15th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Gaza, occupied Palestine
On the 2nd of March at 2pm, Israeli occupation forces fired into Beit Dajan School, located in Shijaia, near the annexation wall.
The students that were in the class when the occupation forces shot at the school
Bilal Abu Asser was giving a lesson to his students when a bullet passed just next to his head. “Suddenly I heard a huge explosion, in that moment all the children started to scream, some started to run, others hid under the table, others were in shock… I tried to calm them down and went out from the class to see what had happened, as in the first moment I thought it had been a bomb outside the school. I met the head of the school who started to speak with me but I couldn’t hear anything because of the explosion. Then I returned to my class, where one of my students showed me the bullet on the ground. I tried to hide it from the other students and we moved into the laboratory, on the first floor”.
Bilal Abu Asser shows where the bullet entered
Since the day of the shooting, many children have become scared and are afraid of coming back to the school. Children come some days but not others; the attendance level is never constant. “Those kids live without any kind of security, neither economic nor physical. They can’t feel safe at home, they can’t feel safe at the school… the occupation doesn’t respect anything.”
Another teacher points out, “as you can see the bullet didn’t explode completely… if it had at least 10 children would be dead”.
The head of the school points out where the bullet hit
The head of the school, Sami Khalil Radwan, says that they always hear the shooting against the farmers working near there, and that often they have to evacuate the school due to the tear gas that the occupation shoots directly against the school or next to it, but that it’s the first time that something like this has happened since the end of the war.
December 10th, 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al Khalil team | al Khalil, occupied Palestine
Soldiers blocked the way to the Cordoba school in al Khalil
Today, onInternational Human Rights Day, school children as well as teachers were denied access to the Cordoba school in Al-Khalil (Hebron). The mixed primary school is located in the neighborhood of Tel Rumeida at the end of the small strip of Shuhada Street that Palestinians are still able to access.
Students and teachers waited for two hours
Since the declaration of the ‘closed military zone’, effective since the 1st of November in Tel Rumeida and Shuhada Street, the children and teachers have been registered as numbers in order to pass checkpoint 56 and checkpoint 55 on their way to school. On Monday the 7th of December 2015, the checkpoint 56 has been closed for an indefinite period of time. The children and teachers that need to cross checkpoint 56 – which marks the border between the H2 area of Al-Khalil, under full Israeli control, and the H1 area, supposedly under full Palestinian control – have had to argue with the Israeli forces every morning since then, in order to pass the checkpoint and reach the school.
Settler came to harass children and teachers while they were waiting
After a Palestinian was killed on Wednesday, 9th of December at checkpoint 55 on Shuhada Street, the children and teachers found the access to the school blocked by barbed wire and countless Israeli soldiers. The Israeli forces have completely locked the way to the school for the majority of children and teachers. The only other way to the school is through a cemetery on the other side of Al-Khalil. The Israeli forces simply ignore the pleas from both school children and teachers to let them pass and get to the school, and don’t give any indication as to when the barbed wire will be removed.
While school children and teachers were waiting in hopes of passing, infamous illegal settler Anat Cohen arrived at the scene and openly, without any apprehension, verbally and physically harassed them. The Israeli forces failed to prevent her from doing so, yet again turning a blind eye on increasing settler violence. Two hours after school was supposed to begin, the children and teachers gave up and the school was forced to remain closed for the day, the childrens’ right to education being simply denied to them.
Watch these two videos of Anat Cohen attacking and intimidating the school-children.
21st November 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine
Monday 2nd November 2015, Israeli forces again attempted to prevent international observers from monitoring a checkpoint in a flashpoint location in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). Settlers from the illegal settlements in al-Khalil physically attacked internationals while soldiers where standing idly by watching.
