AT-TUWANI REFLECTION: The school run
November 5th, 2008
in:
CPTnet
5 November 2008
AT-TUWANI REFLECTION: The school run
by Jan Benvie
Imagine the scene: a group of children walking to school. Some of the older children are jostling and pushing each other, joking together; the younger ones are walking quietly, hand in hand. It could be a scene from almost anywhere in the world.
But this is Palestine, under Israeli military occupation. The children are Palestinian. Two Israeli soldiers walk in front of the small group and an army jeep follows behind.
Each school day the Israeli military escorts children, aged six to twelve years old, to school in at-Tuwani. Armed Israeli settlers attack any Palestinian using the public road, which passes between the Israeli settlement of Ma’on and the settlement outpost of Havat Ma’on (both illegal under international law). The escort began in 2004 after Israeli settler attacks on the children and their international accompaniers received widespread publicity. The military will not allow CPT to walk with the children, but their parents have asked us to monitor the escort from nearby.
Despite the military escort, the children's journey to and from school is still dangerous and frightening.
Every day the children must walk part of the route unescorted because the military refuses to continue beyond a gate that settlers erected on the road early in 2008. Some days, settlers approach the children, yelling and threatening them, despite the presence of the escort. Sometimes the escort is late and the children must wait, frightened and vulnerable, in an area where settlers have previously attacked them. Some days it takes only half an hour to travel the three km journey between home and school, other days it can take two hours.
In the morning when the children reach the meeting place, some older children walk ahead, further into danger, to see if the escort is waiting beyond the settler gate. If it is, then the others quickly follow, and the children complete their journey to school. If the escort is not there, the older children walk back and they all wait at the edge of the settlement. CPTers, observing from a nearby hilltop, call the escort dispatcher. Sometimes CPTers must make several phone calls and sometimes the children must wait for over an hour before the soldiers arrive.
After school, the children, in the company of two CPTers, walk to the edge of at-Tuwani. If the escort is late the children play, or get CPTers to help them with English homework. The waiting can be arduous, but at least the waiting place is safer than the path they will walk unescorted near their journey's end.
Despite the Israeli settlers' harassment and physical attacks, despite the tardiness of the Israeli military escort, the children continue going to school every day. Going to school in Palestine, an everyday event all over the world, is yet another act of non-violent resistance against the violent Israeli occupation.
5 November 2008
AT-TUWANI REFLECTION: The school run
by Jan Benvie
Imagine the scene: a group of children walking to school. Some of the older children are jostling and pushing each other, joking together; the younger ones are walking quietly, hand in hand. It could be a scene from almost anywhere in the world.
But this is Palestine, under Israeli military occupation. The children are Palestinian. Two Israeli soldiers walk in front of the small group and an army jeep follows behind.
Each school day the Israeli military escorts children, aged six to twelve years old, to school in at-Tuwani. Armed Israeli settlers attack any Palestinian using the public road, which passes between the Israeli settlement of Ma’on and the settlement outpost of Havat Ma’on (both illegal under international law). The escort began in 2004 after Israeli settler attacks on the children and their international accompaniers received widespread publicity. The military will not allow CPT to walk with the children, but their parents have asked us to monitor the escort from nearby.
Despite the military escort, the children's journey to and from school is still dangerous and frightening.
Every day the children must walk part of the route unescorted because the military refuses to continue beyond a gate that settlers erected on the road early in 2008. Some days, settlers approach the children, yelling and threatening them, despite the presence of the escort. Sometimes the escort is late and the children must wait, frightened and vulnerable, in an area where settlers have previously attacked them. Some days it takes only half an hour to travel the three km journey between home and school, other days it can take two hours.
In the morning when the children reach the meeting place, some older children walk ahead, further into danger, to see if the escort is waiting beyond the settler gate. If it is, then the others quickly follow, and the children complete their journey to school. If the escort is not there, the older children walk back and they all wait at the edge of the settlement. CPTers, observing from a nearby hilltop, call the escort dispatcher. Sometimes CPTers must make several phone calls and sometimes the children must wait for over an hour before the soldiers arrive.
After school, the children, in the company of two CPTers, walk to the edge of at-Tuwani. If the escort is late the children play, or get CPTers to help them with English homework. The waiting can be arduous, but at least the waiting place is safer than the path they will walk unescorted near their journey's end.
Despite the Israeli settlers' harassment and physical attacks, despite the tardiness of the Israeli military escort, the children continue going to school every day. Going to school in Palestine, an everyday event all over the world, is yet another act of non-violent resistance against the violent Israeli occupation.
