Lack of funding for Palestinians pursuing their studies, both at home and abroad, is a considerable obstacle for the advancement in their careers. Opportunities for scholarship exist (gathered here) but they can be narrow in scope. We thus decided to advertise individual fundraising campaigns created directly by Palestinian students in order to support their studies here.
Category: News (Page 2 of 2)
Scientists for Palestine is seeking a concrete support for a mentoring initiative involving Palestinian students and academics.
In keeping with S4P’s mission, we hope that many of you might be able to assist one or more Palestinian students or academics working in, undertaking a degree in, or seeking employment in your area of work. Examples of such assistance may include:
- Academic writing mentoring (i.e. help with English and technical writing) for dissertations, research manuscripts, etc.
- Review and feedback on a student application for a higher education degree or postgraduate employment.
- Review and feedback on an academic’s research manuscript, grant proposal, etc.
Indeed, S4P has every indication that such assistance is in high demand at all levels of Palestinian science, from undergraduate to senior academic, so we expect no shortage of requests.
However, we are acutely conscious that spare time is in very short supply for many of you. That is why we would tremendously value your support in this mentoring project! We seek help of scientist of conscience who could make an immediate impact on the learning experience and/or career progression of Palestinian scientists, whose full potential is clearly thwarted by the direct and indirect effects of the Israeli Occupation.
Your contribution has the potential to open up opportunities to students and colleagues with a great passion for science and remarkable determination to excel, despite their right to education being compromised on a daily basis.
Please fill out this form if are willing to help in any way.
We are pleased to announce that our website has a new section collecting important information about a wide variety of funding opportunities for Palestinian students and academics.
In particular, there are now links to various scholarships for students.
We are committed to keep this section as update as possible hoping this list will keep on growing. If you know of any funding opportunity which you think could be useful but that is missing, let us know filling out our appropriate form. It only takes a couple of minutes!
We are now currently working on expanding the section to also include information about different summer schools, as well as research grants relevant for Palestinian academics.
We are collecting information on funding opportunities for Palestinian students and academics, and to develop our activities (for example to organize scientific schools in Palestine, exchange programs for Palestinian students, funding opportunities for Palestinian students to study abroad, supporting media project to talk about the impact of the Israeli Occupation on education in Palestine).
If you know of any funding opportunity that might be useful please take a moment to share it with us here.
We plan to compile some of this information to make it publicly available on our website.
Thank you!
To become a scientist in the Gaza Strip you have to overcome insurmountable difficulties, a taste is given in this amazing short video. The video was first shown at our first International Meeting for Science in Palestine at University of Cambridge.
This effort would have been impossible without the incredible collaboration of Afnan Alostaz, Mohammed Sabbah and Mohammed Zourob.
Our first International Meeting for Science in Palestine ended last Sunday, January 7th, after a productive weekend where scientists from all over the world, including the West Bank and Gaza came together to discuss how to implement concrete programs and long term visions to strengthen the growth of science in Palestine and help build ties between the Palestinian and international scientific communities. The final program is available here.
If you couldn’t attend the meeting in person you can watch the talks here.
The International Meeting for Science in Palestine will start tomorrow, Friday January 5th.
The program is now available here. If you can’t attend in person follow us on Facebook live starting at 9:30 a.m. GMT on Saturday January 6th.
Applications are now open for our first International Meeting for Science in Palestine, to be held in Cambridge, U.K., from January 5th through 7th, 2018.
This will be the first international gathering to discuss how to implement concrete programs and long term visions to strengthen the growth of science in Palestine and help build ties between the Palestinian and international scientific communities. The target audience is a mix of Palestinian academics and students, and of international scientists committed to advancing these goals. For more information visit the meeting’s website here.
Four students from Gaza were forced to remotely participate to PAPS 2017, the second Palestinian Advanced Physics School at Birzeit University as they were denied travel permits to attend the school. The restrictions imposed by the Israeli government are so strict that even delivering the physical certificate to them was not easy.
Thanks to Dr. Wafaa Khater and Dr. Badran, from Birzeit University and to Dr. Sulaiman al Barakeh from Al Aqsa University in Gaza, they were able to obtain a more than a well deserved certificate recognizing their work.
The 2017 edition of the Palestinian 
Advanced Physics School, hosted by Birzeit University, ended on July 13th. We are happy to say that the school was a great success!
The incredible success of the school would not have been possible without the support of the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), our local Palestinian support and the over two-hundreds donors who have contributed with small and large donations to raise the funds to make this event a reality. There are no words to thank you enough!
Visit our facebook page for more photos of the school and for videos of the lectures.
Unfortunately due to reasons beyond our control the school can longer take place at Al-Quds University and will instead take place at Birzeit University. The dates and speaker list remain unchanged (available here).
Applications are now open for the school, interested students can apply by June 10th here.
Thanks to incredible support by more than 200 donors the fundraiser for the second Palestinian Advanced Physics school was a great success!
The school will become a reality and will take place at Al-Quds University on July 2017.
