Report by Awad Al-Rajoub, IOL Palestine correspondent

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, July 7 (IslamOnline) – Due to the siege enforced by Israeli occupation forces and the deteriorating security situation within the Occupied Palestinian territories, the number of summer camps held for students during the summer vacation has dropped drastically.

The number of Palestinian children taking part in summer camps outside Palestine has also dropped.

The Palestinian ministry of education is planning to send three hundred children this summer to a summer camp in Greece which is under the supervision of Civic Greek Organizations.

By the end of the 2001-2002 academic year, the ministry sent letters to the heads of educational zones in Palestinian cities, asking them to nominate students below 15 years of age to take part in the Greek summer camp that is dedicated to Palestinian children.

Zeinab Al-Wazeer, the general director of activities at the ministry told IslamOnline that participation is limited to four categories of children; those of martyrs or their close relatives, those of the injured, those of the detained and special needs children.

She added that they asked every educational district to nominate seven students aged 13 to 15 and it is expected that the ministry will choose 150 students from the West Bank and 150 students from Gaza.

Al-Wazeer said that the student delegation from the West Bank was supposed to leave on July 15, before the Gaza delegation, but due to the current incursions in the West Bank cities, the Gaza group will leave first on July 15 and the West Bank delegation will follow on July 13.

Al-Wazeer added that the duration of the camp is two weeks and that it will be sponsored by the Greek associations.

Children from these categories have been chosen to remove them from the atmosphere they are living in and to make them feel secure, Al-Wazeer said.

Some of children will be received by Palestinian students studying in Greece and there will be field trips to introduce them to some of the landmarks of the country, she added.

Al-Wazeer added that there will be 87 summer camps set up in the West Bank and 47 in Gaza, all expected to start on July 13. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is supporting and funding these camps which are expected to be set up in all the educational zones in the West Bank.

The French consulate is also overseeing two programs to teach French to students in Nablus and Gaza. The Swedish government is also sponsoring a Talent Club financed by a Swedish organization which will choose talented students to enhance their talents.

The aim of these clubs, Al-Wazeer said, is to compensate the children for what they missed during their scholastic year through practical lessons and by entertaining them and giving them their share of rest and recreation. Al-Wazeer also said that there will be special activities organized by the local communities.

Khaleel Al-Tumaize, director of the educational zone in the West Bank, said that the aim of the trip to Greece is to ease the suffering of the children. He said that the children in Palestine are always living in fear and a constant state of war.

“I feel that their trip to Greece will enhance their psychological state and will help them greet a new scholastic year with lifted spirits.”

Regarding local summer camps, Al-Tumaize said participation has dropped noticeably due to the constant state of curfew the Palestinian territories have been living under.

The participating students expressed their delight with the trip. Mussa Ghaleb, 12, son of one of the martyrs in Al-Khalil (Hebron), said that he is happy to be chosen for the trip.

“There are no Jews there, no shelling, no Apache planes. I want to go and see how people are living outside Palestine,” he said.