OccupationalHazard.org 10.06.02

The Occupation - 10/06/02

An education in defiance

Orly Halpern - Ha'aretz

RAMALLAH - This week excited teenagers at the coeducational Friends Boys School in El-Bireh sat around computers learning how to use the newly formed school Web site to access their curriculum and turn in their homework while they sit at home under curfew. "We improved it so the kids can access their class and find out what work is set for the week. The teachers will now provide support by telephone and e-mail," explains Colin South, the British Quaker director of the two Friends Schools adding, "We have become a school by correspondence."
The Web site is meant to counteract the worrying amount of school days missed due to Israeli military curfew on the adjacent towns of Ramallah and El-Bireh. "Since school began on August 31, we have lost nine days of classes and had sixteen," says the Essex-born director in a refined English accent.
According to a UNICEF statement published this week, more than one quarter of almost 1 million Palestinian school-age children are being denied access to their education, while at least 580 Palestinian schools have been closed due to Israeli military operations.
Not surprisingly, enrollment at the Friends Schools has decreased during the Al Aqsa Intifada, partly because people are not working and are thus unable to pay the high tuition fees, but also because many students have left the country. The Friends Schools are the favored schools of American-Palestinian families who returned to the Palestinian territories after the Oslo Accords were signed. But the general violence, the long waits at checkpoints and the curfews have caused many Palestinians with other citizenships to leave. "Now, less than 10 percent of our students are non-Arabic speakers, whereas before the intifada they were almost a quarter of the student body," said South, adding that "some parents are still undecided about going back."
The private Friends Girls School and Friends Boys School were founded by the Quakers in 1869 and 1901, in Ramallah and El-Bireh respectively, for the purpose of offering Palestinian youth a rigorous program based on their principles of excellence in education, equality and realizing one's personal potential as well as one's responsibility to society. The tough economic situation in the first intifada caused a high drop-out rate. Consequently, the schools became financially strapped and decided to integrate their programs and become coeducational. The Friends Boys School (FBS) became a coeducational high school while the Friends Girls School (FGS) became a coeducational elementary school and kindergarten. The schools, which are funded mostly by tuition fees, but also by U.S. and other foreign aid, are relatively expensive. High school tuition is $2,700 per year.
Despite the present difficult situation, the Boys School, which like the Girls School is housed in an impressive colonial-style building built on a large leafy campus with well-kept gardens, is constructing an indoor basketball stadium and an enormous library, complete with state-of-the-art computer facilities, both with money from the U.S. government, at a cost of close to a million dollars. A new botanical garden across the street from the FBS is to be officially opened at the end of October. When this reporter showed surprise at the volume of expansion during such times, a determined South shrugs and says: "Bugger the intifada - but don't quote me on that."
'Our grades are lower'
In the high-ceilinged library of the old colonial building, American-Palestinian 12th graders whose mother tongue is English, sat around a table before their Arabic class began, talking about the effect of the curfew on their academic lives. "We can't miss much school. This is affecting our future, we need to go on to college," said Hassan. Most of the Friends School graduates go on to college in the U.S. and some to Europe, Egypt and Jordan.
"Colleges don't take into consideration the situation we're under and our grades are lower because of the curfew," said Eyad. The Friends Boys School also offers the prestigious International Baccalaureate program for those who qualify, "but, now, many are dropping out," said Rula.
