Email: right2edu@birzeit.edu | Phone: 0097(0)2-298-2059

Right to Education

Campaign to save a West Bank school from demolition

Written by admin  •  Tuesday, 06.09.2011, 09:09
1503 Views

Nisreen, eight, and her sister Iman, six, in front of the Khan al-Ahmar primary school in the West Bank. Photograph: Harriet Sherwood

Alarming developments in the West Bank community of Khan al Ahmar. Settlers from Kfar Adumim have filed a petition against the school, asking for an injunction not to re-open the school this September and pushing for the school to be swiftly demolished.

Though the Israeli Supreme Court rejected the request to close the school, the petition has set the clock ticking for the demolition of the school. Such a demolition would effectively deny the children of the community their education and jeopardise their future.
Khan al Ahmar is a community fighting for survival. The 180-strong community faces the threat of imminent displacement if the Israeli authorities demolish their homes and school as planned. This may well destroy the Bedouin community, one of 20 in the area, who have become victims of creeping settlement expansion.

The land the community lives on has been slated for the expansion of settlements in the Ma’ale Adumim municipal area, in the Jerusalem periphery, despite the community’s decades’ long presence. Israeli authorities see Khan al Ahmar and the other Bedouin communities in the area, more than 2,300 people in all, as a hindrance to the planned expansion of Ma’ale Adumim, Kfar Adumim and other surrounding settlements, and to the construction of the West Bank Barrier, which would effectively annex this strategically significant area to Israel.

If implemented, the Israeli development plans would be the culmination of years of settlement expansion at the expense of the Bedouin communities. Since 1991, when large parts of the communities’ living areas were integrated into the expanded boundaries of Ma’ale Adumim, Israeli policies have increased the pressure on the communities to leave their homes.

Home demolitions, evictions and property confiscations, exacerbated by settler harassment and the economic effects of movement restrictions, have left these communities struggling to make ends meet and living in fear. The people of Khan al Ahmar have now exhausted all legal avenues to protect 12 homes and the school building from demolition. If these are destroyed, the community will not only be plunged into deeper poverty but may also be displaced and dispersed.

 

More Articles

  • Prison Playground: the effects of...

    By arresting children who should be in school,...

  • By admin • Jan 01 Read More »

    Related Posts

    • Hebron University and Palestine Polytechnic University Reopened

      On Friday, August 15, the Israeli Civil Administration (the authority that administers the military Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza) told the presidents of Hebron University and the...

    • Education In Occupied Palestine

      An analysis of the educational situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in light of the 2007 UNESCO/Save the Children UK report titled, "Fragmented foundations: education and chronic...

    • Education gap divides Jerusalem

      A recent report by an Israeli non-governmental organisation says 5,000 Palestinian children in East Jerusalem will not be able to attend classes this year because there are not enough...

    To Top