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Schooling at Gunpoint: Palestinian Children's Learning Environment in War Like Conditions (part 2 of 2)

Rita Giacaman, Anita Abdullah, Rula Abu Safieh and Luna Shamieh Ramallah 6 December 2002

This report was first published on 1 December 2002 and offers a devastating look at the effect of the Israeli occupation on one aspect of Palestinian civil life — school education — in one area, Ramallah. 

Schooling at Gunpoint: Palestinian Children's Learning Environment in War Like Conditions (part 1 of 2)

Rita Giacaman, Anita Abdullah, Rula Abu Safieh and Luna Shamieh Ramallah 6 December 2002


By the end of the 2001-2002 school year, the Palestinian Ministry of Education reported that: 216 students were killed, 2514 injured, and 164 arrested; 17 teachers and staff in the education sector were killed and 71 were arrested; 1289 schools were closed for at least 3 consecutive weeks during the Israeli invasion between March 29 and up till the end of the school year; and approximately 50% of school children and 35,000 employees in the education sector were prevented from reaching their schools. 

Weekly report on human rights violations

Palestinian Center for Human Rights 4 December 2002

This week, Israeli occupying forces have perpetrated more human rights violations against Palestinian civilians, including willful killings, shelling of, and incursions into Palestinian areas and agricultural land leveling. Between November 28 and December 3, 2002, Israeli forces killed 7 Palestinian civilians, including two children and an old woman. 

Back to square one: the derailed "war on terror" after the Mombasa attacks

Hasan Abu Nimah 6 December 2002

The recent attacks on an Israeli hotel and the firing of missiles on an Israeli plane taking off from Mombassa, Kenya, indicate again that terrorism has neither been defeated, exhausted nor even intimidated by the loudly acclaimed American-led “war on terror.” On the contrary, terrorist activities seem to be gathering strength, spreading faster and hitting harder than the most cynical assessments predicted. Hasan Abu Nimah, in this contribution to EI, explains why America’s failure to distinguish among the difference causes of violence is making things worse. At the same time, he warns Palestinians not to allow their just cause to be hijacked by those who carry out atrocities against civilians. 

Ban on Israeli goods has shoppers in uproar: Some demand Rainbow co-op end boycott

Jenny Strasburg 5 December 2002

Rainbow Grocery’s ban on carrying certain Israeli-made goods has angered some customers and prompted the Jewish Community Relations Council in San Francisco to demand that the Mission District co-op reverse its boycott immediately. Jenny Strasburg reports for The San Francisco Chronicle. 

The background music in Rafah

Darren Ell Montreal, Canada 5 December 2002

I am home now, sitting comfortably in the quiet of my office, but the deafening machine gun fire, explosions, and anxious faces of the inhabitants of Block O in the southern Gazan city of Rafah are still with me. Now I feel compelled to keep my promises to people and tell the world what I saw. Darren Ell reports. 

Iain Hook: UN staff call for justice

United Nations Staff in the Occupied Territories 5 December 2002

International UN staff today took the unprecedented measure of calling on Israel to hold its military to account and protect all UN and other aid workers operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) from harm, in accordance with international humanitarian and human rights law. The demand is an independent initiative taken by over 60 international staff from 22 countries. 

The end of Ramadan

Kristen Ess Gaza Strip 4 December 2002

On this, the final day of Ramadan 2002, Israel continues its decades old illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinians in the West Bank city of Khalil (Hebron), under effective curfew for years. Apache helicopter missiles fired into Gaza City. Israeli bulldozers continued to raze houses in the Gaza Strip and thousands of Palestinians were held under another day of curfew throughout the occupied West Bank and parts of the Gaza Strip. Kristen Ess writes from Occupied Gaza.