[News] Why Israel targets Palestinian schools

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://english.palinfo.com/articles/2018/10/24/A-cruel-choice-Why-Israel-targets-Palestinian-schools 



  Why Israel targets Palestinian schools

By Ramzy Baroud - October 24, 2018
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Several Palestinian students, along with teachers and officials, were 
wounded in the Israeli army attack on a school south of Nablus in the 
West Bank on 15 October. The students of Al- Sawiya Al-Lebban Mixed 
School were challenging an Israeli military order to shut down their 
school based on the ever-versatile accusation of the school being a 
“site of popular terror and rioting”.

“Popular terror” is an Israeli army code for protests. The students, of 
course, have every right to protest, not just the Israeli military 
occupation but also the encroaching colonization of the settlements of 
Alie and Ma’ale Levona. These two illegal Jewish settlements have 
unlawfully confiscated thousands of dunams of land belonging to the 
villages of As-Sawiya and Al-Lebban.

“The Israeli citizens” that the occupation army is set to protect by 
shutting down the school, are, in fact, the very armed Jewish settlers 
who have been terrorizing this West Bank region for years.

According to a 2016 study commissioned by the United Nations, at least 
2,500 Palestinian students from 35 West Bank communities must cross 
through Israeli military checkpoints to reach their schools every day. 
About half of these students have reported army harassment and violence 
for merely attempting to get to their classes or back home.

However, this is only half of the story, as violent Jewish settlers are 
always on the lookout for Palestinian kids. These settlers, who “also 
set up their own checkpoints”, engage in regular violence as well, by 
“throwing stones” at children, or “physically pushing (Palestinian 
children) around.”

“UNICEF’s protective presence teams have reported that their volunteers 
have been subjected to physical attacks, harassment, arrest and 
detention, and death threats,” according to the same UN report.

In other words, even the “protectors” themselves often fall victim to 
the army and Jewish settler terror tactics.

Add to this that Area C – a major part of the West Bank that is under 
full Israeli military control – represents the pinnacle of Palestinian 
suffering. An estimated 50,000 children face numerous hurdles, including 
the lack of facilities, access, violence, closure and unjustified 
demolition orders.

The school of Al-Sawiya Al-Lebban located in Area C is, therefore, under 
the total mercy of the Israeli military, which has no tolerance for any 
form of resistance, including non-violent popular protests by school 
children.

What is truly uplifting, however, is that, despite the Israeli military 
occupation and ongoing restrictions on Palestinian freedom, the 
Palestinian population remains one of the most educated in the Middle East.

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the 
literacy rate in Palestine (estimated at 96.3 per cent) is one of the 
highest in the Middle East and the illiteracy rate (3.7 per cent among 
individuals over the age of 15) is one of the lowest in the world.

If these statistics are not heartening enough, bearing in mind the 
ongoing Israeli war on Palestinian school and curricula, consider this: 
the besieged and war-stricken Gaza Strip has an even higher literacy 
rate than the West Bank, as they both stand at 96.6 per cent and 96 per 
cent respectively.

In truth, this should not come as a total surprise. The first wave of 
Palestinian refugees that were ethnically-cleansed from historic 
Palestine was so keen on ensuring their children strive to continue 
their education, they established school tents, operated by volunteer 
teachers as early as 1948.

Palestinians understand well that education is their greatest weapon to 
obtain their long-denied freedom. Israel, too, is aware of this 
dichotomy, knowing that an empowered Palestinian population is far more 
capable of challenging Israeli dominance than a subdued one, thus the 
relentless and systematic targeting of the Palestinian educational system.

Israel’s strategy in destroying the infrastructure of Palestinian 
schooling system is centered on the allegation of “terror”: that is, 
Palestinians teach “terror” in their schools; Palestinian school books 
celebrate “terrorists”; schools are sites for “popular terror” and 
various other accusations that, per Israeli logic, compels the army to 
seal off schools, demolish facilities, arrest and shoot students.

Take for example the recent comments made by the Israeli Mayor of 
Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, who is now leading a government campaign aimed at 
shutting down operations by the UN organisation that caters for 
Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

“It is time to remove UNRWA from Jerusalem,” Barkat announced early 
October. Without any evidence whatsoever, Barkat claimed that “UNRWA is 
strengthening terror,” and that “the children of Jerusalem are taught 
under their auspices, terror, and this must be stopped.”

Of course, Barkat is being dishonest. The jibe at UNRWA in Jerusalem is 
part of a larger Israeli-US campaign aimed at shutting down an 
organisation that proved central to the status and welfare of 
Palestinian refugees.

According to this skewed thinking, without UNRWA, Palestinian refugees 
would have no legal platform, thus closing down UNRWA is closing down 
the chapter of Palestinian refugees and their Right of Return altogether.

The link between the shutting down of Al-Sawiya Al-Lebban, the targeting 
of UNRWA by Israel and the US, the numerous checkpoints separating 
students from their schools in the West Bank and more, have more in 
common than Israel’s false allegation of “terror”.

Israeli writer, Orly Noy, summed up the Israeli logic in one sentence.

/By destroying schools in Palestinian villages in Area C and elsewhere, 
Israel is forcing Palestinians to make a cruel choice — between their 
land and their children’s futures./

she wrote earlier this year.

It is this brutal logic that has guided the Israeli government strategy 
regarding Palestinian education for 70 years. It is a war that cannot be 
discussed or understood outside the larger war on Palestinian identity, 
freedom, and, in fact, the very existence of the Palestinian people.

The students’ fight for their right to education in Al-Sawiya Al-Lebban 
Mixed School is by no means an isolated skirmish involving Palestinian 
school kids and trigger-happy Israeli soldiers. Rather, it is at the 
heart of the Palestinian people’s fight for their freedom.

/- Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine Chronicle. /

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20181024/0faf0c04/attachment.htm>