På skuleveg

.
In Norway we have a song where a part of the refrain goes like this:

Hit eit steg og dit eit steg
dansar eg fram på skuleveg...

It is about a girl who is happily dancing on her way to school, eager for everyone to see her new dress. I guess most of us have memories from our way to and from school, happy memories and maybe scary ones, too. Last week I visited two schools in the Hebron hills. The children there also have their memories from their way to school, very different from those of Norwegian children.

The first school was situated close to the wall. Because most of the wall is built not on the so-called green line between Israel and the West Bank, but on Palestinian territory, the children at this school have to walk through a checkpoint every day to get to school. A checkpoint is not a place for a child, I think. For me, not used to seeing weapons, it is shocking to see people walking around with machine guns. I guess it is not any better to get used to it. Because of the proximity to the wall, it is not allowed to build with concrete in this area. A new concrete building had been built for the school. It has a demolition order.

In the second school we met Sam, who is working in the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT). Because of the violence from settlers, people from CPT accompany people on most of their errands. They also used to walk children to and from school, but Israeli authorities ruled that since their presence was seen as a provocation, Israeli soldiers should take over this task. According to Sam, the soldiers are not doing a good job. The children are not followed all the way, but have to walk the last 200 meters to and from their village on their own. Often the soldiers are late, leaving the children to wait for them all alone. The day we were there, settlers had thrown stones on the children with slingshots until they ran back to their homes. The smaller children had all been crying. "I think even the soldiers are afraid of the settlers," Sam said. "People say that if you lay hand on a settler, you will for ever stay in the lowest rank of the army."


Sam outside the school.

YMCA tries to give opportunities to children in the Hebron area to express themselves and to get other kinds of input than the settler violence. YMCA employees travel around to 300 schools and have activities with the children, using creative tools like clay, music or drawing. The day we were there a man and a woman were handing out clay and making figures together with the children.


The room these children are sitting in also has a demolition order.


.