Israeli Occupation Forces negligence endangers Palestinian schoolchildren of Tuba and Maghayir al Abeed

South Hebron Hills- January 19^th, 2011

At-Tuwani- On Wednesday, 19 January 2011, on two occasions Palestinian schoolchildren of Tuba and Maghayir al Abeed were under threat by Israeli settlers from Havat Ma’on outpost (Hill 833).

Yesterday morning the children waited for the military escort that, despite the calls to the appropriate authorities by international and DCL (Palestinian branch of DCO, Israeli District Coordination Office in the Palestinian Occupied Territories), never arrived. The children decided to walk on a longer path (about 4 km). The internationals noticed the negligence of the escort and they decided to reach the children along the path. Once the children reached Meshakha hill, not too far from At-Tuwani, they joined the internationals. After few minutes a settler came out with a car from the Havat Ma’on outpost and drove towards the children to scare them, forcing them to escape. Internationals phisically interposed themselves between the car and the kids, the car slowed down and turned back. Due to this intimidation, the children had to take a longer path. When they reached Humra valley, very close to the village of At-Tuwani, other two settlers- one of them masked- came out from the outpost. The children moved quickly to the school walking away from the settlers, while internationals remained next to the settlers to monitor their movements.

Eventually, the children arrived at school at 8.30, thus loosing half an hour of school.

These two incidents are the evidence of the Israeli military escort’s negligence, which regularly fails in protecting the children from the settler’s violence.

For further informations about the trend of the military escort during the school year 2009/2010, the report “The Dangerous Road to Education. Palestinian Students Suffer Under Settler Violence and Military Negligence” is available at the URL: http://www.operationdove.org/?p=463