Umm al-Khair, occupied West Bank – Just old enough to utter complete sentences in a small, wavering voice, Masa Hathaleen, five, stands before the barbed wire fence blocking her path to school. We are not doing anything wrong. We love our school.” Masa was one of dozens of children, book bags in tow, who marched on Sunday morning towards the fence that now blocks the route the youngsters of the Bedouin community of Umm al-Khair have used for decades to reach their school in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The schoolchildren held up posters, sang songs and chanted in English at soldiers who watched from the other side: “Open the road!” For more than 40 days during the US-Israeli war on Iran, Palestinian schools were closed in the area. But last week when a ceasefire allowed Palestinian schools in the West Bank to reopen – even if for only three days a week – the children in Umm al-Khair arrived to find the fence blocking the path to their school a kilometre (0.6 miles) away. When the children tried to go around the fence, soldiers launched tear gas and sound grenades at children as young as five years old.
They can’t sleep.” Security camera footage recorded by community members showed settlers coming during the night to erect the barbed wire fence. Despite being erected without legal authorisation, soldiers have refused to take down the barrier in a community that faces imminent Israeli demolition orders later this month due to a lack of building permits. Such permits are almost never granted to Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank, which is entirely under the control of Israel.
Shortly after the fence went up, a large Star of David was built with stones by settlers on the side of the fence that the Palestinian schoolchildren can no longer access. Desperate to get their children back in school, the community launched Sunday’s march as part of a new initiative, “the Umm al-Khair Freedom School”. At 7am, parents, teachers and community members walked beside their children who held a banner declaring “Umm al-Khair Freedom School” before reaching the fence.
On the other side, several Israeli soldiers stood and watched – at times waving mockingly and mimicking the children’s songs along with a security guard of the adjacent illegal Israeli settlement of Carmel, which villagers said had erected the barrier. For several hours, the children banged on drums and sang defiant songs while soldiers watched metres away. For stretches of time, the children sat down on rocks adjacent to the barbed wire, took out their books and began working on schoolwork they’ve been deprived of for more than 50 days.
It also serves women walking to a nearby health clinic and worshippers heading to the mosque, which they also can no longer access. Since settlers erected the fence, Israeli authorities have offered an alternative, longer route, roughly 3km (2 miles) in length, but residents unanimously rejected this new route because it would force children to pass through new settler outposts erected next to their community. Israeli settlements and outposts on occupied land are illegal under international law.
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