This urgency explains why 12th graders have braved coming to school twice during the curfew after receiving a message that there would be class. "One night we got a phone call saying that if we agreed we could send our kid [to school] because there would be class for the seniors the next day. But when the attack on the Muqata [Arafat's headquarters] started that night, we knew class would be canceled. It was too dangerous," says Hala Abdallah, an American-Palestinian mother from Chicago whose son is a 12th grader at the school. However, last week they managed to get safely to school and study despite the curfew. They were taught only the major subjects, such as math, English, physics, biology, and Arabic, on a shortened day.
"There is officially a curfew and it is being broken for school," explained South. "We don't want to brag about it because we don't want that to change... we have children to educate and we're going to do that," he continues. In the first intifada, many teenagers were unable to finish high school partly because schools were closed. "Our school guard is an intelligent young man, but never completed his matriculation exams during the first intifada. We are not going to let that happen again," says South resolutely.
Israel defies obligations
In accordance with the 4th Geneva Convention and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an occupying power has an obligation to ensure education is accessible to every child in the occupied land. Israel was one of the first countries to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which stipulates that each country must report regularly to the CRC commission on its implementation.
In Israel's latest report "it was very clear to everyone that Israel did not address the implementation of the Convention in the occupied Palestinian territory, which is its obligation as an occupying power," said the UNICEF special representative, Pierre Poupard, to Anglo File.
Poupard revealed that Israeli and international CRC representatives met Wednesday to discuss in detail the report issued by the Israeli government. "The international CRC representatives are very concerned that the basic rights of Palestinian children to access education and health care are not fulfilled, mostly due to the mobility restrictions imposed by the Israeli military," disclosed Poupard. He added, "It's common sense that as an absolute minimum, curfews need to be lifted during school hours in order for children to get an education."
Both staff and students of the Friends Boys School speculate about the reason for the education restrictions. "We ponder upon this incessantly," says South. "All we can conjecture is that they (the Israelis) are determined that the Palestinians do not get an education." Sarah, a 12th grader, adds: "Maybe this is a master plan to keep us illiterate because we are the generation which is going to run Palestine someday."
Bells and home schooling alternatives
Parents of FBS 12th graders are not the only ones brooding over whether to send their kids to school during the curfew. A group of parents from throughout Ramallah and El-Bireh have networked and formed a group called Jaras, meaning "bell" in Arabic. The group calls upon parents to insist on their children's right to education despite the frequent military curfews and it calls on the schools to stay open. "But I say, let the government open their offices first. I am not enthusiastic about having my daughter pioneer breaking the curfew," says Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American businessman living in El-Bireh who is part of Jaras.
The Jaras initiative is now looking for a company from whom they can buy bells to distribute to every child in Ramallah and El-Bireh, "and eventually all over the West Bank," explains Bahour. "Then from 8 A.M. to 8:15 A.M., every child will ring his bell from inside his home and maybe it will make those soldiers, some of whom have children of their own, think that not only our time is being wasted, also our education." Ironically, some Israeli friends of Bahour's are searching for the bells because there is no Palestinian company manufacturing or importing them.
Yet while the public schools stay closed, Jaras is arranging alternative education by forming makeshift classes in people's homes in different neighborhoods around town, as they have in Nablus, the city under the longest curfew. UNICEF cautioned that the quality of home education cannot be assessed or assured.
Sure enough, when a neighborhood school class for 3rd to 5th graders took place in someone's home near Bahour's house, his "daughter refused to go. She said only to Friends School," relates Bahour of his 8-year-old. When the curfew was lifted, Areen woke him up early in anticipation. "We got to school 20 minutes before class began," he says with a laugh.
© Copyright 2002 Ha'aretz - reprinted with permission

