Report By Maha Abdel Hadi, IOL Palestine Correspondent

WEST BANK, June 25 (IslamOnline) - “Why do we study in fear? Don’t we have the right to be educated just like other students around the world?.” Bitter questions posed by one of the Palestinian high school students who live in fear and anxiety due to being barred by the Israeli occupation forces, which started new military operations in the West Bank, from attending their examinations.

Raja Hussein, a student from the Al A’shya school in Nablus told IslamOnline that she fears she will not pass this year’s exams under the tyranny of the Israeli occupation which occupies land and forcefully enters homes, searches them and destroys its contents. In addition, said Hussein, the electricity has been cut and schools closed for more than two consecutive months.

Anther student, Jamal Rafat, from the Al Fadlya secondary school in Tulkarem, said that he was able to attend two of his final exams after the Israeli forces re-occupied his city since Thursday, June 20.

He said he nearly lost his life when he risked leaving his house on Saturday, June 22, to attend the English exam. That day, Israeli forces started shooting towards him, despite the fact that the schools is less than 100 meters away from his home.

“Don’t we have the right to be educated like the rest of the students around the world? Why do we study in fear and even attend our exams in fear?” Jamal asked, adding that he insists on continuing with his exams despite the obstacles that the Israelis place on the way.

A Palestinian security official said that the Palestinian students are forced to take bumpy roads, which may take hours to avoid the Israeli checkpoints where they may be shot. But, he added that these roads are not less dangerous than the checkpoints since they are near Israeli settlements out of which settlers come out and attack the students.

Ahmad Mousa, another student who was on his way to school, describes preparing for the exams as being torturous due to the daily shooting and seige in addition to planes hovering on top of the cities every now and then.

Zahida Abu Eisha, a psychologist, said that the Palestinian students are living under great emotional pressure which leads them feeling headaches and pains in the joints as well as the inability to sleep and being easily provoked.

She added that the current situation with the Israeli aggression has a negative effect on the students, especially on their concentration levels. In a report that she prepared on how to deal with high school students who are under pressure, she said that those of them who live in areas that face daily Israeli attacks, are the least able to concentrate and grasp what they read.

She said these students are more concerned about other things such as fearing for their lives and the lives of their family and the fact that their homes are prone to be destroyed any minute.

Meanwhile, Abdullah Shakarna, the director of the education in Bethlehem said that the students are going through hard times. He said that it is the talk of the Palestinian street to prepare an atmosphere that is suitable for these 50 thousand students so that they are able to go through these tough times despite the nearly daily Israeli incursions into Palestinian cities.

The final highschool year examinations were not given in 105 examination hall in the West bank due to the Israeli incursions in the Palestinian cities, sources in the Ministry of Education said.

The Al Qanoon Associoation for the protection of human rights and environment said that residents whose children are in Israeli prisons have to come to the association to write down the names of their children who are in their final year.