Israel demolishes 3 Palestinian schools in 2 weeks: Rights organization
Canadian Catholic teacher organizations stand immobilized.
See no evil, spaek no evil.
So much for international solidarity.Fear conquers gospel values.
Teachers instruct children to stand in line before class begins at Jub
El-Thib, east of Bethlehem, the occupied West Bank, on August
28, 2017, a few days after Israeli authorities demolished
their newly constructed school.
Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank are simply being denied education as the Israeli regime keeps on with the much-blamed policy of demolishing their newly constructed schools, a humanitarian NGO says.
According to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), an international organization that promotes and protects the rights of people affected by displacement, Israeli authorities have destroyed or inflicted heavy damage on at least three educational facilities for Palestinian children in the region during the past two weeks.
The latest of these demolitions was a brand-new school paid for by the European Union (EU), which had been constructed just three weeks ago at Jub El-Thib, east of Bethlehem. However, Israeli demolition teams arrived there a couple of days ago and flattened the building, which once housed 64 elementary students, from the first to the fourth grade.
Now, instead of studying, learning, chanting and playing at a well-constructed building, these children have no choice but to confine themselves to a gloomy tent to shelter from the burning heat of the August sun. The makeshift classroom has no tables to sit and study at.
“It doesn’t look nice anymore, it’s ugly,” said Jana Zawahra, an eight-year-old student, shocked at the loss of her classroom, sobbing to herself on the ground where her school once stood.
The NRC said two other ill-fated education facilities were the only kindergarten for the Bedouin community of Jabal Al Baba, which was demolished, and a primary school in Abu Nuwar, whose solar panels, the only source of power at the school, was dismantled and confiscated by Israeli authorities.
The demolitions reportedly left up to 80 kids, aged between 5 to 10, without school, forcing them to start the school year in tents or under the hot sun.
“Just when they (students) were due to return to the classroom, Palestinian children are discovering that their schools are being destroyed,” said Hanibal Abiy Worku, a director of the NRC.
“What threat do these schools pose to the Israeli authorities? What are they planning to achieve by denying thousands of children their fundamental right to education?”
Israel argues that these schools had been constructed in the so-called Area C without granting a prior permission from the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit in the Israeli military that engages in coordinating civilian issues between the Israeli regime, the Israeli military, international organizations, diplomats and the Palestinian Authority.
The Area C constitutes about 61 percent of the entire West Bank and it is directly controlled by COGAT, which demands permits for new building projects. But according to the NRC, the majority of planning requests are firmly denied, leaving international donors and Palestinians alike with no choice but to construct new schools anyway.
“We will stay here and resist against the occupation,” said Sami Mruwwah, the Palestinian director of education, adding, “We will rebuild the school soon, what happened against the school and its students violates human rights and childhood in particular.”
He also called on the international community not to remain silent “in the face of the crimes of occupiers against education in Palestine.”