Zürcher Nachrichten - From Canada, professor tries to keep Gaza university 'alive'

EUR -
AED 3.833114
AFN 76.567491
ALL 99.259156
AMD 416.113834
ANG 1.876383
AOA 951.75484
ARS 1102.422229
AUD 1.658046
AWG 1.878463
AZN 1.77241
BAM 1.962496
BBD 2.102103
BDT 126.4916
BGN 1.956508
BHD 0.393332
BIF 3082.557627
BMD 1.043591
BND 1.409063
BOB 7.193545
BRL 6.019742
BSD 1.041057
BTN 90.414201
BWP 14.410307
BYN 3.407074
BYR 20454.380029
BZD 2.091266
CAD 1.487999
CDF 2995.105789
CHF 0.951025
CLF 0.026012
CLP 998.192852
CNY 7.627658
CNH 7.601745
COP 4348.851656
CRC 526.943418
CUC 1.043591
CUP 27.655157
CVE 110.640926
CZK 25.050315
DJF 185.393466
DKK 7.459066
DOP 64.565872
DZD 141.659649
EGP 52.823958
ERN 15.653862
ETB 133.710299
FJD 2.411373
FKP 0.838686
GBP 0.83527
GEL 2.942647
GGP 0.838686
GHS 16.084419
GIP 0.838686
GMD 74.61865
GNF 8999.69945
GTQ 8.037308
GYD 218.027661
HKD 8.125878
HNL 26.543221
HRK 7.535612
HTG 136.371646
HUF 401.40678
IDR 17067.145132
ILS 3.733248
IMP 0.838686
INR 90.652299
IQD 1363.866694
IRR 43922.136075
ISK 146.603632
JEP 0.838686
JMD 163.936434
JOD 0.740426
JPY 160.901901
KES 134.738025
KGS 91.261942
KHR 4173.741074
KMF 495.235707
KPW 939.325723
KRW 1510.905541
KWD 0.322302
KYD 0.867569
KZT 525.076636
LAK 22636.780841
LBP 93247.90984
LKR 309.318384
LRD 207.695689
LSL 19.197463
LTL 3.081453
LVL 0.631258
LYD 5.129527
MAD 10.412429
MDL 19.609379
MGA 4846.583383
MKD 61.53006
MMK 2190.454189
MNT 3612.026342
MOP 8.352178
MRU 41.449201
MUR 48.589402
MVR 16.069533
MWK 1805.320449
MXN 21.40199
MYR 4.649176
MZN 66.696045
NAD 19.197186
NGN 1569.372692
NIO 38.314403
NOK 11.70635
NPR 144.675041
NZD 1.844208
OMR 0.401795
PAB 1.041052
PEN 3.863483
PGK 4.185623
PHP 60.68011
PKR 290.673695
PLN 4.157828
PYG 8192.069765
QAR 3.795998
RON 4.977196
RSD 117.110727
RUB 98.098587
RWF 1482.522415
SAR 3.914022
SBD 8.815174
SCR 15.242662
SDG 627.198197
SEK 11.284676
SGD 1.406588
SHP 0.859488
SLE 23.790587
SLL 21883.578854
SOS 595.056039
SRD 36.739585
STD 21600.222927
SVC 9.109169
SYP 13569.828152
SZL 19.195773
THB 35.302069
TJS 11.373745
TMT 3.652568
TND 3.31697
TOP 2.444196
TRY 37.687401
TTD 7.063168
TWD 34.204007
TZS 2709.161534
UAH 43.552422
UGX 3829.958033
USD 1.043591
UYU 45.113282
UZS 13523.142074
VES 63.940076
VND 26559.386313
VUV 129.053828
WST 2.961052
XAF 658.231323
XAG 0.032325
XAU 0.000358
XCD 2.820356
XDR 0.797128
XOF 658.206007
XPF 119.331742
YER 258.810603
ZAR 19.264217
ZMK 9393.568829
ZMW 29.124795
ZWL 336.035818
  • RBGPF

