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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://english.palinfo.com/articles/2018/10/24/A-cruel-choice-Why-Israel-targets-Palestinian-schools">https://english.palinfo.com/articles/2018/10/24/A-cruel-choice-Why-Israel-targets-Palestinian-schools</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Why Israel targets Palestinian schools</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">By Ramzy Baroud - October
24, 2018<br>
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<article id="ltrFullPageDiv"> 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”.
<p>
“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.</p>
<p>
“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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>
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.”</p>
<p>
“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.</p>
<p>
In other words, even the “protectors” themselves often
fall victim to the army and Jewish settler terror
tactics.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>
“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.”</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>
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”.</p>
<p>
Israeli writer, Orly Noy, summed up the Israeli logic in
one sentence.</p>
<p>
<em>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.</em></p>
<p>
she wrote earlier this year.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>
<em>- Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of
Palestine Chronicle. </em></p>
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