A phrase keeps coming up in the work of Cambridge researchers who spent two years keeping track of the schooling of Palestinian children who lived through war. It’s a powerful phrase to say that these kids are “like the living dead.” Not even comfortable. That being said, it’s hard to argue with the choice of words after reading what the researchers found.
It wasn’t like these kids had just missed a few weeks of school. The kids had seen their classrooms destroyed and had lost teachers, siblings, and neighbors in the past few months, but they were still expected to learn.
The Cambridge study, which was spread out over two years, tried to find something that numbers alone can’t show. There are numbers that can tell you how many schools were hurt. No one can describe the look on a ten-year-old’s face when they sit in the remains of a building that used to be a classroom and stare at nothing. That was noticed by the researchers. It was written down.
The results don’t just show that education has been messed up in Gaza. It’s because living through constant conflict has hollowed out something important in the minds of many children. They said that motivation had mostly gone away. To be clear, it’s not that these kids can’t do it; it’s just that living from moment to moment, day to day, leaves little time for algebra or reading comprehension. When ordinary childhood milestones keep getting pushed back by unexpected events, it’s easy to lose touch with your feelings.
People from outside the country might not realize how much this costs. Reports on war tend to focus on what can be seen, like destroyed buildings, death tolls, and families who have to move. It’s harder to capture the inner life of a child who doesn’t think tomorrow will be like today. Still, the Cambridge team took the time to write it down, and what they found is quietly devastating.
When teachers were still around, they talked about feeling helpless. Some of them had lost their homes. Some were trying to keep the kids’ attention while teaching in tents or open lots while the world around them was falling apart. One thing that stands out from the research is that the children were not described as traumatized in the clinical, post-event sense. Instead, they were described as being in a continuous present-tense trauma, still going through what would later be called a crisis in a different setting.
The phrase “like the living dead” says something about how they felt. Not sad about something. Not getting better. Just put on hold.
More generally, the international community should talk about what its duties are toward children living in conflict zones, not just in terms of keeping them safe but also of ensuring they have a good future. Getting an education is often seen as an investment for the long term. For kids in Gaza, the idea of the long term feels like something from someone else’s life.
What Cambridge found during those two years won’t change what has already happened. But what matters is the choice to spend that time looking closely, recording carefully, and picking words that are honest enough to make people uncomfortable. Making these kids sound “like the living dead” isn’t trying to get people’s attention. Based on what the researchers found, it sounds like it’s true.