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An education in defiance
Orly Halpern - Ha'aretz





RAMALLAH - This week excited teenagers at the coeducational Friends Boys School in El-Bireh sat around computers learning how to use the newly formed school Web site to access their curriculum and turn in their homework while they sit at home under curfew. "We improved it so the kids can access their class and find out what work is set for the week. The teachers will now provide support by telephone and e-mail," explains Colin South, the British Quaker director of the two Friends Schools adding, "We have become a school by correspondence." The Web site is meant to counteract the worrying amount of school days missed due to Israeli military curfew on the adjacent towns of Ramallah and El-Bireh. "Since school began on August 31, we have lost nine days of classes and had sixteen," says the Essex-born director in a refined English accent. According to a UNICEF statement published this week, more than one quarter of almost 1 million Palestinian school-age children are being denied access to their education, while at least 580 Palestinian schools have been closed due to Israeli military operations. Not surprisingly, enrollment at the Friends Schools has decreased during the Al Aqsa Intifada, partly because people are not working and are thus unable to pay the high tuition fees, but also because many students have left the country. The Friends Schools are the favored schools of American-Palestinian families who returned to the Palestinian territories after the Oslo Accords were signed. But the general violence, the long waits at checkpoints and the curfews have caused many Palestinians with other citizenships to leave. "Now, less than 10 percent of our students are non-Arabic speakers, whereas before the intifada they were almost a quarter of the student body," said South, adding that "some parents are still undecided about going back." The private Friends Girls School and Friends Boys School were founded by the Quakers in 1869 and 1901, in Ramallah and El-Bireh respectively, for the purpose of offering Palestinian youth a rigorous program based on their principles of excellence in education, equality and realizing one's personal potential as well as one's responsibility to society. The tough economic situation in the first intifada caused a high drop-out rate. Consequently, the schools became financially strapped and decided to integrate their programs and become coeducational. The Friends Boys School (FBS) became a coeducational high school while the Friends Girls School (FGS) became a coeducational elementary school and kindergarten. The schools, which are funded mostly by tuition fees, but also by U.S. and other foreign aid, are relatively expensive. High school tuition is $2,700 per year. Despite the present difficult situation, the Boys School, which like the Girls School is housed in an impressive colonial-style building built on a large leafy campus with well-kept gardens, is constructing an indoor basketball stadium and an enormous library, complete with state-of-the-art computer facilities, both with money from the U.S. government, at a cost of close to a million dollars. A new botanical garden across the street from the FBS is to be officially opened at the end of October. When this reporter showed surprise at the volume of expansion during such times, a determined South shrugs and says: "Bugger the intifada - but don't quote me on that." 'Our grades are lower' In the high-ceilinged library of the old colonial building, American-Palestinian 12th graders whose mother tongue is English, sat around a table before their Arabic class began, talking about the effect of the curfew on their academic lives. "We can't miss much school. This is affecting our future, we need to go on to college," said Hassan. Most of the Friends School graduates go on to college in the U.S. and some to Europe, Egypt and Jordan. "Colleges don't take into consideration the situation we're under and our grades are lower because of the curfew," said Eyad. The Friends Boys School also offers the prestigious International Baccalaureate program for those who qualify, "but, now, many are dropping out," said Rula. This urgency explains why 12th graders have braved coming to school twice during the curfew after receiving a message that there would be class. "One night we got a phone call saying that if we agreed we could send our kid [to school] because there would be class for the seniors the next day. But when the attack on the Muqata [Arafat's headquarters] started that night, we knew class would be canceled. It was too dangerous," says Hala Abdallah, an American-Palestinian mother from Chicago whose son is a 12th grader at the school. However, last week they managed to get safely to school and study despite the curfew. They were taught only the major subjects, such as math, English, physics, biology, and Arabic, on a shortened day. "There is officially a curfew and it is being broken for school," explained South. "We don't want to brag about it because we don't want that to change... we have children to educate and we're going to do that," he continues. In the first intifada, many teenagers were unable to finish high school partly because schools were closed. "Our school guard is an intelligent young man, but never completed his matriculation exams during the first intifada. We are not going to let that happen again," says South resolutely. Israel defies obligations In accordance with the 4th Geneva Convention and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an occupying power has an obligation to ensure education is accessible to every child in the occupied land. Israel was one of the first countries to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which stipulates that each country must report regularly to the CRC commission on its implementation. In Israel's latest report "it was very clear to everyone that Israel did not address the implementation of the Convention in the occupied Palestinian territory, which is its obligation as an occupying power," said the UNICEF special representative, Pierre Poupard, to Anglo File. Poupard revealed that Israeli and international CRC representatives met Wednesday to discuss in detail the report issued by the Israeli government. "The international CRC representatives are very concerned that the basic rights of Palestinian children to access education and health care are not fulfilled, mostly due to the mobility restrictions imposed by the Israeli military," disclosed Poupard. He added, "It's common sense that as an absolute minimum, curfews need to be lifted during school hours in order for children to get an education." Both staff and students of the Friends Boys School speculate about the reason for the education restrictions. "We ponder upon this incessantly," says South. "All we can conjecture is that they (the Israelis) are determined that the Palestinians do not get an education." Sarah, a 12th grader, adds: "Maybe this is a master plan to keep us illiterate because we are the generation which is going to run Palestine someday." Bells and home schooling alternatives Parents of FBS 12th graders are not the only ones brooding over whether to send their kids to school during the curfew. A group of parents from throughout Ramallah and El-Bireh have networked and formed a group called Jaras, meaning "bell" in Arabic. The group calls upon parents to insist on their children's right to education despite the frequent military curfews and it calls on the schools to stay open. "But I say, let the government open their offices first. I am not enthusiastic about having my daughter pioneer breaking the curfew," says Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American businessman living in El-Bireh who is part of Jaras. The Jaras initiative is now looking for a company from whom they can buy bells to distribute to every child in Ramallah and El-Bireh, "and eventually all over the West Bank," explains Bahour. "Then from 8 A.M. to 8:15 A.M., every child will ring his bell from inside his home and maybe it will make those soldiers, some of whom have children of their own, think that not only our time is being wasted, also our education." Ironically, some Israeli friends of Bahour's are searching for the bells because there is no Palestinian company manufacturing or importing them. Yet while the public schools stay closed, Jaras is arranging alternative education by forming makeshift classes in people's homes in different neighborhoods around town, as they have in Nablus, the city under the longest curfew. UNICEF cautioned that the quality of home education cannot be assessed or assured. Sure enough, when a neighborhood school class for 3rd to 5th graders took place in someone's home near Bahour's house, his "daughter refused to go. She said only to Friends School," relates Bahour of his 8-year-old. When the curfew was lifted, Areen woke him up early in anticipation. "We got to school 20 minutes before class began," he says with a laugh. © Copyright 2002 Ha'aretz - reprinted with permission
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