Ministry Of Education & Higher Education

n W a l l
A n n e x a tio
a n s i o n &
Exp
and its impact on
The Educational Process

1
International & Public Relations
2004
 INTRODUCTION
The Israeli authorities began construction of the separation wall in June 2002. Some call it the
Apartheid Wall, others call it the New Berlin Wall, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of
Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) has termed it “the Annexation Wall.”

According to a study by the Jerusalem-based United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA), the wall in the Jerusalem area will disrupt Palestinians’ mobility, their access to
education and health services, sources of livelihood, and all their basic existential needs that the Fourth
Geneva Convention is intended to protect and ensure. OC
HA’s opposition to the barrier wall or fence is based on its route and its infringement of these basic
human rights.

The structure is planned

to stretch 680 to 1000
kilometres in length, and
it varies in different areas.
In some areas, it consists
of layers of razor wire,
military patrol roads, sand
paths to trace footprints,
trenches, surveillance
cameras, a three-metre
high electric fence, and it is
60 to 150 metres wide that
include a buffer zone of 30
to 100 metres beside the
Wall; and Palestinians are
prohibited from entering
these zones. In other areas
it consists of concrete
cement wall, electric
fences, trenches, cameras,
sensors, gates, and is patrolled by the Israeli military. In urban areas such as Qalqilya and Jerusalem,
the Wall is constructed of eight-metre high concrete slabs with watchtowers, with buffers zone and a
road along the structure. The wall is twice as high as the historic Berlin Wall.

Israel claims that the Wall is necessary for the security of Israelis within the Green Line, but the
route of the Wall exposes the falsehood of this claim. The real purpose of the Wall is to annex large
amounts of the West Bank to insure that more than 50 Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories,
in which the majority of Israeli Jewish settlers live, and which are illegal under international law, will
be on the Israeli side. The Wall eventually will extend into the Jordan Valley and join with the Western
section, to form two enclosed Palestinian areas to the north and south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be
completely isolated from the rest of the West Bank. It is estimated that at least 45% of the West Bank
will be de facto annexed by the wall.

Over 500,000 Palestinians will be trapped between the Wall and the Green Line (including Jerusalem),
according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), thus isolating
2 them from their own communities; 250,000 Palestinians in the vicinity of Jerusalem will be trapped in
disconnected and isolated enclaves between the Green Line and the Wall.
Amnesty International, in a 19 February 2004 press release, called on Israel to immediately dismantle
the sections already built inside the West Bank and halt the construction of the wall and related
infrastructure inside the Occupied Territories. The UN General Assembly has also called on the Israeli
authorities to “stop and reverse the construction of the Wall.”
Kieran Prendergast, United Nations Undersecretary General for Political Affairs, told the Security
Council on Wednesday, 23 June 2004, that 3,437 Palestinians have been killed, and 33,770 have been
wounded since September 2000.

THE WALL’S IMPACT ON THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS

The Wall severely impacts the daily lives and movement of all Palestinians. In some areas, Palestinians
will have to apply for permits from the Israeli military to travel to their educational institutions, jobs,
medical clinics, religious sites, markets, or to visit relatives living across the Wall but within the OPT.
It is adding more difficulties to those faced by the educational system and the Ministry of Education
and Higher Education. Many students and teachers are prevented from reaching their schools. Students
are deprived of their right to education, especially those who live in communities that have no schools
and used to travel to other communities’ schools.

Teachers are often prevented from reaching their

schools, and held for hours at checkpoints or wall
gates. This happens regularly at Barta’a gate in
the Jenin area, and in the villages of Ras Tera and
Dhaba’a in Qalqilya area, for instance. Female and
male teachers are regularly insulted, abused, and
subjected to body searches when they try to get to
their schools on the other side of the Wall.

All these Israeli policies cause disruption of

the educational process. School schedules are
interrupted, students, and teachers’ attendance rate
is lower, and students spend more time traveling to
and from the schools than they spend learning in
the classrooms.