As on every morning, international observers were on their way to checkpoint 55, dividing Shuhada Street into a small stretch where Palestinians are allowed to walk, and the former main Palestinian market which is now a ghost street emptied of Palestinians, who are prohibited from entry. On the way there, the three international observers were stopped by soldiers while walking past another checkpoint. Soldiers ordered them to pass through the checkpoint, even though that was in the opposite direction to where they were going. The Israeli forces at first refused to give a reason for this order and then explained that it was, ‘a rule’ and that, ‘they say so’.
School-children climbing the stairs to their school
A official order for a ‘closed military zone’ was in place the day before, but had expired today. Still, Israeli soldiers claimed that the internationals did not live in the area and therefore were not allowed to be there. At one point, soldiers grabbed one of the ISMers by his arm, saying that they were going to arrest him. When reminded that, as soldiers, they were, according to the Israeli law, not allowed to arrest internationals, they refrained from the arrest and instead noted down his passport number. During the whole discussion, internationals were repeatedly threatened with arrest, for no reason.
Israeli soldier writing down passport number of an international
When the internationals were finally allowed to proceed to the checkpoint close to Qurtuba school, after about 15 minutes, the soldiers there prevented them from standing at the checkpoint, stating that, ‘their existence is a provocation’. Thus, not being allowed to stand close to the checkpoint, the internationals were forced to walk up and down the street, accompanying the school-children towards their school.
Children gathering before passing down the stairs in the afternoon on their way home from school
In the afternoon, Israeli forces arbitrarily decided to forbid internationals from going up the stairs to the school, forcing them to remain at the bottom of the staircase. Due to their fear of being attacked, all the children left the school together with their teachers – and were allowed to pass through Shuhada Street on their way home, contrary to the previous day, when soldiers denied them their right to go there on their way home. Right after the children had passed, the infamous, violent settler, Anat Cohen, drove up in her car, trying to knock down one of the internationals with her car. She then – in plain view of a group of four soldiers – physically attacked the two internationals, hitting them in the face several times, punching them and trying to break their cameras. Even though the internationals asked the soldiers to intervene, they merely stood by, watching. An elderly settler man pushed one of the internationals, and another one tried to grab the camera from her hand. Throughout the whole attack, the settlers present, as well as settlers from the nearby illegal settlement watching from their windows, insulted the internationals calling them ‘Nazis’ and telling them to, ‘go to Auschwitz’. Requests by the internationals to make a complaint against the violent attack were ignored.
Watch a video of the attack:
The soldiers, in the morning, occupied with harassing and intimidating international observers, let school-children pass up the stairs to the school and kindergarten without harrassing them any further. While female teachers were allowed to pass without being stopped, male adults coming down or up the stairs were stopped and ID-checked by the soldiers. With the escalation of violence and harassment against Palestinians in recent weeks, the way to school for the children has become increasingly intimidating and dangerous, not only for the school-children, but also their parents and teachers.
This morning at Qurtuba school in al-Khalil (Hebron), Israeli soldiers harassed school-children, teachers and adults trying to pass the nearby checkpoint.
The stairs leading to Qurtuba school, the scene of a heinous murder of a Palestinian youth by Israeli forces three days ago, are directly opposite a checkpoint dividing segregated Shuhada Street into a small strip where Palestinian residents are allowed to walk and the former main Palestinian market now completely closed for Palestinians and only allowed for settlers. The school has, due to its proximity to the illegal settlement of Beit Hadassah been a flashpoint of settler attacks and violence against Palestinians and internationals.
As teachers, school-children and parents are equally scared with violence rising and 19 Palestinian youth shot to death in the last two weeks, all the school-children are now gathering in one place in order to walk to school together. Parents living there were watching out for the children, telling them to move away from the street as soon as they could hear a car in the distance, afraid settlers would run them over if the children didn’t move fast enough. This has happened in the past and settlers continously try to hit children with their car.
Soldiers at the checkpoint denied one Palestinian adult around 30 years old to walk down the stairs. The soldiers stopped him and didn’t even ask for his ID, but ordered him to go back up the stairs and walk around. A group of female teachers and girls were ordered to stop in front of the stairs and made to wait for about 5 minutes. Again, soldiers did not demand any ID or to check bags, and finally allowed the group to pass and go to school after about five minutes.
