Kim Bullimore, West Bank
The first day of the Palestinian school year was marked by 1000 children, school students, teachers and peace activists marching against the construction of the Israeli apartheid wall at the Ar'am village junction, 20 minutes outside of Jerusalem.
Once the wall is erected, 95% of the 170,000 Palestinian students and their teachers in 320 schools across the Occupied Territories will find themselves on the opposite side of the wall to their educational institution.
Even before the wall has been finished, it takes up to five hours for teachers and students to reach their classrooms, after passing through checkpoints, roadblocks and road closures, and leaving after the end of a curfew. Students and teachers have been regularly subjected to intimidation, violent assault and arrest by the grotesquely misnamed Israeli Defense Forces.
The 2003-04 school year was extended as a result of the numerous IDF invasions and re-occupation campaigns against the towns throughout the West Bank to ensure that students would be able to sit their exams.
The path of the wall north of Jerusalem will take in the villages of Ar'am, Qalinda, Kufe Aqab and Rafat and will also see 800,000 square metres of agricultural land confiscated to make room for its construction.
Thirteen-year-old Saddam told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, "the police shoot at the children and teargas us on our way to school", while 14-year-old Fatima told GLW how "the soldiers are stopping children from coming to school and we can not learn". Other students said that "all our teachers are from [nearby] Ramallah and other towns and they will not be able to come [to school] because of the wall".
Rally speakers told the crowd that "we need to raise our voices to the world because Israel thinks it is above the law". Chanting "the wall is illegal" and "the wall must fall", the demonstrators marched to the wall. Many of the students angered by its construction began throwing stones at the structure. This action brought a swift response from IDF forces in jeeps, who entered Ar'am's main street at high speed, detonating over three-dozen sound grenades and smoke bombs to disperse the demonstration. A number of the sound grenades and smoke bombs detonated amongst crowds of nearby shoppers and bystanders.
Demonstrations are scheduled to continue throughout the West Bank in opposition to the construction of the illegal wall and confiscation of Palestinian land. Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly readers can follow the protests every day by visiting .
[Kim Bullimore is a member of Socialist Alliance and is currently working in Palestine with the international solidarity group, the International Women's Peace Service.]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, September 22, 2004.
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