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"States Parties
recognize that every child has the inherent right to life…States
Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and
development of the child". (Article 6, United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child, September 1990)
According to the UN
Commission on Human Rights' special Rapporteur on the right to
education, "military occupations are another appreciable curb on the
human right to education, the most egregious example being the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict." (UN Doc. E/CN.4 17 Dec. 2004,
paragraph 124). And the International Court of Justice in July 2004
found that the Wall and the laws associated with it impede the
liberty of movement of Palestinians in the occupied territories and
consequently the exercise of their right to education.
Israeli attacks on
Palestinian social and educational institutions continue in
violation of international humanitarian law and all United Nations
conventions. The occupation's restrictions on movement and the land
grabbing wall of separation constitute a real obstacle that prevent
people in general, and school children in particular, from reaching
their schools, and disrupt their daily life. The Israeli military
continues to target school children, teachers and administrators
through its policies of closures, detention, shooting and other
forms of collective punishment.
Palestinian
children and their most basic rights are being violated on a daily
basis. Children and their families are subjected to frequent and
prolonged military curfews, detained without charge; and up to 350
Palestinian children are currently in detention centers in Israel.
Children's homes
are demolished, and they are often used as human shield by soldiers.
More than 800 children have been killed in the past 5 years, and
thousands injured; and there have been numerous cases of
cold-blooded murder of Palestinian children throughout the past 5
years, but such stories are rarely told by the mainstream media.
As we started the
new school-year in September, the Israeli occupation authorities
have escalated such measures to impede the educational process and
deny school and college students their guaranteed right to safe and
accessible education. Such policies impact students throughout the
Palestinian occupied territories, particularly in Jerusalem where
students can find themselves on the "wrong" side of the separation
wall barrier.
3403 students and
33 schools are currently affected by the barrier because their
teachers are not able to reach their schools, and many of the
students are also unable to reach their own schools that happen to
be on the other side of the Wall. The Wall that encircles the city
of Jerusalem deprives over 2000 students and 260 teachers from
reaching their schools in the al-Ram and Dahia neighborhoods alone;
in addition to 6000 Jerusalem students living outside who find
themselves cut off from their schools in the City.
In the towns of
Abu-Dis and Azariyeh, with only 4 schools for 5000 students, 2180 of
those who attended schools in the City will have no access to their
schools in Jerusalem. 320 teachers (50%) in Palestinian Authority
run schools, and 170 teachers (20%) in private Palestinian schools
in Jerusalem will be prevented from reaching their schools in the
City since they reside outside the infamous separation Wall.
College and
university students residing in the City also will be separated from
their colleges by the Wall barrier. College students impacted by
this situation include 1500 students in Al-Quds University, 1000
students in Bethlehem University, and 700 Birzeit University
students.
Schools inside the
City (Jerusalem) boundaries are subjected to threats of closure or
arrest of students, teachers, or administrators. The Vocational
School in the Industrial Zone for instance, which belongs to al-Ram
district, is often threatened with persecution for having teachers
on its staff that live outside the City Wall of separation, or just
for the school being in Jerusalem. In the villages of Numan and Khas
students risk their lives smuggling themselves in through dirt roads
for lack of access to their schools. The Wall has cut right through
the middle of the football field of the Anata School rendering it
unusable, and destroying the school's main gate in the process.
It is almost
impossible for Palestinians to build, expand, or renovate their
schools in Jerusalem in order to accommodate the increased number of
students coming in, due to the Israeli restrictions imposed on
Palestinians in the City. Moreover, Israeli military assault on
educational institutions includes raids on premises, destruction of
facilities, targeting of teachers, and closure or occupation of
buildings.
In his story “A
Gaza Diary”, Harper’s Magazine, October 2001, Chris Hedges reported:
"yesterday at this spot the Israelis shot eight young men, six of
whom were under the age of eighteen. One was twelve. This afternoon
they killed an eleven-year-old boy, Ali Murad, and seriously wounded
four more three of whom are under eighteen. Children have been shot
in other conflicts I have covered…but I have never before watched
soldiers entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for
sport."
The Ministry of
Education and Higher Education strongly urges the international
community, international human rights organizations, children's
rights groups and NGOs to investigate the conditions of education
under occupation; to intervene to end the suffering of Palestinian
children and people; and to insure that children can exercise their
right to reach their schools and colleges safely and freely, and
their teachers to perform their duties that are protected under
international law.
Source: Al-Awda
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