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Palestinian youngsters face daily 'Via Dolorosa' on way to school By Agence France Presse (AFP) Copyright (c) 2004 The Daily Star Monday, November 08, 2004 TUBA VILLAGE, West Bank: Their school bus is a donkey, their route a tortuous hour-long trek through the steep, rocky hillsides. For five Palestinian children living in the southern Hebron hills, the daily school run has become a nightmare because of the ritual harassment of Jewish settlers.
The most direct route to school is a dirt track which runs between the Jewish settlement of Maon and the neighboring wildcat outpost of Havat Maon - a fact which has aroused the ire of local settlers. Armed with sticks and stones and accompanied by a pack of dogs, the settlers have undertaken a campaign of violent intimidation against the five children, aged between six and 12, and any adults who walk with them. "When we walked to school, the settlers' dogs attacked us and they threw stones, so now we have to go the long way round," said 12-year-old Safiyya Jundiyya. Frightened by the repeated incidents of verbal and physical abuse, the children say that they would rather endure the 10-kilometer donkey ride across the rocky hillsides than face the settlers. Just over a month ago, Safiyya's cousin, 7-year-old Miriam Jundiyya was admitted to hospital after an adult settler hit her round the head with a stick, her family said. At the time, the group was being escorted by two U.S. peace activists when they were ambushed by a group of masked settlers armed with sticks, chains and rocks. The children fled, but the two activists, members of an ecumenical pacifist movement called the Christian Peacemaker Team, were badly beaten. Israeli police, who are responsible for all settler-related issues, were notified and even given pictures of the assailants, but no one has been arrested. Since then, the children have resorted to the arduous mountain route which takes them eight kilometers out of their way simply to ensure they are not spotted by the settlers. The day after a debate on the issue at the Israeli parliamentary committee last week, the children once again tried to use the short route, having received official permission to cross from the army's district office for coordination with the Palestinians. But as they walked up the dusty path around 7:30 a.m., accompanied by the mayor of Al-Tuwani village, their way was once again blocked by the settlers, an AFP correspondent witnessed. A look of sheer terror flashed across each of their faces as they caught sight of a group of settlers watching them from the edge of the forest, two powerful-looking Doberman Pinschers milling around their legs. Safiyya's 10-year-old brother, Tareq, started to cry. "What are you talking about - school, school, school?" a settler shouted mockingly. "Stop talking this rubbish about school!" Several Israeli soldiers including a representative of the DCO soon arrived at the scene and suddenly decided the previously authorized crossing should not go ahead. By Hazel Ward, Agence France Presse
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It is just two kilometers from Tuba village where the youngsters live, to their school in Al-Tuwani village at the southernmost tip of the West Bank.