WEST BANK: 'Qurtuba' girls school in Hebron suffers restrictions due to its close proximity to Israeli settlements

Record ID: 560244

  • Title: WEST BANK: 'Qurtuba' girls school in Hebron suffers restrictions due to its close proximity to Israeli settlements
  • Date: 30th March 2007
  • Summary: PALESTINIAN STUDENTS WALKING INTO THEIR SCHOOL
  • Embargoed: 14th April 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Education
  • Reuters ID: LVABGDP1DP9W133WGOF9NRESYA6A
  • Story Text: The pupils and teachers of the 'Qurtuba School for Girls', situated in the Tal Rumeida neighbourhood near the old city of Hebron, face daily difficulties as they come and go to their school. The reason is that the school, located in Martyrs Street, is surrounded from all sides by the Israeli settlers' colony of Beit Hadassa.
    The presence of some 450 Israeli settlers in the middle of Hebron, guarded by the Israeli army, has resulted in many Israeli army check points and an increased military presence in the area. This puts considerable restrictions on the students and staff of the Qurtuba school for girls.
    The school's difficulties have been compounded by occasional vandalism attacks by some of the settlers, as was the case in April 2006.
    Although the school has a central location in Hebron, which is home to some 150,000 Palestinians, and has a good reputation, the number of pupils attending it is dwindling. The school's headmistress, Reem Sharif, is of the opinion that this is part of a deliberate Israeli policy to pressure the Palestinian residents of the neighbourhood into gradually moving out.
    "Qurtuba is in the centre of town, so it is a school for many people in the area. However, due to the occupation policy to empty the area, what used to be one of the most important schools in Hebron, one that has produced many engineers and doctors from the area, who are well known in the area- is now being emptied of its students because of the policy of emptying (the centre of Hebron of its Palestinian inhabitants) that Israel is pursuing," says Reem Sharif.
    To get to their school, the 101 pupils attending it walk through the closed streets of Tal Rumeida, passing the main Israeli military checkpoint in the neighbourhood. They have to be in school at half-past seven in the morning, half an hour before the Jewish settlers go to their schools.
    The original steps leading to the school have been blocked by barbed wire by the Israeli army since 2002. Because of this the pupils were forced to walk up an a steep uphill unpaved path. To help ease their journey, the Temporary International Presence in the city of Hebron (TIPH) built a stone and concrete walkway leading to the school. And for over three years, members of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) patrol the school and the path to the school, to make sure that both teachers and girls are getting through unharmed.
    "We have constant international monitors that are present in the school from either TIPH or another group that accompanies the school called EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel)," says Qurtuba headmistress Reem Sharif.
    "This group has been working with the school for three years- we work inside the school and they are continuously doing their rounds around the school to make sure that nothing is amiss," she adds.
    EAPPI is an initiative of the World Council of Churches under the Ecumenical campaign to end the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories and support peace.
    TIPH was established after the killing of 29 Palestinian worshippers by an Israeli settler in Hebron on 25 February 1994. Its 180 observers come from Norway, Italy Turkey, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland.
    Kristina Orn, a TIPH observer who monitors the school, says she admires the motivation of the pupils to learn despite the difficult circumstances around them.
    "I really admire these kids who every day walk to school and they do not bother about what is going on they just keep on walking. And they go inside and try to learn and that's really a big effort," says Orn.
    Orn believes that the presence of herself and other TIPH observers in Hebron helps send out a message about the difficulties that Palestinians in the centre of Hebron face as they try to live as normal a life as possible.
    "I think a lot o f us are doing a political message but I think the mainly message we are sending is about daily life, and daily life is very special because you have so many restrictions not only according to the curfews and the obstacles on the roads and on the travelling, also that there are many places where you can't go and you can't stay there in certain time during the day," she says.
    Without the presence of the international observers, the children and teachers would be even more at the mercy of the Jewish settlers, and out of sight of the outside world, said the schools' team
    The TIPH reports are sent to the Israeli and Palestinian authorities and also to the six participating countries.
    To complement their reports, observers also use digital cameras and video equipment.
    Hebron is the only West Bank city where Israeli settlements are located in Palestinian urban areas.
    After thirty years of occupation, in 1997, the Israeli army withdrew from 80% of the Hebron territory in accordance with the Oslo peace agreements.
    In the Hebron Protocol - the protocol concerning the redeployment of Hebron - a distinction is made between Hebron's 'H1' and 'H2' areas.
    The Palestinian police exercises full control over "H1' but the Israeli army maintains indirect control over this part of the city by occasionally establishing checkpoints at its entrances or by closing points of access.
    In the 'H2' area, Israel maintains a military presence, as well as control over various aspects of Palestinian daily life.
    'H2' is also where the Jewish settlements are located.
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