‘Just a tiny facet of some horrible ongoing thing,’ A physicist’s tale of Palestine

Physicist Nabil Iqbal, a professor at Durham University, posted a thread on X (Twitter) detailing his experience of teaching in a physics school co-organized by him in the West Bank. He shared that students from Gaza, both undergrads and from the University of Gaza, would send in applications but were never granted travel permits from Israel.

For several years I co-organized a physics school in the West Bank of Palestine. We always had many applications to the school from physics students in Gaza, undergrads from the Islamic U. of Gaza and Al-Azhar U.

(Just checked my records — 15 in 2019). 2/N

— Nabil Iqbal (@nblqbl) November 1, 2023

He reminisces about the time they would conduct Zoom meetings with the physics enthusiasts and check their assignments on the phone. They would also wonder about the time they will get to talk ‘physics’ in person.

So dedicated professors in IUG would arrange a room where all of their students could gather and watch together the lectures happening over Zoom.

(This was pre-pandemic, when this idea felt deservedly abnormal). 4/N

— Nabil Iqbal (@nblqbl) November 1, 2023

These are all such minor academic things, made difficult only because the students were in Gaza.

We told them some day we would hold a school there so we could talk about physics in person. 6/N

— Nabil Iqbal (@nblqbl) November 1, 2023

Iqbal recently got connected to one of his students in Gaza. She told him that if this is the end, she wants us to remember that she is a physics student and that she wanted to teach others to be as inspired by science as she is.

I was recently in touch with one of them. Just before the war started she was asking me typically academic questions about references etc. etc.

The topic of our correspondence has since shifted.

8/N

— Nabil Iqbal (@nblqbl) November 1, 2023

This is just a tiny facet of some horrible ongoing thing.

But I hope that those students are okay.

And I hope that some day I can answer all of their questions, both about string theory and otherwise.

/end

— Nabil Iqbal (@nblqbl) November 1, 2023

This story is a clear reminder of how such bright minds are wasted in ravaging wars.