Such arbitrary and racist policies cause enormous

disruptions in the educational system as a result
of delays or prevention of student and teachers
from reaching their institutions. The impact on
the schools can include any or all of the following
consequences:

1. The absence of teachers and the inability to provide substitute teachers cause the students
to leave school earlier.
2. The disruptions usually cause the students and teachers not to complete the curriculum
assignment for the year, and a large part of the textbook is never studied, especially in the
final secondary school-grades.
3. Canceling of the extra-curricular informal activities such as after-school sports activities,
field trips, and summer camps.
4. Inability of school employees from the district offices to reach their district schools causes 3
sharp decline in organization and coordination between the schools and the districts.
 AREAS DIRECTLY AFFLICTED BY THE WALL

Jenin
In the Jenin area, 5 population centers were isolated in the first phase of the Wall construction: Barta’a
Sharqieh, Um Al-Rehan, Khirbet Abdallah Alyounes, Khirbet Thahr Al-Maleh, and Khirbet Barta’a.
Their total population is 4100 people, have 4 schools that include 890 students. Seventy-five of the
students from these areas are forced to travel to other areas to continue their higher grades education.
Eight teachers where forced to relocate outside these communities, and 18 where forced to relocates
inside, to avoid going through the gates.

Table 1:
e number of school students and teachers forced to cross the Wall to and from the
five population centers isolated from Jenin area by the Wall.
No. of Students Teachers Teachers
Community Schools
Students Out In Out
Barta’a Secondary/
362
Boys
Barta’a Sharqieh 15 10 4
Barta’a Secondary/
345
Girls
Um Al-Rehan
Um Al≠Rehan 98 13 5 2
Basic/Co-Ed
Khirbet Abdallah
X X 30 X 1
Alyounes
Khirbet ahr Al≠
X X 17 X X
Maleh
Khirbet Barta’a Al Farouq Basic 85 X 3 1
I addition to the five Jenin communities affected by the first phase of the Wall construction, 13 more
have been totally affected, and 11 partially, in Jenin area by completion of the second phase. The
number of students isolated in these communities is around 7340, and 125 teachers, whose movement
will be severely restricted; and additional 75 students who are forced to drop-out of school due to their
inability to reach their schools.
Table 2:
Number of teachers forced to cross the Wall to and from 13 populated centers, and 24 schools,
isolated by the second phase of the Wall construction in Jenin area.
Community Schools Students Teachers In Teachers Out
Arraneh/Boys 270 4 0
Arranah
Arraneh/Girls 284 8 0
Jalameh/Boys 358 4 1
Jalameh
Jalameh/Girls 291 5 4
Arbouneh Arbouneh/Co-Ed 123 0 0
Deir Ghazal/Boys 143 3 0
4 Deir Ghazal
Deir Ghazal/Girls 84 3 0
 Faqou’ah/Boys 507 0 3
Faqou’ah
Faqou’ah/Girls 508 10 0
Beit Qad/Boys 92 1 0
Beit Qad
Beit Qad/Girls 181 6 0
Jalabon/Boys 310 4 3
Jalabon
Jalabon/Girls 272 0 0
Deir Abu Di’ef/Boys 749 3 0
Deir Abu Di’ef
Deir Abu Di’ef/Girls 766 21 0
A’aba A’aba/Co-Ed 198 7 0
Um Tout/Boys 131 0 0
Um Tout
Um Tout/Girls 89 2 0
Al Mughir/Boys 292 1 3
Al Mughir
Al Mughir/Girls 309 1 3
Jalqamsoun/Boys 360 11 2
Jalqamsoun
Jalqamsoun/Girls 310 10 1
Rummaneh/Boys 441 0 0
Arab Sa’aideh
Rummaneh/Girls 280 0 1

Tulkarm

In Tulkarem area,
4 population centers were
cut off by the Apartheid
Wall: Nazlet Eassa, Baqa
Sharqieh, Nazlet Abu Naar,
and Khirbet Jubara. They
contain 6500 residents, 10
schools with 1728 students.
Around 61 students from
these areas are forced to
travel into other areas to
continue their education.
There are 20 teachers who
have to travel across the Wall
to teach in other areas, and
53 teachers have to travel
into these communities to
teach in their schools. 54
students come from Jubara
village to study in Al-Rass
and Kufr Sur schools, they endure the usual travel restrictions and Israeli military cruelty in
both directions, and at times they are prevented from reaching their destination.

