reduced innovation capacity and increased reliance on foreign knowledge centres. IP ownership enables states to retain control over the knowledge they produce, which in turn increases its ability to shape global scientific research. This resulted in Italy losing influence over scientific affairs and being surpassed by strategic competitors.
Israeli minister of defence Israel Katz boasts about the destruction of the Islamic University of Gaza. Source: @israel_katz on X
The power of suppression
The suppression of academia is devastating for societies. Across histories of domination and colonial expansion, efforts to fragment or dismantle existing communities have consistently involved the destruction of their knowledge systems, clearing the way for new orders to take root.
In the 16th century, Spanish colonists burned the Mayan codices — books which contained scientific findings, historical records and religious texts — in order to fragment Mayan society and assert colonial control. Sources from the time describe the codices as “contain[ing] nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition,” demonstrating the disregard for non-dominant systems of knowledge. Contemporary scholars have described events analogous to this as “foundational to the colonial matrix of power”.
Events such as the former were not isolated historical events. In Australia, Indigenous systems of knowledge have been decimated by colonialism. It was found in the 1997 ‘Bringing them Home’ report, corroborated by oral history, that Aboriginal Australians were forbidden from passing on cultural knowledge, law and language.
Aboriginal-led consultancy group Murawin has found that such measures have “generated further trauma”, thereby furthering dispossession. Colonial attempts to limit knowledge transfer and restrict systems of knowledge were not incidental, but rather, systemic. They existed to dismantle Indigenous legitimacy and replace it with colonial power.
In Nazi Germany, the regime orchestrated the destruction of texts written by Jewish authors, to delegitimise Jewish society and further Nazi power. In a speech praising students destroying the books, chief Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels declared that the “era of Jewish intellectualism” was over, meaning that the populace could now be “educated”.This mirrors the logic of suppression in the Americas and Australia: deliberate destruction of institutions of knowledge, to deny the legitimacy of nations and peoples.
Between October 7 2023 and the present day, all universities in Gaza have been destroyed by Israel. The destruction of Gaza’s universities is analogous to historical instances where dominant powers targeted educational institutions to undermine cultural continuity.
Despite the differing contexts of Nazi Germany, colonial Australia, and the Americas, they share the same logic: disrupting epistemic systems to assert dominance and reshape national identity.
For Israeli political narratives, the development of Palestinian intellectual and educational capacity presents a challenge to the image of Israel. The notion of Israel as a beacon of liberal democracy and humanism in a hostile region has historically relied on the marginalisation of Palestinian knowledge systems.
Palestinian academics such as Dr Wesam Amer argue that these actions are not isolated attempts to end a regime, but rather, a deliberate attempt to erase and delegitimise a Palestinian nation. He states that, “education in Palestine, and for Palestinians, is existence”. In this context, a thriving intellectual sector in Palestine is not merely a means to produce graduates for work; it asserts a narrative of legitimacy, resilience, and historical continuity.
The extraction of knowledge
Whilst on some occasions, universities are outright destroyed, often neocolonial strategies operate through more subtle mechanisms. Researchers from countries in the global south such as India and Brazil often find themselves being recruited to work in universities within advanced economies, where they are given access to better funding, infrastructure and higher visibility.
The migration of researchers from India and Brazil reflects a broader pattern across the world; knowledge flows outwards but rarely returns home. States in the Global North get to build their academic capabilities and develop their knowledge economies, whereas states in the Global South lose their talents. This system provides states in the Global North a steady influx of talent, reinforcing their academic dominance and expanding their knowledge economies. As a result, states in the Global South face challenges in retaining expertise, building scientific infrastructure, and shaping global scientific discovery.
Across time and across continents, powerful states and regimes have suppressed and extracted knowledge to maintain control. Whether through the destruction of universities, the silencing of dissenting scholars, or the recruitment of talent from less resourced nations, these strategies have shaped global power structures for centuries.
Alessandro Salamone
Alessandro Salamone is a second year Law/Arts student who holds a strong interest in postcolonial history, global justice, and the role of identity and culture in international relations. He is bilingual in English and Italian, and enjoys reading widely to discover new perspectives on politics, history and IR. He is deeply interested in the role of culture, identity and religion in influencing power. Outside of academics, he enjoys running, reading, listening to music and cooking.