Palestine urges international intervention to stop Israeli demolition of West Bank school

Palestinian students attending a class at Ras al-Tin school, which is slated for Israeli demolition

The Palestine Chronicle reports on 9 October 2020:

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh today called on international human rights organizations and international allies to intervene and stop the Israeli demolition of Ras al-Tin school, located east of Ramallah, following the Israeli Civil Administration’s cancelation of a judicial order protecting the school.

The school’s demolition targets the donor countries’ efforts to build Palestinian institutions and provide infrastructure to serve the Palestinian society, said the Prime Minister’s Office in a statement.

The school’s construction was co-financed by France, Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Sweden.

The school serves 50 students from grades one through six in the Ras al-Tin Bedouin community. The community is home to 35 families, who live on a private land rented from Palestinian families in the nearby villages of Kafr Malik and al-Mughayyer villages.

During the past two months, the school faced two confiscations by the Israeli Civil Administration, an arm of the military government, targeting construction material and other tools. A demolition order was also issued against the school while under construction.

A petition was submitted to appeal the demolition order, and a temporary injunction preventing the execution of the demolition was granted up to Wednesday, October 7.

Due to Israeli orders issued against the school, the school year began weeks ago despite the lack of doors, windows, toilet rooms, water, and electricity.

As journalist and author Ramzy Baroud commented, “Israel’s strategy in destroying the infrastructure of the Palestinian schooling system is a brutal logic, that has guided the Israeli government strategy regarding Palestinian education for 70 years.”

“It is a war,” Baroud added, “that cannot be discussed or understood outside the larger war on Palestinian identity, freedom, and, in fact, the very existence of the Palestinian people.”

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