5
 Table 3:
Number of students and teachers forced to cross the Wall to and from five
communities separated from the Tulkarm area by the Wall.
No. of Students Teachers Teachers
Community Schools
Students Out In Out
Nazlit Issa Secondary/Boys 329
Nazlit Issa X 29 3
Nazlit Issa Secondary/Girls 328
Baqa Sharqieh Basic/Boys 389

Baqa Baqa Sharqieh Basic/Girls 244

X 54 13
Sharqieh Baqa Sharqieh Secondary/Boys 208
Baqa Sharqieh Secondary/Girls 377
Nazlit Abu
X X 61 X X
Nar
Khirbet Jbara X X 61 X 4

Qalqilya
The Situation in Qalqilya area is not different from that of Jenin and Tulkarem, three population
centers were isolated: Ras Tera, Khirbet Dhaba’a and Arab Al Ramadanien Aljanoubi, with a combined

population of 700 people, and one school for Ras Tera and Khirbet Dhaba’a that has 60 students from
Khirbet Dhaba’a and 73 from Ras Tera. Also, around 260 students leave these communities to study
in higher grade schools in neighboring communities. Five teachers have to travel outside the Wall to
teach in other areas, and eight teachers have to travel into these small communities to teach in their
6 schools.
 Table 4:
Number of students and teachers forced to cross the Wall to and from three
communities separated from the Qalqilya area by the Wall.
Students Teachers
Community School Students Teachers In
Out Out

Ras Tera 60 95 X 2
Dhaba’a & Ras
Tera Co-Ed
Khirbet Dhaba’a 73 90 8 3
Arab Al Ramadanien
X X 75 X X
Aljanoubi
In Qalqilya, Azzoun Atmeh, Wadi Al Rasha, and Arab Abu Fardah ended up on the other side of the
Wall, isolated from the Qalqilya area. As a result, 105 students and 39 teachers will not be able to
reach their schools in Azzoun Atmeh; and 47 students of Wadi Al Rasha, and Arab Abu Fardah, will
be unable to reach their schools outside their isolated communities.

Jerusalem
Construction of the Wall in the Jerusalem surrounding communities will also have enormous impact
on access to education, at different levels, on both students and teachers. It will hinder the operations
of the Palestinian Public schools, UNRWA
schools, and Private schools.
Ten public (government) schools in three
communities in Abu-Dis, Azaryeh, and
Sawahreh Asharqieh, with a combined
student population of 4035 will be affected
by the wall construction. 105 students
will end up behind the wall barrier, and
additional 228 students will not be able
to reach their schools in these areas. The
barrier will also block access of 42 teachers
to these communities, in addition to 85 who
used to come from other communities.
According to the United Nations Relief
and Work Agency (ANRWA), 14 of their
schools could be affected when the Wall
construction is completed, 10 of them
will end up outside the barrier, and 4 will
be inside. 74 UNRWA teachers and 190
students will have to exit the barrier in
order to reach their schools; 12 teachers
and 70 students will have to enter into the
City through the barrier, because there
residence will end up on the wrong side
of the Wall. Therefore, UNRWA statistics
in the relevant schools reveals a total of
86 UNRWA teachers and 260 UNRWA
students will be affected by the barrier in 7
their daily movement.
 At Jerusalem University in Abu-Dis
almost one third (60 acres) of its total land area (210 acres) will be annexed by the Israeli Wall
construction. The lost land area is currently used as football and volley ball fields, and for other
potential expansion projects. Many of the University students and teachers have to find rental housing
in the local community, to avoid restrictions and travel difficulties, or had to move to institutions back
in their own communities, disrupting their lives and plans, as well as the University’s attendance and
operations.

