‌‌Professor Arathi Sriprakash from the School of Education was selected for the Fellowship of the inaugural Palestine Academic Links Seminar (PALS) organised by the Friends of Birzeit University (FOBZU). The Fellowship involved a week-long study tour in Palestine in late June with a delegation of 11 academics from British Universities, led by academic coordinator Akram Salhab. The PALS programme was launched in 2022 to address the urgent need to build educational links and promote mutual understanding between UK and Palestinian faculty and is guided by the British Academy’s International Engagement framework. 

The Fellowship enabled scholars in law, education, politics, literary studies, Arab studies and documentary film making to meet with Palestinian academics, students and civil society organisations to foster academicresearch links and collaborations. For example, the delegation learned from the Right to Education Campaignat Birzeit University which documents, researches and raises awareness about the oppression of Palestinian students and teachers under Israeli military occupation.  

In addition to Birzeit University, delegates also visited Mada al-Carmel Arab Centre for Applied Social Research; Adalah - the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights; and Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, and met with representatives and academics from Al Quds and Bethlehem Universities and the human rights organisation Al-Haq. 

The PALS Fellows will continue to work together to forge institutional links with academics and students in Palestine, to support FOBZU's commitment to the right to education and to the role of education in the creation of a free and flourishing Palestine.