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<h1 class="title">Israeli forces demolish Palestinian primary
school in southern Hebron</h1>
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<div class="stamp">April 10, 2018 - <font size="-2"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=780017">http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=780017</a></font><br>
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BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces demolished a Palestinian
primary school late Monday night in the southern occupied West
Bank district of Hebron, leaving 42 children without a place to
learn. <br>
<br>
Locals told Ma’an that Israeli forces raided the small Bedouin
community of Zanouta, and destroyed the school, which was built
from cement blocks and tin sheets. <br>
<br>
The school was inaugurated on March 26, along with six other
schools in the area that were built to provide education for
children in vulnerable communities in the area. <br>
<br>
The now demolished structures held six classrooms and provided
services to 43 school children, including 10 in kindergarten. <br>
<br>
Despite the demolition, the school children still showed up to
school on Tuesday in the cold rain. Their teachers conducted
classes on the floor of the remaining structure.
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<div>The Palestinian Ministry of Education released a statement
on Tuesday condemning the destruction of the school,
describing it as “a new crime against educational
institutions” and an “attack on the rights of students and
children’s access to a safe and stable educational
environment.”<br>
<br>
“Does this school, which was built in a remote area, threaten
Israel?” the ministry asked in the statement, reaffirming
their position that the Israeli occupation “is the primary and
fundamental instigator against the Palestinian people and its
institutions, especially educational ones.”<br>
<br>
According to a February <a
href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/statement-acting-humanitarian-coordinator-opt-roberto-valent-israeli-authorities-destruction">statement
</a>from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA), 37 schools have pending demolition orders in
Area C of the West Bank, which is under the full civilian and
security control of Israeli authorities.<br>
<br>
Meanwhile, in March, the ministry released its annual report
for 2017 documenting the Israeli government’s violations
against Palestinian education, saying that 80,279 Palestinian
children and 4,929 teachers and staff were "attacked" by
Israeli settlers or soldiers.<br>
<br>
Area C, along with East Jerusalem, has been the site of rapid
Israeli settlement expansions in contravention of
international law, while Israel’s separation wall has further
divided Palestinian communities and has restricted
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza from even visiting what
was intended to be their capital.Israeli rights group B’Tselem
<a
href="http://www.btselem.org/planning_and_building/20170213_2016_demolitions"
target="_blank">reported </a>that in 2016 Palestinians
experienced the highest number of Israeli demolitions since
the group began recording the incidents. <br>
<br>
At the same time, settlement watchdog Peace now reported that
Israel’s illegal settlement construction in the West Bank<a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=777211"
target="_blank"> increased by 34 percent in 2016,</a> with
Israeli authorities initiating construction on 1,814 new
settler housing units.<br>
<br>
According to Palestinians and rights groups, Israel’s overall
goal, both in its policies in Area C and Israel’s settlement
enterprise, is to depopulate the land of its Palestinian
residents and replace them with Jewish Israeli communities in
order to manipulate population demographics in all of historic
Palestine.</div>
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415 863.9977
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