Hebron – Feelings mixed between anxiety and shock, dozens of Palestinian families in the area of ”Ashkara” in the southern West Bank after they woke up to Israeli notifications hanging on the walls of the only basic school in the remote area of the center of Yatta, stating their demolition within seven days.
When the school was established five years ago, the area of urbanization expanded in its vicinity, and the residents found a haven for their children, all of whom were less than 10 years, but fear began to infiltrate their souls and the fate of their children after the issuance of the notifications on the pretext of their residence without an Israeli license – which is a procedure that is almost impossible to obtain it – in the “C” region, and they hope that international and human rights parties intervene to prevent demolition.
The Israeli occupation is chasing the Palestinian presence in the classified area “C” according to Oslo agreement The ability is about 60% of the West Bank area, which is completely subject to its control, as the data of the Wall Resistance Authority indicatesSettlement Government to deport 30 gatherings during the past 20 months, that is, since the start of the extermination war on Gaza.
Anxiety and risk
Before entering the summer vacation, the Palestinian Saddam Abu Qubita used to take three of his children to school every morning, then return them home at the end of the working hours.
Taking children to schools is not normal in the Palestinian countryside environment, as local communities enjoy great safety, but the conditions of the residents of Ashkara, where there is a different school, is different, as the road to the school is fraught with risks.
The Palestinian citizen indicates that he used to deliver his children to the school with a vehicle intended for the rough areas to protect them from the settlers’ attacks that were repeated on the residents, their children and their property, explaining that on the day he is absent from the house or there is no time for school working hours, his children are absent in order to preserve their safety.
Abu Qubita tells Al -Jazeera Net that the presence of the school is essential for the residents to remain and difficult to dispense with, explaining that since he heard the news of the Israeli decision he lives a state of amazement and thinks about the fate of his children, the children of his relatives and neighbors.
He added, “If the school is demolished – God forbid – the alternative is a Susia School hundreds of meters away through a risk road, where the bandits are spread from settlers on the one hand, and stray dogs on the other hand.”
The other alternative is the schools of the city of Yatta, which is several kilometers away, but it lacks transportation and walking lines also fraught with the same risks.
The Palestinian citizen went to the representative of the European Union in Palestine Alexander Stotzman in particular and human rights organizations to intervene to stop the school’s demolition and save 130 children from the threat of ignorance.
Constant pressure
For his part, Khadr Najaa, one of the teachers of the 7 -room school, explains that it was built in 2020 with governmental, private and international efforts, and includes 130 male and female students from the kindergarten to the fourth basic grade.
Najaa pointed out that the presence of the school encouraged Palestinian families to build and housing in its vicinity, and it became an important educational facility for them, and its demolition means a great loss “within the efforts of the occupation and the continuous pressures on the population to displace them.”
On the official level, the Palestinian Ministry of Education confirmed that it takes the Israeli decision seriously, and began its contacts with many parties in an attempt to prevent the implementation of the demolition order.
Speaking to Al -Jazeera Net, the spokesman for the ministry, Sadiq Khaddour, said that the “Mixed Palestine Basic School” falls within the Susia region, which is constantly subject to the attacks of the settlers, and that the notification of its evacuation in preparation for its demolition within seven days “came as a culmination of a series of harassment and attacks that it was exposed to, as the residents of the region were subjected to.”
He pointed out that the school is constructed from Al -Zinko and Al -Safeeh, and not in the modern building style of stones and cement, yet it serves a remote Palestinian gathering.
He said that its targeting falls within the framework of a long series of targeting schools located in the Palestinian gatherings in the two regions of Massafir, south of the city of Hebron, and the Jordan Valley, which deserted 30 of them in less than two years.
35 challenges schools
Sadiq Khaddour said that the schools constitute a stability factor for many gatherings, which explains their targeting within the pressures practiced to try to deport the people of these gatherings, “removing any school that facilitates the process of deporting its residents.”
The official spokesman stressed that the Ministry of Education and Higher Education believes that the survival of this school and the exercise of its role is an integral part of the right to education, stressing that preserving it for children, especially in remote areas, is a right guaranteed by all international customs and covenants.
In numbers, Sadiq pointed out that the number of “challenges and resilience schools”, in reference to the schools in the region “C”, which is threatened by the threat of demolition, exceeds 35 schools attended by approximately 1500 male and female students from Al -Rawda to the fourth grade.
He said that most of these schools were issued against them by demolishing notifications or were targeted by assaulting them, pointing to 11 demolitions targeting them, and some of them affected the demolition machine more than once, and other schools that forced the residents of the gathering that serve it to leave, which caused it to be emptied, as happened to the schools of Ras Al -Tin and Ain Samia in a conservative desert Ramallah And beer.
The Palestinian official stressed that the presence of schools in the threatened gatherings “a means of enhancing the resilience of the population, as some students do not exceed 15 individuals, while there are schools that serve more than one group and most of them students in dozens.”
An exceptional effort
On the level of educational elements, the official spokesman draws to a “exceptional effort” made by teachers to reach these schools, so that some of them are forced to move in four -wheel drive cars or through buses provided by the ministry, noting that 46 of them were installed in the governmental job exceptional despite the government stopping the confirmation as a result of the financial hardship it is going through.
He pointed to the Ministry’s keenness to provide all capabilities while moving among the various embassies, countries and human rights institutions to protect the schools of Mesafir Yatta and the Jordan Valley.
According to the latest data published by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, 104 were killed and 966 were injured and 361 students of the West Bank schools were arrested. 4 teachers were killed and 21 were injured and 182 were arrested, between October 7, 2023 and the first of July, while the attacks and sabotage were 152 schools in West Bank During the same period.