A School Year Ends, Another Starts!
Israel ends a year of study with military parades even for small children. Palestinians start a year of study without books, stationary, teachers nor schools and many of them in the absence of their once loved school mates. While the need is dire for a healthy reasonable upbringing of future generations, Israel still adamant on planting the saplings of another generation of hatred!
An interesting example of how Israel celebrates the graduation of its school children was on June 28th, 2002, as reported by ha’aretz by Aviv Lavie. "Ms. A., a resident of Tel-Aviv, arrived at the graduation of the city-run kindergarten which her two daughters attended. It was all was very nice until the ceremony started. To her astonishment, she watched the teacher parade the children dressed in what seemed like IDF ( Israeli Occupation Forces) uniform and march them to and fro as they call out "left, right left," and "attention!" or "at ease!" The military parade was accompanied by children singing at the top of their lungs: "Soldiers of Israel, march on and stay on guard, both day and night." According to the report, "At another kindergarten, in a small town near Tel-Aviv, the graduation ceremony included storming targets with (toy) swords. There too the children recited texts about their being fighters in the service of the state of Israel. A. says that she did not send her daughters to kindergarten so they will be turned into soldiers by the age of five. "
On the opening of Palestinian schools, many missed the classes for different reasons: some killed, injured, blinded by the ongoing Israeli blitz; many others can’t make it to schools either because of siege, curfew or because of a lack of money. How can a hungry starving to death child attend a school. Some of the children braved the occupation and crossed a large distance on foot over hills zigzagging to what remains of their schools. Education Authorities stated that "Our experience from the last school year is not encouraging at all. Based on July 28 figures: 216 students were killed, 2514 injured and 164 arrested. Teachers and employees were also targeted, with 17 killed and 71 arrested. During the Israeli reoccupation of all Palestinian areas, which started in late March and still remains in force today, 1289 schools were closed for three consecutive weeks, around 50% of Palestinian students, including 87000 university students, and 35,000 employees in the educational sector were prevented from reaching their schools and universities. The Final Secondary Examination (Tawjihi) was nothing but an unpleasant adventure, which lasted for more than one month due to Israeli military procedures in the Palestinian territories, but, fortunately, came to a satisfactory end.
The Education Authorities issued an appeal for international help as Provide protection to Palestinian civilians especially children, to lift the curfews and the closures imposed on Palestinian areas to permit students, teachers, and employees to have access to their schools and universities, cease the destruction of the educational infrastructure, including schools, universities, and district offices and to provide cash assistance to poor and needy families to provide for food, medical care and to secure their children's schooling.
The question is whether Israel, under the leadership of Ariel Sharon, is responsible for breeding hatred and violence or the Palestinian student who lost almost every requirement for a decent life. For some it is the Palestinian child who should have smiled and presented roses to his killers. He might be held accountable for not distributing the blood of his Martyrs so that the children and students of Israel would decorate their future graduation ceremony! And would with red color their seemingly Nile-to-Euphrates blue colored flag of shame!
By
Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim