Presentation given at INEE / GCE webinar 16 June 2025
Ingrid Lewis, EENET Managing Director
Introduction
Thank you for inviting me to speak at this event alongside such a great panel of speakers.
Writing – rather than speaking – is my passion, particularly writing about education and learning. I love using writing to stimulate conversations, debates, arguments. But when it comes to Palestine, and especially the last 20 months in Gaza, writing is a responsibility – and one that we all carry.
Writing about Gaza isn’t just a process of reporting facts but a process of conviction, endurance, and bravery. I’ll unpack this a bit in my presentation.
About EENET
Briefly, for those who don’t know EENET, the Enabling Education Network, started 28 years ago to support global dialogue on inclusive education. In our founding principles, we promise to create conversations, swim upstream, challenge the status quo, help people to leave their comfort zones, and, if necessary, make people feel uncomfortable. This is how we believe change happens.
Writing about Palestine
EENET has been writing its own content and publishing other people’s articles about the educational impact of Israel’s occupation in Palestine for many years. In October 2023, we automatically increased our written and verbal advocacy because it quickly became clear that education in Gaza was being attacked by Israel on an unprecedented scale. At the same time, we saw weak statements coming from well-known organisations.
NGOs are often among the first to highlight when governments and the media are not being transparent. They’re the first on the scene in crises and conflicts. They fight for education to be given attention in emergencies when others ignore it. NGOs’ insights and analyses carry weight with authorities and the public, so they shoulder a huge communication responsibility.
So it was somewhat shocking and disappointing that, for many months after October 2023, numerous NGOs tiptoed around the topic of what Israel was doing to the people and education system in Gaza. Many NGOs mirrored the mainstream media’s opaque narrative style. School children were “dying” rather than being killed by Israeli forces. Schools were “being bombed”, but the name of the bomber wasn’t mentioned.
Many forgot simply to inform their supporters about the context of decades of Israel’s illegal occupation, apartheid policies and denial of Palestinian human rights.
Why so much reluctance?
EENET’s mission is to rock the boat in order to stimulate debate and change. So I’ve found it hard to understand NGO reluctance to speak out on Gaza – especially once the genocide became so obvious. We’re all supposed to be champions of the most marginalised, aren’t we, so why so much fear around championing this group of oppressed people?
I get that talking about Palestine feels tricky. There’s the constant threat that you will be called antisemitic or a Hamas supporter if you criticise Israel.
Many of us have been raised in a media culture that has dehumanised Palestinian suffering for decades, and now consistently perpetuates Israel’s narrative that it is just defending itself, that the deaths of school children are terrible accidents, and that mass starvation is not the intended outcome of blocking all access to food.
But NGOs should know better than what they see in the media. So, what caused many NGOs to gag themselves and abandon their trademark bravery?
I’ve heard the excuse that funding or permission for their global programmes will be put at risk if the NGO upsets a key donor or government over “just” this one issue.
Some have said they fear their organisation’s reputation will be damaged if the media twists their messages about Gaza into being somehow antisemitic or pro-terror.
Others have said they don’t feel well enough informed, so they’ll stick to the basics rather than risk mentioning the context of apartheid, colonialism or genocide.
By contrast, people have told me that it’s easy for EENET to be vocal because we’re financially tiny, so we have nothing to lose. By implication, I guess they assume EENET would remain silent if we actually had a multi-million-dollar budget to worry about. I can guarantee we wouldn’t remain silent!
Fearless conversations
My presentation is entitled Fearless Conversations, so I just wanted to share what I think we need to see more of, if our sector is going to show less fear and more conviction and endurance in relation to messaging on education and other human rights in Gaza.
Palestinians have faced ethnic cleansing, occupation and human rights abuses since the Nakba of 1948. Many people simply don’t know about this because historical narratives are dominated by the colonial powers rather than the voices of the colonised. To support learners and teachers in Gaza, we must seek out their voices, believe them, and provide a platform to be heard, without censoring their messages, especially when they raise the historical context. We have a responsibility – and NGOs have the skills – to match up the authentic voices of oppressed people with what we know about international law.
Rather than staying silent or only conveying weak messages because we fear reprisals, we need to come out and name the fear. We should tell our supporters what risks we are taking by speaking out for Gaza. Encourage them – or give them the opportunity – to join us in opposing restrictions and saying “no” to fear.
We have seen a growth in joint Gaza statements by organisations; a strength-in-numbers approach to communicating. But these still tend to be rather stand-alone statements – not the constant drumming that’s needed. There are organisations that can and will constantly speak out loudly against apartheid, genocide and colonialism. If your organisation can’t directly speak out enough, for whatever reason, work with those who can. Lend practical and financial support to organisations that specialise in persistent, hard-hitting messages.
Conclusion
I want to acknowledge that many organisations are writing and sharing excellent, powerful messages on Gaza generally and the education situation specifically. For everyone already speaking and writing, keep it up and do more. EENET will willingly help to share your content.
For anyone still sitting on the communication fence, please jump off now. While you’re stressing about trying to choose appropriate words, school children are being murdered and schools are being destroyed. What we don’t say now will come back to haunt us as much as what we do say. So please create those conversations, and be fearless about it!
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