    64.0100

    64.01

    +100%

  • SCS

    -0.0500

    11.93

    -0.42%

  • BCC

    -4.6000

    118.72

    -3.87%

  • RIO

    0.3900

    62.04

    +0.63%

  • CMSC

    -0.1800

    23.28

    -0.77%

  • RELX

    0.1100

    51.44

    +0.21%

  • RYCEF

    0.0200

    7.69

    +0.26%

  • NGG

    -0.9000

    60.58

    -1.49%

  • GSK

    0.0600

    36.13

    +0.17%

  • BTI

    0.2200

    42.74

    +0.51%

  • BCE

    0.3800

    23.26

    +1.63%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    12.85

    -0.16%

  • AZN

    1.7000

    74.43

    +2.28%

  • CMSD

    -0.1800

    23.71

    -0.76%

  • BP

    0.1300

    34.68

    +0.37%

  • VOD

    0.0900

    8.59

    +1.05%

From Canada, professor tries to keep Gaza university 'alive'
From Canada, professor tries to keep Gaza university 'alive' / Photo: Jorge Uzon - AFP

From Canada, professor tries to keep Gaza university 'alive'

University professor Ahmed Abu Shaban often gets up at 3:00 am in Toronto to remotely teach his students in Gaza -- motivated by loyalty to his trapped pupils, and a deep sense of guilt.

Text size:

Shaban, an academic who fled Gaza days after October 7, 2023, said he has an obligation to students in the Palestinian Territory desperate to study in defiance of unimaginable challenges.

He also said he has a responsibility to help preserve higher education in Gaza, while the world is focused on the humanitarian emergency.

But the 50-year-old conceded that guilt also weighs on him.

"Guilty for leaving Gaza," he told AFP. "Like we just abandoned our country, our people, our institution."

Shaban is still the dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine at Al-Azhar University, which was destroyed -- along with most university buildings -- by Israeli air strikes.

Shaban crossed to Egypt shortly after the war began, anticipating Israel's response to the Hamas attack would be "massive," he said.

Canadian contacts arranged a posting at Toronto's York University, where he is a visiting professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change.

In a campus office with empty book shelves and mostly bare walls, Shaban explained that he felt compelled to help make Al-Azhar operational in some form.

He wanted "to give the very clear message for the whole world: Yes, they just destroyed our infrastructure. Yes, they destroyed our buildings... but we are still alive and we will just continue," he said.

"This is actually a responsibility for our students, for our nation, and for our independent state in the future."

- Hunger to study -

Shaban, who is on Al-Azhar's board, said its pre-war enrolment was 14,000 students.

When registration opened for online courses earlier this year he expected 1,000 students to join.

"We got 10,000," he said.

"It was really, for me, shocking because, just imagine: you live in a tent, you have no electricity, you have no internet. You have nothing at all.

"But you still have the hope to go to sign up for online courses and to walk for five (kilometres) to get internet connection and even to communicate, to sit and study. And sometimes you risk your life even while you are searching for internet."

Shaban conceded his personal schedule is "stressful," as he tries to work in two time zones.

One day last month, he was up at 3:00 am to join a workshop on Gaza's food system, before an Al-Azhar board meeting at 6:00 am. He then headed to his Toronto office to prepare a guest lecture on the Gaza war.

On evenings and weekends he records and uploads lectures for his Palestinian students.

Shaban said the study program is flexible, given the challenges of internet access. Students watch lectures and complete assigments when they can get online.

- Star student killed -

He said students in Gaza can be "angry" and "pushy": they want to know, for example, when they will able to do lab work, even though all the labs have been destroyed.

Shaban said he understands their frustrations.

"Sometimes you feel the students are looking at us like we can do things that actually are not doable," he said. "I have to be responsive in a gentle way."

As agitated student messages pour in, Shaban said he reminds himself that he is living comfortably in a city with electricity and grocery stores stocked with food.

"(I) try just to provide them with whatever support that I can. There are many things that I cannot do," he said.

Students who have died are always front of mind.

He recalled five engineering students killed as they gathered by an internet source to work on an assignment.

Shaban said he will never forget his "star student" Bilal al Aish, who, days before the war started, was trying to decide whether to pursue a scholarship in Germany or the American Fulbright.

"I saw the hope in his eyes, not only for his own future, but also the future of our institutions."

Shaban said Aish was killed by an Israeli strike early in the war.

"I got the feeling they are killing the future," the professor said. "That was really painful for me."

F.Schneider--NZN