As a Palestinian living in diaspora, I would sometimes get jealous seeing my cousins living back home in Palestine attend Birzeit University. When it came time to apply to colleges and universities, I told my mom and aunt that I wanted to apply to BZU, just to try my luck and see if I would get in, and instead I lectured by both of them.
I was told that I should be happy to have grown up in the United States, and that I have better opportunities here, and that anyone would kill for the same opportunities as me, and yet, I want to apply to a university back home. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed with their reactions, and applied elsewhere.
After returning to the U.S. from my summer vacation to Palestine in July 2023, I realized just how much I truly loved Palestine and the atmosphere there. I told myself that after I graduate with my bachelor’s degree that I’m going to immediately move back home, and continue a master’s program of some sort at BZU.
Fast forward to Spring 2024, I began scrolling the many programs available at BZU, trying to find the one that interested me the most. As I kept looking, I stumbled upon a program called the Palestine and Arabic Studies (PAS) Program. They have a range of courses from learning Arabic, both Modern Standard and Colloquial, to political science and history courses.
Though this program is usually taught face-to-face, due to increasing tensions in Palestine, they decided to conduct it online, over Zoom during the summer semester. I thought this was finally my chance to become a BZU student, but knew that taking a summer course wouldn’t be possible for me.
I contacted the number available on the flier and asked if the program would be online during the fall semester as well, to which they replied and said it depended on the situation in the country.
Anyways, after much time, I heard they were offering courses for the fall semester online, and applied to take “The Palestine Question” course, which went over Palestinian history, starting from the end of the Ottoman Empire, all the way to present-day.
I, however, made sure to get permission from my advisor and the deans at Saint Xavier if I could be dually enrolled.
When I got accepted into the program, I felt so happy that my dream from all those years ago of attending BZU was coming true, even if it was from afar.
The program ran from Sept. 2024 to Dec. 2024, and class was every Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30-1:50 p.m..
I thoroughly enjoyed taking this class, and would look forward to it every week. Each class we would go learn a different topic, and each topic would build on the last. We learned about Palestine pre-occupation, early Zionism in Palestine, the Nakba, the first and second Intifadas, and so forth.
The class was also not very difficult at all, I don’t think anyone had a hard time in it, or earned anything less than a 90%. We were graded on very few things as well; we took two midterms, did two presentations, one academic paper on a topic of our choice, and a final. Just for reference, the midterms and final was just about three questions you had to answer based on your own personal opinion.
I highly recommend this program to anyone who wants to learn more about Palestine and immerse themselves in Palestinian culture. Under better circumstances, the class would be conducted face-to-face, and students can actually take field trips across the occupied West Bank. How I wish I could’ve gone to Palestine and taken this class there, but I’m still happy to have been able to take it online nonetheless.
If anyone is interested in the PAS program, you can go to their website at https://pas.birzeit.edu/ for more information. Their email address is PAS-ISP@birzeit.edu and their Whatsapp number is +970-592-299105.