Follow us on Facebook to keep up to date with the news from the school, and for updates on other initiatives.
Although this particular campaign has ended, if you would still like to support our activities we have started a continuous fundraiser here.
With your support we can keep working towards other goals, such as:
- Creating a mentorship program to match students in Palestine with more senior researchers throughout the world.
- Allowing students from neighboring countries or Europe to attend the school (and its future incarnations), building further long-term relationships between the Palestinian and international scientific communities.
- Offering fellowships for highly qualified Palestinian students to pursue higher education abroad.
Thus please consider donating if you can – your donation will make a difference to science in Palestine. No donation is too small!
Thanks to the generous support of many donors, we are happy to say that we have smashed our fundraising target. In addition to hosting the Palestinian Advanced Physics School 2017 as described below, the spectacular level of support that we have received will now help us towards other goals, such as:
- Creating a mentorship program to match students in Palestine with more senior researchers throughout the world.
- Allowing students from neighboring countries or Europe to attend the school (and its future incarnations), building further long-term relationships between the Palestinian and international scientific communities.
- Offering fellowships for highly qualified Palestinian students to pursue higher education abroad.
Though our immediate fundraising goals have been met, please consider donating if you can – your donation will make a difference to science in Palestine.
The momentum around our campaign doesn’t cease! The public endorsement of Stephen Hawking (here) has generated quite a bit of attention leading to coverage by international media outlets like Haaretz (here), Israel most liberal newspaper. The American Physical Society has also publically advertise our campaign (here).
There are no words to thank you enough for the almost 200 donations we have received. We are now well above our goal, although $ 7500 was the bare minimum that we needed. The Second Palestinian Advanced Physics School is happening; we have already consolidated the dates and the first prominent lecturer.
The money received allow us to raise slightly our ambitions. We have already made connections with the Palestine Technical University (of Tulkarm) which could possibly host the school in 2018. We are also working on establishing a system of fellowships and scholarships for Palestinian students in non-Palestinian universities. Lack of funding is a major impediment in the ability of Palestinian students to pursue careers in the sciences.
But to keep expanding our ambitions we need your support! Please consider continuing making a donation towards our cause. No donation is too small!
For updates on our activities, visit this website and/or follow Scientists for Palestine on facebook.
Preparations for the second Palestinian Advanced Physics School (PAPS 2017) to take place at Al-Quds University, Jerusalem, are well underway.
A fundraising campaign to help make PAPS 2017 a reality is going well, with over 70% of the funds raised!
A very big thank you to all our generous donors!
At the recent physics school organised by Scientists for Palestine, a quarter of the students and key members of the organising committee were from Birzeit University. It therefore grieves us to see that today this university was again raided and vandalised. As fellow educators we are deeply saddened to see the occupation’s ongoing obstruction of teachers and students in their pursuit of knowledge.
“[H]igher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit”, states article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948. We, “Scientists for Palestine”, the organisers of the first Palestinian Advanced Physics School, embrace the declaration of human rights. It is then with deep regret that we note that the right to education has again been violated by the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
The Palestinian Advanced Physics School, held at the Arab American University in Jenin and attended by roughly thirty Masters students from four Palestinian universities on the West Bank, included lecturers from world-leading international scientists, problem solving sessions and tutorials. The school was regarded as a major success by the attending students, lecturers and organisers alike, yet we regret that a highly merited student from Gaza, accepted to the school, was not granted permission by the occupation to travel to Jenin and attend the school — a clear violation of this student’s human rights.
Despite the hardships caused by the occupation, science in Palestine continues to grow and strengthen its international connections. Scientists for Palestine will be proud to continue to support this development.
Thursday July 28th concluded the first ever Palestinian Advanced Physics School hosted by the Arab American University of Jenin and organised by Scientists for Palestine. The three days school attracted world famous scholars giving lectures ranging from foundations of particle physics to applications of synchrotron radiation, from the mathematical structure of symmetries in nature to surprising effects of light-matter interactions. The school was attended by roughly 30 Palestinian physics master students from four Palestinian Universities (An-Najah, Al Quds, Arab American University and Birzeit).
This was the first event organised by Scientists for Palestine, and we were thrilled to see how all our preparations would turn out. Fortunately the success of the school exceeded our expectations. Everyone involved, from the students to the lecturers, were very happy for the whole duration of the school. Wonderful lectures were followed by engaging and stimulating, hands-on, problem solving sessions and each day ended with a Palestinian dinner provided by the organisers. There is no better way to do physics than with a smile on your face and delicious food in your belly!
There was only one shared criticism: the school was too short! We are already working on a possible week-long school with a broadened scope, for future years.
We, Scientists for Palestine, are very grateful to CERN, the Sharing the Knowledge Foundation, the Arab American University and Birzeit University for financial and practical support for the school. Moreover, we are enormously grateful to the work and support of Dr. Adli Saleh (Arab American University) and Dr. Wafaa Khater (Birzeit University). Without their contributions and guidance the school would have not been possible.
More photos from the school can be found on the Scientists for Palestine Facebook page.