Am I Not a Human? (9): The Suffering of the Palestinian Student under the Israeli Occupation: Mu‘anat al-Talib al-Filastini Tahta al-Ihtilal al-Israeli - معاناة الطالب الفلسطيني تحت الاحتلال الإسرائيلي

 Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations in Beirut has issued the English version of its book entitled “The Suffering of the Palestinian Student under the Israeli Occupation,” prepared by Hayat al-Dada and edited by Dr. Mohsen M. Saleh and Rana Sa‘adah.

This book is the ninth in the “Am I not a Human?” series through which Al-Zaytouna Centre seeks to provide a comprehensive picture of the suffering of the Palestinian people caused by the Israeli occupation. This is done in a style that addresses the mind and the heart, within a scientific, systematic and documented frame.

This 95-page book addresses the suffering of the Palestinian student under Israeli occupation. It reviews the most prominent international legislation related to the right to education in peace and war, the impact of Israeli policies aimed at keeping the Palestinian people ignorant, and the impact of daily attacks, the siege, and the Separation Wall on the Palestinian student.

The book highlights Israeli aggression against Palestinian students through the use of roadblocks and checkpoints. This is in addition to the Separation Wall in the West Bank that added to the students’ suffering, which varies between physical inspection, physical and verbal attacks, blocking the arrival of students and teachers to their schools and universities, and impeding the arrival of school supplies. Furthermore, imprisoned students are deprived of their right to education.

The book brings to light Israeli practices with respect to Palestinian curriculums. Israel has implemented policies that would let the Palestinian people be ignorant of many facets of their history. Thus it has deleted or amended parts of Palestinian curriculums to bring them in line with its occupation objectives. It separated the students from their heroic past and distorted their history.

In Jerusalem, Israel changed the Arab curriculums to suit the occupation’s requirement. It introduced the matriculation “Bagrut” certificate in place of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) “Tawjihiya”, unrecognized by Hebrew universities. It froze the construction of school buildings and put various obstacles in the way of obtaining school building permits, as it did not take into account the natural population increase, thus causing a high rate of overcrowding in classrooms.

The book also speaks about the low quality of education due to Israeli suspension of schools and the taking of security measures regarding them, in an effort to terrorize students and teachers.
The book refers to a number of wars waged by Israel against the Gaza Strip, which shook the Palestinian educational establishment to the core, in addition to great damages caused by its blockade of Gaza Strip since 2007.