A Palestinian schoolboy stopped by an Israeli soldier after climbing the wall

By Maha Abdul Hadi, IOL Correspondent

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, May 19 (IslamOnline.net) – Palestinian students are only days from the final exams of a tough school year, that forced on them a new and unusual mandatory subject called the "separation climbing".

Day in and day out, they are required to deftly climb the nine-meter-high concrete parts of Israel’s 700km-long separation wall, which snakes through the West Bank, in order to "pass".

"We had to practice over the past two years how to go up the wall to attend classes amid chases from trigger-happy Israeli soldiers," 13-year-old Ali Azhaiman told IslamOnline.net Tuesday, May 18.

He described his daily backbreaker: "I feel like a real drudge when I have to go all the way daily from my home in Abu Dis village [near occupied Jerusalem ] to my school in Al-Quds [occupied Jerusalem ]."

"Before the construction of this part of the wall, it was only a 15-minute walk to school. Now it takes me on hour, which of course leaves me less energetic and enthusiastic to catch up with my lessons."

More than 200,000 Palestinians are already suffering the humanitarian consequences of the separation wall, according to the United Nations.

The wall has resulted in the confiscation of 11,4000 dunums (2,850 acres - 1,140 hectares) of privately-owned Palestinian land and in the destruction of 102,320 trees, according to a report by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

It estimated that with the competition of the wall, 30 percent of the West Bank population, or some 680,000 people, will be "directly harmed."

The 180-kilometer (113-mile) segment completed so far has cut off villages from markets, medical services and schools in the northern West Bank .

Always Late

Female students go up the wall

Luai’ Zaghir, who also lives in Abu Dis, complains of always arriving late for school since the construction of the wall.

"I always miss first class, which badly affected my study and my GPA [Grade Point Average]," he said.

His colleague Mohammad Abu Ghazala feels like an outlaw.

"Having to climb the wall every day makes me feel like an outlaw. I try to cross to the other side of the wall while averting the rifles and eyes of Israeli snipers," said the school kid.

Students caught by Israeli soldiers are often taken to interrogations and held for long hours at checkpoints, according to the mother of Ahmad Ali, a 14-year-old student at Al-Tur School .

The fees of a school bus are a large drain on her small purse as the worrying mother wants to spare Ahmad the daily suffering of wall climbing.

Last October, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution, demanding Tel Aviv to "stop and reserve" the construction of its separation wall.

Another U.N. report underlined that the controversial barrier constitutes illegal annexation of Palestinian territory.

The wall will eventually snake some 700 kilometers along the West Bank and leave even larger swathes of its fertile territory on the Israeli side.

The first phase of the barrier was completed in July 2003 in the northern West Bank .

The defiant Israeli government of Ariel Sharon approved last October a new 100-million-dollar section of the controversial barrier.

The Palestinian Authority fears the real aim of the wall is to dictate the borders of its promised state, repudiating Israeli claims it only works to head off Palestinian attacks.