The community of Badu Ka’abne lies at the end of a beautiful, winding road that travels between the West Bank cities of Taybeh and Jericho, offering some of the best views in the area. Driving off-road for five minutes you find a cluster of portacabins surrounding a playground. These are in fact a school that offers education for 65 Bedouin children who live on farms or as herders, more than half of them girls and all from the age of 5 to 15. In summer they move higher up the hills to avoid the intense heat around the Dead Sea, and in winter they descend closer to the school and the milder weather. The students either walk to school or come on their families’ donkeys, which they jokingly call “their cars”.
But the twelve five-year-old children who get preschool education in one of these portacabins might soon be left without a classroom.
“The Israeli soldiers came to our school on 22 November in broad daylight to hand us a demolition order for the kindergarten. The children were very scared and did not understand what was happening,” says Mahmoud, the headmaster of the school. “The Israeli occupation refuses us the provision electricity, water and basic human dignity. The water container you see just next to the school is fenced off and we cannot use the water. If they could, they would take away the air that we breathe,” he continued.
According to the Jerusalem Legal Aid Centre, the notice served against this EU-funded kindergarten is a ‘stop work’ order. Such notices demand that the owner of a structure cease any further construction and summon them to a committee hearing of the Israeli Civil Authority – often lead to further formal demolition orders if their appeal is unsuccessful, and leaving the structure vulnerable to destruction at any time. The Israeli authorities have given just over a month to prepare for this case, which will be in court on the 3rd of January 2016.
Such cases are not uncommon in Area C, the region of the West Bank where Israel maintains full military and civil control. According to the UN, over 14,000 demolition orders were served against Palestinian structures (e.g. houses, animal shelters, latrines) by the Israeli Civil Administration from 1998 – 2014. Of these, demolitions have been carried out in approximately 20% of cases. Over three quarters of the structures against which these orders are served are located on private Palestinian land. Even where demolition orders are not been carried out, uncertainty and threat of homelessness can be a cause of considerable distress to those threatened with the loss of homes and basic infrastructure.
Back in August, MAP joined thirty other aid agencies and human rights organisations calling for a halt to ongoing demolitions and accountability for wanton destruction of Palestinian property and structures in Area C. At that time, MAP CEO Tony Laurance said: “The rapid increase in demolitions shows that we must move beyond words towards concerted action to stop these violations of international law. Grave breaches of international humanitarian law could soon become the norm. We will not achieve a just and durable solution to the conflict without first ensuring respect for international humanitarian law.”
School headmaster Mahmoud lives 40 miles away but does the commute every day because he feels this is where he can make the biggest change. He tells MAP of one of the ex-students of his school, who was the first of her community to enter university, where she studied public health administration. To prepare for her A-levels she came to the school to get extra support from the teachers. “She will not only improve her life, but that of the whole community,” say Mahmoud.
At the kindergarten, Miss Najla teaches younger children numbers and the alphabet, “and of course lots of playing as well.” The structure of school is particularly important to children in these communities, she explains: “they have very little discipline at home because their parents are too busy with farming or herding to put food on the table. In addition, the parents have often not had the opportunity of education themselves.”
For headmaster Mahmoud the importance of a preschool is to stimulate the children. “All they know in their life are sheep and goats. They do not have toys or a television and their view of the world is very small. We try to change that here: Education is the only way to get away from this life and to move on to something better.”
Miss Najla asks the 12 pre-schoolers after practicing the alphabet “how much do you like your class? How much do you like your teacher?” With a big smile they all together spread their arms open and scream “this much!”
The MAP-supported mobile clinic regularly visits the communities served by this school and provides them with essential medical services and health advice. Last year, MAP supported the school with stationary, new blackboards and books to start a library, and has allocated money to support the kindergarten to develop and expand further in 2016. That is at least, if it is still standing by then.
Click here to sign our petition to save Badu Ka’abne kindergarten from demolition!