The Israeli army regularly and routinely imposes full 24-hour curfews across many inhabited areas of the West Bank without explanation and without accountability. It is expected that new curfews will be issued to coincide with a possible war in Iraq. After experiencing prolonged curfews during the last year, several of which lasted for more than a month, many Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza have reached the limits of what they are able to bear.
The present Israeli Occupation is creating a humanitarian disaster. In combination with tight closures and other restrictive and oppressive measures, the curfews severely disrupt normal personal and family life. The economy in the Occupied Territories is in dire straits, poverty and health conditions reach alarming levels, and normal community life is completely paralyzed. It is not difficult to imagine how people feel when they consistently lack control over their daily lives and are barely able to plan. This particularly applies to education where the staff working at schools and institutes for Higher Education are constantly having to improvise their lessons and change their schedules, or cannot go to their work. Some universities have been closed by military order.
Not only are hundreds of thousands of pupils and students lacking any study rhythm, they are also often exposed to killings, injuries or teargas, and feel hopeless about their present and future. Their lack of orientation is compounded by the fear for a war on Iraq, and its consequences for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Many educators here have to live with the thought that a new young generation – the large majority of the Palestinian people, in fact – at present do not feel any future here. Regard this message, written while Bethlehem is once again under curfew, as an __expression of self-respect and a cry for help. We very much appreciate your support, especially at this dark moment in our lives.
The Arab Educational Institute (AEI) in Bethlehem is working on community education, especially for youths, in the southern West Bank. Its work focuses on peace and non-violence education, as well as inter-religious and inter-cultural cooperation and exchanges. AEI is affiliated to Pax Christi International, supported by CORDAID and a partner in the Euro-Arab Dialogue from Below (EAd) network.
AEI is also the secretariat of the campaign "Let Our Children Go To School" which started in the beginning of October 2002 in Bethlehem with a demonstration of many hundreds of school children in the presence of Christian and Moslem religious leaders, civil authorities and local NGOs. Another two demonstrations were held in Bethlehem and in the West Bank village of Taybeh, before the December curfews made new planned demonstrations impossible.
PETITION TEXT
To be addressed to international educational bodies and authorities.
Dear Sir / Madam,
Restrictive measures which collectively and over prolonged periods target the civilian Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza, such as the present curfews and closures, are completely unacceptable and should be lifted immediately.
The undersigned emphatically support the rights of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza to go to their schools and institutions of learning, and to conduct their normal duties of daily life.
Also in order to strengthen a long-term prospect for a just and stable peace in the region, we request you to do everything in your power to put appropriate pressure upon the Israeli government in accordance with the demands of international legality including the right of education.
Name:
Profession:
Email address:
Copy and send the signed petition to: aei@p-ol.com or +972-2-277.7554 (fax).
The
action will last until April, 2003.