Despite facing arrests, Palestinian children defy Israel’s war on schools

Although two full years have passed, 14-year-old Hussam Owais still remembers the summer day when the Israeli army arrested him while he was on his way to school in the town of Lubban in the occupied West Bank.

Hossam was 12 years old then, a sixth-grade student. He was sent to an Israeli detention center.

Many schools in the West Bank are restricted by the Israeli army and Jewish settlers, hampering the mobility of students and even teachers on an almost daily basis.

Although it is considered a violation of children's right to education, Israel still practises this policy.

“Some soldiers started blocking my way, cursing, and trying to obstruct me while I was walking. I tried to get away from them, but they chased me and arrested me next to my school,” Hussam said.

The soldiers accused Hussam of hurling stones at them days before his arrest. He spent seven hours in detention until the village council negotiated his release.

“I was very afraid. They beat me up and forced me to confess that I threw stones at them, but I denied,” he said.

The Lubban Mixed Basic School, located on the main street between the cities of Nablus and Ramallah, is constantly exposed to attacks by Israeli soldiers and settlers alike.

According to the head of the village council, Yaqoub Owais, the illegal Zionist settlers employ threats, intimidation, coercion and violence against Palestinian pedestrians, including students, as they pass through the main road leading to the school. The Israeli police and army, Owaid said, encourage such aggression and give full protection to violent settlers who have attacked the school of 400 students several times. The settlers often throw stones at the school property and smash its doors and windows.

Owais said none of the attackers have ever been arrested by the Israeli police.

“During the year 2021, the school was closed for 85 days due to the harassment of soldiers and settlers. In 2022 it was closed for 76 days for the same reason,” he said.

“They are still trying to obstruct education in any way and impede students' access to it.”

Several times, soldiers fired gas bombs into the school yard, suffocating a large number of children and teachers.

The Israeli troops and settlers prioritise imposing curfew-like restrictions on the main street, which requires blocking children from accessing the school.

Another route to the school, a newly-built road, doubles the distance to the school. Even that access has been blocked. Israeli soldiers are also stationed at the three school gates during school hours.

Like a cage

The two brothers, 11-year-old Ramez and 10-year-old Murad Al Sharif are facing a similar problem but in another area.

The duo is enrolled at Qurtuba Basic School in the Old City of Hebron, south of the occupied West Bank. Every morning they have to pass through two Israeli military checkpoints to reach their school, which is about a 10-minute walk from their home.

“As we pass through a checkpoint near Jabal al-Rahma Mosque and a checkpoint in front of the Dabbuya settlement, soldiers search our bags and look for our names in a register that they always carry,” Ramez told TRT World.

This school is located at Shuhada Street, which is considered the “beating heart” of Hebron. The street was closed by Israel 29 years ago

The Israeli army takes daily mugshots of students and teachers as they reach the military checkpoint at the entrance of the school. It depends upon the mood of the soldiers when to open the iron gate and when to keep it closed. Most students and teachers feel their school has been turned into a cage.

“At times the soldiers would refuse to open the gate in the morning and detain us for hours. At times they detain the teachers and prevent them from entering the school premesis,” Ramez said.

“We feel very afraid and hope to be able to enter our school without barriers like the rest of the children in the world”.

Settlers are another obstacle to students’ access to this school, says Murad, adding that they are almost always present in the vicinity and assault children for no fault of theirs.

“Settlers are on the road the whole time. They throw stones at us, curse and try to humiliate us,” Murad said.

Despite navigating life-threatening circumstances imposed upon their little shoulders, Ramez and Murad say they love their school and know that Israel is trying to push Palestinian students to abandon their education.

The Tariq Bin Ziyad School, located near the Cordoba School, is also subject to continued Israeli attacks, including the frequent firing of tear gas canisters in its yard, which causes dozens of students difficulty in breathing.

Harsh facts

The Palestinian Ministry of Education confirmed that Israel’s oppressive tactics targeting school-going Palestinian children in the West Bank continue unabated.

In the fall of 2022, the ministry released a damning report which showed that Israeli troops have killed 18 school children, injured 74, arrested 183 and arbitarily detained 64, while obstructing 18,155 students from reaching their schools during that year alone.

According to the ministry, the attack on education also affects teachers. In 2022, two teachers were killed, 17 were arrested, 20 detained, and 2,764 were stopped from reaching their schools.

At least 295 settler attacks on Palestinian schools have been recorded in 2022, affecting 85 schools and obstructing hundreds of hours of courseworks.

Israel notified 18 schools of demolition, demolished one, and withdrew the licence of six schools, all within one year as documented by the Ministry.

Izz al-Din al-Titi, 26, was a teacher at Khallet al-Dabaa Elementary School in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron. All schools in this area are subjected to serious Israeli violations with the aim of controlling it and expelling the residents from there.

He told TRT World that it took him and his students an hour and a half to get to the school because of the bumpy, dirt road, which Israel doesn't allow to be repaired, forcing teachers and students to walk several kilometres.

Then the threat of school demolitions loomed large.

“The school, like all the schools in this area, has been threatened with demolition for five years, which means we were constantly afraid that it would be demolished at any moment. Sometimes soldiers broke into it and ordered us to leave, so we were forced to give classes outside,” he added.

The school consisted of only two rooms with a corridor between them, built of tin, and the electricity was deliberately cut off from it, making it hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter.

Only nine students from this village studied there due to the difficulties imposed by Israel.

But all these tactics are failing to discourage Palestinian students from abandoning their education. Instead, they become more determined to study.

As a result, Palestine has emerged as the country with the highest literacy rate in the Arab world. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics revealed on September 8 that illiteracy rates in Palestine are among the lowest in the region at “2.2 percent in 2022.”