Read on Twitter
1// So, speaking of schools and human rights: I actually happened to be in a few schools recently – schools whose students know a thing or two about human rights. https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/elite-israeli-school-teaches-silencing-1.9355469
2// For example, in Ras a-Tin (east of Ramallah) there is an elementary school with about 50 students. https://www.btselem.org/video/202010_save_the_ras_a_tin_elementary_school#full
3// The school in the Khan al-Ahmar community (east of Jerusalem) has more than 150 students. https://www.btselem.org/communities_facing_expulsion/khan_al_ahmar_updates
4// And in Khirbet al-Majaz (South Hebron Hills), the school has 24 girls and 26 boys. https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20201019_top_diplomats_tour_masafer_yatta_villages
5// What all these schools (and a few dozen more) have in common is that Israel intends to demolish them (every school and the specific Israeli excuse for why), as part of the effort to expel these Palestinian communities from their land. https://www.ochaopt.org/content/palestinian-schools-pending-demolition-orders-february-2018
6// Sometimes I just have no words when I listen to students at one of these schools, as they explain what a change the school has made in their lives, and what they dream of doing when they grow up – but what if the school is destroyed.
7// The Universal Declaration of Human Rights does have the necessary words: “Everyone has the right to education… Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
8// Please pause for a moment. Think about what it means, that Israel intends to destroy *dozens* of Palestinian schools. Think about how the Israeli knee on the Palestinian neck stands in the way of "full development" of the lives of millions, including those of kids in schools.
9// Kids in schools, like Ali Abu Alia. https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-israel-s-war-on-palestinian-children-1.9350708
10// Or the more than 500 children (some not even of school age) we killed in Gaza in the summer of 2014. https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20160720_fatalities_in_gaza_conflict_2014
11// Managing this brutality requires control of Israelis' consciousness, for if too much stench penetrates the mind the sense of smell might invoke something, somewhere between the kidneys and the heart.
12// That is why Israelis who speak up must be branded traitors, and efforts to silence them are needed. I fully understand this essential need.
13// The education system in Israel is in dire trouble when it comes to “strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.“
14// After all, as half of the people under Israel’s control are Palestinian – this is the reality between the river and the sea – how is it possible to speak of human rights without speaking of half of the humans, without addressing their oppression by the other half?
//end//
//end//
