Education under occupation: Palestinian children talk about life and school

This report was produced by:

Save the Children UK and Save the Children Sweden, March 2002

5 Contents

Summary 4 Study limitations 6 Participatory research 7 Background to Current Events 8

A. Introduction

1. Geography, education and occupation 1.1 Closure impoverishes the Palestinian territories 10 1.2 Closure and education 10 1.3 Rights and geography 11

2. Study areas 12

3. Who is responsible for children’s rights in the Palestinian territories? 14

4. Development, education and occupation 4.1 The Oslo process and development 15 4.2 Socio-economic impacts of education 15 4.3 Quality education 16 4.4 Teaching about rights and identity 16

5. The school as a place for rights based development 17

B. Research results

1. Children’s daily life outside school 1.1 Children have too much time to think 19 1.2 Too much television 19 1.3 The experience of violence varies geographically 21 1.4 More violence at home 22 1.5 Girls and boys have different vulnerabilities 22 1.6 Female participants believe that girl dropout has increased as a result of closure and violence 24 1.7 Male participants doubt that girls’ problems have been exacerbated 24 1.8 Children still follow childhood pursuits 25 1.9 Children’s attendance at clubs has decreased since September 2000 25

2. Children, poverty and vulnerability 2.1 Children think that class divisions have been exacerbated 26 2.2 Vulnerability shows geographical variation 27 2.3 New vulnerabilities have been created, and old ones are sometimes ignored 27

6 3. Children’s daily life at school 3.1 Changes in the classroom 29 3.2 Are classrooms more becoming more violent? 29 3.3 Children’s feelings of terror affect the class 30 3.4 Changes in teaching methods 30 3.5 More rote-learning 31 3.6 Children want more opportunities to discuss the events around them 32

4. Children’s view of the future 4.1 Children find it hard to imagine what the future will be like 33 4.2 Children’s view of the future is dark, but varies geographically 33 4.3 Children find it hard to imagine the future of their country 34 4.4 Boys in Hebron can make choices about the labour market 34

C. Conclusion 36 Recommendations 37

Annex Tools used 41 Samples 42

Acknowledgements 43 Endnotes 44

7 Summary

Since September 2000, there has been a dramatic deterioration of children’s rights in the Palestinian territories. This study was conducted by Save the Children UK and Save the Children Sweden (henceforward Save the Children) between April and June 2001. It examines the effects of this deterioration on the education system and calls for better monitoring of children’s rights in the Palestinian territories.

The study is based on information gathered from focus groups in four areas of the Palestinian territories that are particularly vulnerable to closure, impoverishment and violence – Tulkaram, Hebron, South Hebron, and Khan Younis. 120 children aged 10-14, and some of their parents and teachers, took part in field research.

The Palestinian education system compares favourably with those of neighbouring countries. However, it operates in a society with a complex history full of human rights violations and a territory fragmented around Israeli settlements. In times of conflict, the Israeli army closes off the fragments of territory where Palestinians live, obstructing trade and employment. These closures, which maintain the occupation, are often implemented by violence: this vicious circle has cost many children’s lives. This fragmented territory also means that geography is crucial to rights: children who live or study near Israeli soldiers and settlers have to deal with diminished mobility and more violence.

Israel is responsible for the application of children’s rights in the Palestinian territories, but it rejects the applicability of the relevant treaties to its actions there. This legal situation obstructs the ability of all groups in the Palestinian territories to develop and to enjoy their rights. It undermines the quality and developmental impact of education.

This study shows that Palestinian children’s lives are tense, and dominated by the political violence that surrounds them. Home life is more boring, but children (especially girls) have to spend a greater proportion of their day at home. The study finds that dropout rates are decreasing overall, but that girls are more at risk of dropout: the impoverishment and isolation of closure have made some families reluctant to keep girls in school.

Boys and girls both feel that they are living in politically momentous times, and they want to express their political views, although they have limited opportunities to do so. But they are still children, and they want more opportunities for play and leisure. Before September 2000, precarious development processes made many Palestinian children vulnerable: the upsurge in violence has new kinds of vulnerability for children. This study suggests that children who had significant pre-existing vulnerabilities may be facing particularly difficult times as attention focuses on the new vulnerability to violence and poverty.

