Ramallah: A school in Hebron and its students have taken centre stage in the Palestinians’ fight against the colonies.
Murjanah Abu Hussain, a 15-year-old student in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, have become the face of the Palestinian struggle against Israel’s crippling blockade of Hebron. Murjanah is a student at the Qurtoba Mixed School on Al Shuhada’a Street of the Old Town of Hebron. The school is located near the epicentre of clashes with the Israeli colonists.
Last week, a group of angry Jewish colonists stormed a protest arranged by local and international activists against the Jewish colonies built around the occupied West Bank city. Murjanah, who was taking part in the protest, was violently pushed off a staircase at the site breaking her leg.
But the determined student says she will not be deterred by her injury, and will be going to her school, which is a daily challenge.
“Even with my leg in a cast, I will go to school. This will be a pure act of determination and challenge to the brutal Israeli intensified inspections and checkpoints,” Murjanah told Gulf News.
The students and staff of the school have to walk through three Israeli checkpoints daily to reach their destination on their way to school.
“The school is surrounded by three colony outposts, and most importantly the Beit Midrash outpost, whose residents have pushed for the closure and relocation of the school,” said Noora Nasser, the school’s principal. The school’s 10 staff members and 160 students are affected by the blockade.
“However, Israel was forced to issue special teacher identity cards to the school’s staff to enable them to pass through the checkpoints.”
A detailed list of the school’s teachers and a separate list of students are provided annually to the Israeli occupation forces by the Palestinians officials of the Palestinian-Israeli Security Coordination Liaison Office to secure access to the school.
For their safety, she says, teachers and students must pass through the checkpoints (Checkpoint 55, Checkpoint 57 and Tal Al Rumaidah Checkpoint) in groups to reach the school.
“Every day is a major challenge, a true example of the struggle in Hebron,” Nasser told Gulf News.
Activists have decided to continue their campaign “Dismantle the Ghetto — Kick the Colonists Out of Hebron”.
The city of Hebron, south of the West Bank has been divided into two parts H1 and H2, which constitute only 20 per cent of the Hebron district. The population of about 700,000 Palestinians live alongside several hundred Israeli colonists who reside in four colony outposts.
More than 6,000 Palestinians live in neighbourhoods adjacent to those colony outposts and Israelis call those areas as restricted areas.
All streets which lead to colony outposts have been closed to Palestinians and more than 40 per cent of Palestinian residences had been abandoned. Hebron Old Town includes 1,100 shops that have been shut down.
The campaign coincided with the 23rd anniversary of the Hebron Massacre when a Jewish terrorist opened fire in Al Ebrahimi Mosque murdering 29 Palestinian worshippers.
“The campaign will feature many activities locally and internationally, including a major protest at the entrance of Al Shuhada’a Street by the end of the month to request its immediate opening for the Palestinians,” said Younus Erar, a campaign’s organiser who also heads the Palestinian Anti-Colonist and Segregation Barrier Committee in Hebron.
“We want the world to see how much the residents of Hebron are suffering.”