Group pf teachers and school-children forced to wait on their way to school
All of this comes at a time, where the whole neighbourhood has been declared a ‘closed military zone’ by the Israeli forces, further infringing on the already restricted movement of Palestinians – while settlers from the illegal settlements are allowed to roam the streets freely.
This illustrates the daily harassment Palestinian children and teachers have to face on their way to and from school – a clear infringement on the basic right to education. But this does not only ring true for school-time, harassment and intimidation by soldiers and settlers are increasingly becoming an integral part of day to day life for Palestinians.
26th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team| Hebron, occupied Palestine
The morning of October 26th, four high-risk locations near schools in Hebron were monitored by international human rights workers, and all four saw incidents of violence to Palestinians and internationals at the hands of Israeli forces and illegal settlers.
At the Qurtuba school location, two international observers were denied their legal right to stand ten meters from the checkpoint while counting children passing and recording any incidents. A police officer demanded both passports, copied down some information onto paper, and angrily barked orders for one observer to give his name. The international was confused, as the officer was holding his government identification, until it became clear he was attempting to read it right-to-left, as though it were Hebrew. The internationals retreated, but then soon decided to observe from the top of a stairwell for which they were previously given permission. Illegal settler and frequent violent offender Anat Cohen came out of adjacent Beit Hadassah illegal settlement, screaming and charging at the observers, then striking one observer with a closed fist in the back of the head. Six soldiers standing five feet from her made no attempt to prevent the assault or intervene after the fact, and the observers continued up the stairs while Anat continued screaming obscenities.
Tear gas filling the streets at Queitun
Today at the Salaymeh checkpoint, through which children pass to attend three different schools, two international observers witnessed soldiers provoking the children on their way school by pretending to shoot at them. Israeli forces opened fire with rounds of tear gas at children gathered in this dense urban area, where the buildings are tall and close together, and there is nowhere to quickly escape the thick clouds of CN particles. Suddenly, two soldiers charged toward a cluster of children and fired tear-gas again, at 20 meters, dangerously close range. In total more than thirteen tear gas canisters were shot over approximately fifty children. A settler was watching the scene, visibly enjoying it and photographing the pupils and internationals.
Palestinian schoolgirls running away from tear gas
The Al Faihaa Basic School is situated at the end of Shuhada street. This morning, two internationals who were stationed there, along with a caretaker who lives at the school stood in front of the gates, hurrying the girls into the school-grounds, watching for fast passing illegal settler vehicles, and accompanying the girls across the road. He explained that lately, teachers and school officials have been particularly worried that a student will be attacked or kidnapped on the way to school in light of recent settler violence. Tear-gas fired on children at nearby Salaymeh and Queitun checkpoints entered Faihaa school through the windows around 8am, during the morning assembly. Teachers hurried to close the windows to protect themselves and the children against it, but one teacher called to say she would be absent from school as she had to be rushed to hospital for teargas exposure, and another who was in attendance had to be administered an oxygen mask due to excessive teargas inhalation sustained on the way to and within the school yard. The school was closed at 9.30 due to teargas, and it was later reported from teachers in the school that 3 girls had been attacked on the way to school. An illegal settler attempted to run one over, a second had stones thrown at her by settler children, and a third was grabbed by the neck by settlers and threatened before being released.
Israeli forces right about to shoot tear gas at school-children
In the streets surrounding the Salymeh and Queitun checkpoints, over 30 youth, whose schools had already been closed due to excessive teargas in the area, were chanting and approaching the checkpoint. Israeli Forces shot at least 24 rounds of teargas at the youth, and clashes lasted until at least 9:15AM. An ambulance and several cars had to drive through the teargas. It was reported that approximately 50 children had already been taken to the hospital that morning due to teargas related medical issues.
Palestinian ambulance forced to go through clouds of tear gas
Watch a video of Israeli forces shooting tear gas at school-children
