The Israeli settlers and their stones – the daily journey of Palestinian students in West Bank
Palestinian teachers confront Israeli soldiers who arrested two students from a West Bank school. (Photo via Palestinian Ministry of Education)
Fayha Shalash reports in The Palestine Chronicle on 5 November 2024:
Mahmoud Hamadna is forced to walk with his children along a dirt road to reach their school in the town of Ya’bad, south of Jenin.
The daily journey of Palestinian students to school has become fraught with danger due to the increasing closure of main roads and streets between Palestinian cities, villages, and towns, as well as the erection of military checkpoints and iron gates at their entrances.
The presence of armed illegal Jewish settlers and the expansion of settlements heighten the dangers of the trip for school students who try to find alternative routes to avoid assaults and attacks from settlers.
‘No Place is Safe’
Hamadna accompanies his children from their home in Mariha village, near Ya’bad, to their school every day. The distance between the family home and the school is 800 meters, but they are forced to take a bumpy dirt road to reach their destination. The Israeli army has closed all entrances to the village with an iron gate and dirt barriers to restrict the movement of residents, forcing many to walk on foot to fulfill their needs.
“I wish, as a father, like all other fathers in the world, I could drive my children to school and pick them up in my car, but these are just dreams for us, as vehicles are useless in a village surrounded by dirt mounds,” Hamadna told the Palestine Chronicle.
To make things worse, illegal settlers deliberately remain on that dirt road to attack Palestinian students while they head and return from school.