fetal- It’s the first day of the school year in Jenin, in the northern West Bank, as a number of students struggle to cross the street leading to their schools, in the school complex adjacent to the eastern neighborhood, which was destroyed during its siege by the Israeli occupation last week.
On the main street connecting the Izz al-Din Boys’ School and Haifa Elementary Girls’ School, and a number of other schools, sewage is overflowing, after the occupation bulldozers destroyed the neighborhood’s sewage networks, where a strong, foul odor spreads, making anyone who smells it lose concentration.
schools destroyed
Today, Monday, about 45 thousand students in the Jenin Directorate begin their new school year, amid fears that the occupation army may re-storm the city and the camp, which creates a state of tension among the residents and guardians, for fear of the army entering during official school hours, which may lead to the students being detained in their schools, as happened last year in Al-Zahraa School adjacent to the Jenin camp.
Al-Zahraa School students were detained for about 6 hours after the occupation army stormed the camp last year and engaged in armed clashes with the resistance fighters near it.
On the wall of Haifa Elementary School, in the eastern neighborhood, first-grade students stand over a large hole in the wall made by an occupation bulldozer in the school’s outer fence. The students, who are no older than six, watch on their first day of school as their classmates try to overcome the roughness of the road and avoid the pools of sewage in order to reach the school gates.
At the Izz al-Din Boys School near the eastern neighborhood, whose wall was demolished by the occupation bulldozers, in addition to the destruction of the main street leading to it, and the demolition of parts of the adjacent municipal playground, Tariq Alauna, the Director of Education in Jenin, spoke to the students during the morning assembly, and said, “This is the year of the right to education in Jenin, and despite the siege, the Israeli destruction machine, and the incursions, we are determined to make the school year a success in Jenin and in all the governorates of the homeland.”
Alyan believes that the education option for the new generations of the Palestinian people is the best option to consolidate their steadfastness and adherence to their land and to convey their cause to the whole world. He adds, “From this region that witnessed destruction by the occupation, our students, with their knowledge and strong will, challenge the occupation bulldozers and take their destructive path to pave it with knowledge. This morning, life returned to our schools.”
Martyr students
Despite the general situation of the area, which is home to about 4 schools for different ages of students, dozens of students arrived at their schools on time. School principals said that the educational process on the first day of the school year was regular, students were distributed smoothly into their classes, and teaching staff developed plans to complete the educational process, even if Israeli incursions were repeated.
The school year in Jenin begins with the martyrdom of two students during the recent Israeli invasion of the city. Student Lujain Abdul Raouf was killed by an Israeli sniper while inside her home in the village of Kafr Dan, west of Jenin, days before she was due to move to the 11th secondary grade.
The occupation soldiers also killed the fifth-grade student, Muhammad Mahmoud Hammou, from the town of Yamoun, after chasing him on his bicycle in the street while he was trying to deliver bread to the residents of the camp who were besieged in their homes.
Kafrdan Girls Secondary School opened the school radio with a special segment about the martyr Lujain and the circumstances of her martyrdom. The school principal, Balsam Abu Bakr, said that the feeling of loss is very difficult, especially for her friends, as Lujain’s colleagues are experiencing a great shock. The school is working to give the students psychological counseling sessions to help them express their feelings and overcome the incident.
“The news of Lujain’s martyrdom broke my heart, because she was a little girl, killed in her room, near her family, by an Israeli sniper who only understands the language of killing, and does not differentiate between a child, a school student, or anyone else,” Abu Bakr says. Inside the classroom, the sadness was clear on the students’ faces, while pictures of Lujain and her name were placed on the desk where she used to sit every day in the past years.
Fears of disruption to education
In Jenin camp, school students who attend UNRWA schools were unable to start the school year, as schools were unable to receive students due to poor roads, the amount of rubble in the streets and in front of houses, and the difficulty of reaching school yards inside the camp.
The previous academic year had been marked by great difficulties, leading to the suspension of face-to-face attendance in a number of schools, especially in areas where Israeli incursions occurred, and the conversion to electronic attendance. Meanwhile, studies were disrupted for weeks due to teachers’ protests against the cut in salaries by the Palestinian government, which says the reason is the deduction of the clearance revenue from Israel.
Parents fear that what happened last year will happen again with their children, which will affect their academic achievement in the long run. Jawad Abdul Ghani (45 years old), a father of three children, the eldest of whom is in the sixth grade, says, “All of this has affected the children’s studies. My children have fallen behind in all subjects, and today we fear that this scenario will happen again, which means that the student will be lost educationally.”
In the West Bank, nearly 800,000 male and female students began their school year in 2,459 public, private and UNRWA schools, with around 50,000 male and female teachers.
For the second year in a row, nearly 600,000 male and female students in the Gaza Strip were deprived of the school year due to the Israeli war on the Strip, while the occupation destroyed nearly 90% of the schools and turned the rest into shelters.
