Israel’s destruction of higher education in Gaza has been “methodical” and “deliberate”, says Said Arikat, a journalist and adjunct instructor at the American University in Washington, DC.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Washington, DC after Israel demolished Gaza’s Israa University, Arikat said “it is obvious that Israel is committing cultural genocide in Gaza”.

“There has to be an academic boycott of Israel,” he added, noting that Israel has “all but destroyed all seven universities in Gaza [which] tells us that it is deliberate.”

Arikat told Al Jazeera that “higher education thrived in the past and many young people in Gaza ended up going to the university”.