Violence In Occupied Territories Takes Toll On Palestinian School Children
by Maha Abd el-Hadi
PALESTINE (IslamOnline) - A recent report issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Education discussed the effect of Israeli practices on the educational process and school children in the Occupied Territories.
It said students in the village of al-Kheder are suffering because Israeli authorities are using beltways around school locations that have resulted in injuring several children with rubber-coated and live ammunition bullets.
In many cases school principals have had to evacuate schools several times and cancel school days in an effort to save children’s lives from helicopter raids and tear-gas bombings.
The Occupation Authorities closed four schools for a month, forcing 2500 students between the ages of 6-17 to look for other schools in villages of Bethlehem and Artas, 4 kilometers away.
Some school children do not have sanitary drinking water because pipelines have been destroyed in the raids, the report said.
The report also said that parents are suffering excessive economic tolls from transporting their kids to other schools, and psychological implications of the new situation are being reflected in children’s behavior.
Teachers find it hard making their way to schools going through security barricades, and in many cases, are not able to reach their schools, which are located behind settlements, as in the case of Ifrat.
The report also mentioned that 75 school children suffered wounds from live ammunition and rubber coated bullets, and that Israeli authorities have arrested 12 children between the ages of 13-16 years.
School students Moa’ed al-Gawaresh,14, and Yazen Essa, a ninth grader, were killed on their way home from school during helicopter raids in al-Keder.
Anther student, Mohamad al-Shaeer, received a bullet in his chest when he was standing in front of his school’s entrance.
