Israeli forces demolish only school in Bedouin village
Razing of Abu al-Nawar's only school is part of a wider strategy that puts the community at risk of being entirely displaced, says UN
A flock of sheep wander through the open area where children will attend classes until a new structure can be built (MEE/Abed al-Qaisi)
A student who attended the primary school that was destroyed by Israeli forces (MEE/Abed al-Qaisi) -
Sheren Khalel-Wednesday 24 February 2016
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Razing of Abu al-Nawar's only school is part of a wider strategy that puts the community at risk of being entirely displaced, says UN
A flock of sheep wander through the open area where children will attend classes until a new structure can be built (MEE/Abed al-Qaisi)
A student who attended the primary school that was destroyed by Israeli forces (MEE/Abed al-Qaisi) -
Sheren Khalel-Wednesday 24 February 2016
ABU AL-NAWAR, Occupied West Bank - Children in the Abu al-Nawar Bedouin community tried to go to school on Monday morning, but just an hour into classes it started to rain.
The primary school children gathered on flat concrete, the only remnants left of their school after Israeli forces stormed the village on Sunday and confiscated the donated caravan where classes used to be held.
“There was no way to continue classes today with nothing to protect them from the weather,” Abed Freya, a patriarch of the community told Middle East Eye. “We will have to come up with a way to provide shelter so the kids don’t continue to miss school.”
While the village was quiet on the stormy Monday afternoon, the havoc that erupted the day before was fresh on residents’ minds.
“The Israelis came with hundreds of soldiers and big trucks, they detached the caravan from the ground and just left with the whole structure,” Freya said.
Freya said the caravan was donated by French authorities to give primary school students a safer, more convenient place to study, rather than having to take a three-kilometre walk to the nearest city’s school as the older children in the community are already forced to do.
Next to the barren slab of concrete is a children’s early learning centre donated by the European Union for pre-school children. Freya explained that the learning centre is also at risk of demolition, but that the community has hired lawyers who are currently fighting the order in Israeli courts.
Freya said Israeli forces told them the reason for the demolition orders was that proper buildings were forbidden to be constructed in the community, where homes are made from scraps of corrugated metal and tarps that sprawl out over the land.
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