Pupils
returned to class after the weekend to find the latest stretch of
Israel's controversial West Bank separation barrier, an eight-metre
high blast wall, had been built in 48 hours.
Commandeered
on the "Israeli side" of the wall are the Anata high school's football
pitch and volleyball court, leaving its 800 pupils to a drastically
reduced space for play time and sports lessons.
Headmaster Yussef Elayan confirmed that troops rolled up without any warning on Thursday to start building the barrier.
"We
got a shock to see the army start the work in the middle of the school
on Thursday afternoon. They carried on through the night and Friday,"
he said.
Apparently, scuffles broke out between
the soldiers and some of the pupils, both on Thursday and when pupils
returned to school on Sunday.
The headmaster said some of his schoolboys were arrested in the fracas.
"The wall has confiscated three dunams (0.3 hectares) of the school playground, most of which were sports pitches," he said.
The
land will be effectively annexed to the illegal Jewish settlement of
Pisgat Zeev, which Israel claims this sector of the wall will protect
from militant infiltrations.
Student reaction
"We feel like we're in a little prison. We no longer want to smile, nor even talk," said 15-year-old pupil Hisham Mahmud.
"School
isn't what it used to be. We used to stay here after lessons to play
football; but now we go straight home to avoid any friction with the
soldiers," he added.
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Palestinian residents of Jerusalem
are being walled out of the city |
His
friend Suleiman Karshan said the boys were continually watched by
soldiers at the entrance to the school. "They used tear gas and stun
grenades against us," during clashes on Thursday and Sunday, Karshan
charged.
"The whirring of bulldozers and
pneumatic drills stopped us from studying. The teacher had to shout for
us to hear over the noise outside," he said.
Yasser
Salameh, 11, said he was manhandled by soldiers on Sunday when he left
school. "One of them picked me up before throwing me with all his
strength on the ground before another one walked me off and kept me in
their jeep," he said.
Ghetto’s walls
In
July, the Israeli government approved a route for the wall around east
Jerusalem which is scheduled to be completed in coming months.
The
barrier will be erected through two Palestinian neighbourhoods,
including Anata, walling out 55,000 residents, or one quarter of the
total Arab population of east Jerusalem.
Israel
justifies building the massive barrier of electric fencing, barbed wire
and concrete wall by insisting it is vital to stop potential attackers
from infiltrating the country and its illegal settlements in the West
Bank.
But the Palestinians have condemned the
wall as an attempt to grab their land and undermine the viability of
their promised state.
On 9 July 2004, the UN
International Court of Justice issued a non-binding ruling that the
barrier which criss-crosses the West Bank is illegal and should be torn
down.
Although Israel has since modified the
route of the barrier along some stretches, the government has vowed to
complete the project.