Estimated cost of losses caused by the Wall construction is about $5 million, in addition to inability
to carry out the planned construction of the $8 million sports complex and stadium, and a swimming
pool. Damage and destruction to the university property by Israeli bulldozers also is estimated at $100
thousand.

The Wall also caused high tension and frustration among the students due to the military controls
imposed on their mobility, which led to student protest and consequent arrest of over 60 students, and
the killing of one female student, Hind Suleiman Sharateha, on 2 December 2003.

The environmental consequences for the Palestinian living close to the wall are nothing short of
horrific, due to its massive structure, its height, destruction of property, and the machinery brought in
for its construction.

In A-Ram Community, north of Jerusalem and just south of Ramallah, for instance, a new section of
8 the wall is being built. A-Ram has some 20,000 school students, only 5,000 of those are enrolled in
local schools, and 15,000 students commute each morning to schools in Jerusalem. When the wall is
completed they will have to travel northward along the east side of the wall in the middle of the main
Jerusalem-Ramallah road to the Qalandyeh checkpoint, cross over to the west side of the wall, then
head back southward to enter into Jerusalem.

Bethlehem

According to projections, Israeli plans for

the Wall in the Bethlehem area will affect 14
schools, and will impact life in the villages of
Nahalin, Husan, Batteer, Wadi Foukin, Jubah,
Walajeh, Nu’man, and al Khas. The schools
have a combined student population of 5219,
of those students 111 will have to travel into
these communities to their schools, while
315 students will be forced to go out, exiting
through the Wall, and 140 teachers will need
to enter through the wall into their schools.
Many new schools will be needed to cope
with such impending disasters for students
and teachers.

To the north of Jerusalem, the wall is being built

in the middle of the main Jerusalem-Ramallah
road. According to Danny Rubinstein, June
28, 2004, report in Haaretz Israeli newspaper,
when the wall construction is completed,
“several large schools are located along the
road to Jerusalem: the small, private Al-Iman School, the Lutheran church’s vocational school, Al-
Ummah College operated by the Waqf, the Dar Alyatim vocational school, and the Rosary Convent’s
girls’ school. Three of these schools are within the territory surrounded by the fence; two will be left
outside it.” Students who live within Jerusalem, and those who live outside the City limits, will have to
across the barrier daily to their school and back.

Table 5:
Number of students and teachers forced to cross the Wall to and from their schools separated
from five governorates already affected by the Apartheid Wall.
Governorate Community School No. of Students Students Teachers Teachers
Students In Out In Out

Jenin Al Aqaba Al Aqaba Basic/ 61 58 5 4 X

Boys
Azzoun Beit 218 89 16 2
Amin
Azzou Atmeh 4
Azzoun Atmeh 16 23 X
Qalqilyeh
Wadi Rasha X X X 22 X X
Arab Abu-
X X X 15 X X
Fardeh
9
 Abu-Dis Sec/ 838 6 68 4 8
boys
Abu-Dis Abu-Dis Sec/ 360 10 46 11 10
Girls
Abu-Dis/Boys 233 2 5 1 X

Y. Khatib/ Girls 615 41 2 9 2

Jerusalem Ezaryeh/Boys 295 11 12 3 11

Vicinity
Ezaryeh Ezaryeh?Girls 232 2 X X 5

Masharie’/ Boys 386 5 16 4 13

Masharie’/ Girls 235 17 77 2 11

Sawahreh 474 11 X 5 13
Sawahreh Sharqieh/Girls
Sharqieh Sawahreh 367 X 2 3 12
Sharqieh/Boys
Bethlehem Al Nu’man Al Nu’man & 67 X 16 X X
Private

