Ein El Hilwe Solidarity School
See our photos of Ein El Hilwe solidarity school on flickr here
Jordan Valley Solidarity’s kindergarden in Ein El Hilwe is educating 12 children aged 4 to 5 years. Our volunteer Ibrahim teaches classes in Arabic, maths, religion, art and hygiene. They also play football, sports and learn about Palestinian culture. When the weather is good, classes are held outside the tent under the sun.
Every day, Ibrahim collects the children from their homes, walks them to school and back afterwards. Without the kindergarden, they would not have anything productive to do. The school here is very important to them for continuing education.
Polish volunteers have donated a bus to Jordan Valley Solidarity be used for transporting the children, so soon we will expand the schools project to other communities in the northern Jordan Valley.
Ibrahim commented, ‘The bus could also be used to collect more children in surrounding villages who are not receiving any education at the moment.’
The nearest school is in Tayasir, there is no transport children can use and an Israeli checkpoint makes the 14km journey even more difficult. Conditions created by the occupation means many children can’t attend school or out of neccessity, are forced into the workforce to support their families.
Talking about future plans for the school Ibrahim said, ‘We hope to build a permanent structure instead of a tent and in time we will make pressure for the Ministry of Education to take responsibility for the school and the children’s education which is currently prohibited under occupation.’
Article 26 of the 1949 Universal Declaration on Human Rights states, ‘everybody has the right to education’. Article 50 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that the occupying power has to work with local and national authorities in order to ensure all educational facilities are adequate for the ‘care and education of children’. Israeli policies in occupied Jordan Valley make it impossible for the Palestinian Authority to provide education for all children. By maintaining a high level of poverty Israel is encouraging many children to join the workforce – clear violations of international law.
To date, Jordan Valley Solidarity has built 6 schools from kindergardens to large secondary schools. Each time directly challenging racist Israeli laws which prohibit Palestinian communities from this fundamental human right.
For generations, Bedouin Palestinians living in Ein El Hilwe built their communities around the spring which provided fresh water nearly all year round. An illegal settlement colony Maskiyot was established in 2002 with Torah College, a pre-army school for nationalist religious students. In 2005, 20 new homes were built to house ultra-orthodox settlers evacuated from Gaza.
Maskiyot colony is located on the hill overlooking the community and for nearly three years violent settlers have prevented Palestinians from using the spring. The community is now forced to drive 12km with a tractor and water tank to the nearest filling point in Bardala. Transportation is expensive and the cost is higher for families forced to rent a tractor and tanker.
On March 19 2011, settlers attacked 11 year boy Ayman who was riding his horse on the hillside. They tied a rope around the horse’s neck and used a jeep to drag the horse along the ground before beating the animal over the head until it was dead. This was done on front of Ayman.
On March 22 2011, 100 settlers came in the middle of the night with flood lights and set up a large tent next to the Bedouin home of Nabeel and Ghada Daraghme. The military came to ‘protect’ the settlers and after 3 days of intimidation, declared the area closed military zone destroying the family home forcing them from their land. About 1 year previous to this settlers accompanied by military used the same tactic to force another family from their land in Ein El Hilwe.
In addition to these acts of violence, Israeli law which prohibits the community from having access to health and educational services, or access to the abundance of fresh water in the area. The Israeli government is also using this structural violence to forcibly displace the Bedouin inhabitants of Ein El Hilwe – in order to permanently control the land and water resources where they have lived for generations.
By supporting the community to create their own school, JVS is doing more than providing children who attend with education. We are establishing the right of Palestinian communities to build their own infrastructure, which in the face of forced displacement, enables families to stay on land where they have lived for generations.
Regular international presence at the school helps raise awareness about their struggle and reduce, or at least document the violence which would otherwise be invisible. Our actions also seek to create conditions where the Palestinian Authority, NGOs and international donors can support Ein El Hilwe. Communities located in area C are normally seen as outside their sphere of influence.
People can support the schools project by donating educational materials or running creative workshops similar to the one on photography run recently.
