Her Highness’s speech at the World Innovation Summit for Education

For more than 20 years we have supported education in Palestine, and especially in Gaza. We built the Al Fakhoora School as the first of many educational projects in Gaza. It has since been shelled by the Israeli occupation forces. The projects, which now constitute the Al Fakhoora program include teaching and training, building schools and universities, and funding specific research projects that are not available elsewhere in the strip. They also provide psycho-social support to cope with the devastating reality of life in times of crisis in Gaza.

Since the start of the current Israeli aggression in October, 36 Education Above All supported schools and universities have been completely or partially destroyed. And so, Israeli occupation forces have destroyed so much that has been accomplished by the Al-Fakhoora program. With the collapse of each school and each university, we lose a pillar in the foundation of the future. For every child deprived of education because of violence, another pillar is lost.

Every time education is targeted, the international community takes more than a single step backward. Our priority and policy must transcend political calculations and machinations.

The future of our young people is built on education.  

 

The picture you see on the screen is a Palestinian child named Suhaila. It was taken in Gaza in 2014 but we have seen hundreds of similar images during this 2023 aggression. It is as if time has been suspended as the moment of destruction is repeated, once again.

Esteemed guests, this child, and so many others like her, know the bitterness of being barred from learning. See how, as she escapes the devastation around her, she clutches hold of her papers, as if clinging to hope that these papers will bring about a better future.

 

Because education’s value is taken for granted, only those who are deprived of it realize its true importance. This little one, Suhaila, knows that education would provide her and her family with a better future. A better future that refuses to arrive, because the future is heavy with the threat of annihilation, a threat that was realized in the fate of Al Fakhoora.  

 

War disrupts educational institutions, exhausts health sectors, and prevents the wheels of development from turning. Those very wheels are buried deep in the debris. And because of this the greatest threat to a society’s progress occurs after the ceasefire. The victims, their old lives buried under the rubble, must rise from the ashes left by the destruction, and start again with nothing.

And connected to education — is anything not connected to education? — is the focus of this year’s WISE Summit: the potential of artificial intelligence: addressing related issues, and how to improve the ways we harness its capabilities and possibilities. 

During the war in Gaza, we have seen artificial intelligence being used to fabricate stories, falsify facts, and block publications, photos, and videos that include atrocities committed by the Israeli occupation forces against the people of Gaza and the West Bank. This makes us wonder: whose stories does artificial intelligence select to be archived as history? Whose history will be told? Which ideas will be chosen as the most credible? And then: how do we maintain our independence and preserve our educational values? How do we remain sovereign societies?

Ladies and Gentleman, 

I want — as I believe you do — to ensure WISE is a platform for new ideas that keep pace with the changes taking place in the world, and the obstacles that education faces in certain countries for reasons of which we are all too aware. And I say as I have said many times before: there is no alternative but to innovate if we are to find solutions to intractable problems. This is the role that WISE plays.

In tackling the challenges of education, scientists and researchers — like you — bear an academic and moral responsibility. You have made an honorable choice, and we here at WISE are privileged to support you on your noble paths. You excel in your efforts, and we value all that you do.

I bless your past and future efforts and wish you a successful conference.