Ramallah and Al Beireh

The Apartheid Wall being constructed around Ramallah and Al Beireh area will isolate Al Tiereh/Beit
‘Our Attahta for boys and girls school. The school will be surrounded by the Wall and the Israeli colony
of Horon from three sides. From the fourth (south) side, it will be blocked by the Israeli (Jews-only)
road No. 443, which will cause disruption in students’ travel to and from the school, and prevent any
possibility of expansion for sports fields or open space recreation. The Israeli military even prevented
the school from building a clinic for the school. This particular basic school has 443 students who
come from the Al Tiereh and Beit ‘Our Attahta communities, and it is right next to an Israeli military
training camp.

As the construction continues and the Israeli intentions become more apparent, the Ramallah area will
feel the Wall’s devastating impact on the school system, the students’ and teachers’ mobility, and on
the schools operations.
10
Conclusion

The Apartheid Wall is just one aspect of the destruction and brutality of the Apartheid system of the
Israeli occupation. The military occupation in general has had a huge impact on Palestinian society
in general, and on Palestinian education in particular. Since the beginning of the current uprising
(intifada), 29 September 2000, over 480 school students, 196 college students, 31 school employees,
have been killed. Over 3231 school student have been injured, and 608 jailed. Since the beginning of
the current school-year on 1 September 2003, the Israelis have killed over 80 school students, injured
about 200, and 320 are in Israeli prisons.
Not only students and teachers face restrictions on their travel to and from their schools, the movement
and distribution of materials like school textbooks which should reach the schools at the beginning of
each school-year is hindered by the military. The Principal of a high school like Mohammed Shahin
of Ras a-Tira, for instance, was forced to use donkeys to bring textbooks from Qalqilya because all the
roads were blocked by the barrier.
Table 6:
Number of Palestinians killed by Israelis between 28 September 2000 and 22 May
2004, according to the Palestine Monitor. 1
Age Distribution Number Percentage
15 yrs old or younger 385 12.4
16 ≠ 18 yrs 339 10.9
19 ≠ 29 yrs 1497 48.3
30 ≠ 39 yrs 415 13.4
40 ≠ 49 yrs 153 4.9
50´ years 179 5.8
Unknown 130 4.2
Total 3,098 100
According to the above table children under age 18, mostly students, constitute 724 or 23.3% of the
total victims killed by the occupation forces.

Finally, according to the international organization Stop the Wall Campaign, “the Apartheid Wall is
condensing all the crimes of Israeli occupation into one project, and It sums up the Wall’s impact on
the lives of the Palestinian people in following ways:

* The Wall condemns an entire population to open-air prisons, restricting free movement
and stifling all forms of productive economy;
* The Wall threatens the livelihood and existence of over 300,000 Palestinians by separating
them from their land, resources, families, schools, medical centers and livelihoods,
imposing conditions in which they are forced to abandon their cities and villages, thus
becoming part of the growing number of Palestinian refugees;
* The Wall illegally confiscates land, valuable underground water aquifers and other earthly
resources;
* The Wall is a clear continuation of Israel’s racist Apartheid policy of land annexation,
dispossession and expulsion of the Palestinian people;
* The Wall will put an end to a viable two-state solution and will lock Palestinians into
ghettos or bantustans throughout historic Palestine, imposing an Apartheid system of
extreme magnitude.
11
 (Footnotes)

Due to the long invasion in April 2002 and the prolonged curfews, at least 75 persons are unaccounted
for. The Israeli military has a habit of holding bodies of some killed Palestinians for a long period of
time. And During the April 2002 invasion of Jenin for instance, it was reported that the Israeli military
had secretly buried a number of its victims to hide the crimes. All statistics are therefore provisional
and could be able updated as more accurate information is available. For more details go to:
http//www.palestinemonitor.org/new_web/palestinian_kil

12
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