Schools perform an important and valued function in children’s lives at this time. But there have been complex changes in the life of the school since September 2000. Schools are more violent because children fight more and there are new economic divisions between them. Teachers are struggling, and in the view of many teacher participants, failing to improve the quality of their teaching because of the effects of closure and violence. Children

8 would like teachers to help them understand their future and their political situation, but it is difficult for schools to educate children about their future when their rights are subject to continuous erosion. This study shows that even younger children are pessimistic about their futures, and that violence and political uncertainty has catastrophic effects on children’s aspiration.

The recommendations arising from this study come from children and from Save the Children. Children recommended that schools should help them develop their capacity to deal with the challenges of life under occupation, asking for more extra-curricular activities and better quality teaching. They also suggested how schools can help children secure their rights and understand their present and future life. Save the Children calls for a clear recognition of the applicability of international law to the Palestinian territories, better monitoring of children’s rights in the Palestinian territories, and for clear commitment to maintain investment in Palestinian educational infrastructure.

9 Study limitations

This study was conducted in the months of April and June 2001 in Tulkaram, Hebron, South Hebron and Khan Younis, with children aged 10-14, their parents and teachers. All study areas have high rates of closure, poverty and/or violence. The study does not give a clear picture of the special pressures on early childhood; nor the pressures on older children, who have been at the forefront of media attention because a fairly small number of them have participated in confrontations with the Israeli army.

Slippage in the research timetable meant that not all child participants completed all tools. This has affected the comparability of field research results. In both months of field research, researchers’ travel was affected by closures. Closures prevented the implementation of some of the second stage of the research in all areas, and all of the second stage in one area, Tulkaram. Tulkaram data has been used more sparingly, because the researchers’ conclusions have not been checked with child participants. Full details of tools and samples are in the annex.

All field researchers were counselling staff of the Ministry of Education. In some cases, this meant that researchers were working with children that they knew personally or professionally.

There are two main educational service providers in the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Ministry of Education and the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The study was mostly conducted in PNA schools, with four UNRWA schools participating in the West Bank. It was not possible to conduct the study in UNRWA schools in Gaza.

Finally, the researchers had relatively little access to unpublished quantitative studies of education during the current school year. Some of the study conclusions relating to school dropout will need to be checked when statistics for the 2000-2001 school year come into the public arena.

10 Participatory research

Palestinian children are in the best position to assess the effect of external events on their experience. For this reason, researchers adopted a participatory approach for this study. In the first stage of research, structured focus groups were used for children and other participants to define indicators of change in their lives, describe those changes, and then rank their importance. The results of these focus groups were interpreted by researchers, who presented their interpretation to the child participants for review and correction. Children, parents and teachers also participated in four more exercises that aimed to refine the original findings about children’s daily experience at home and school. Finally, one group of child participants was asked to describe the relationship between schools and their rights, and their views form the basis of an analysis of Palestinian education from the perspective of children’s rights.

The first week of June was a crucial week for the research. The second stage of the research, slated for May, had been postponed to the very end of the school year because of escalating violence. On June 1st, the Israeli army imposed exceptionally severe closures on the Palestinian territories in retaliation, and these closures seriously obstructed the research. In spite of violence, closure, and the increased pressure on the budget they caused, the team managed to carry out a piece of research that has the critical attentiveness to human diversity and subjectivity that is needed for participatory research.

Field researchers’ evaluation of their experience drew attention to the empowering capacities of participatory work. Although they were familiar many with aspects of children’s experience through their work as school counsellors, they felt that the methods used had taught them that children have significant powers of self expression that are not diminished by difficult circumstances. Several said that they would like to use these methods in their jobs.

11 Background to Current Events

Save the Children works with Palestinian children to enhance their rights. These rights are poorly protected for reasons that include the following: they are stateless, many are refugees, they live under occupation that generates violence, and that is currently maintained by a system of restrictions known as closure. The UN explains the history of these problems as follows1.

The origin of the problem In 1922, the League of Nations gave Britain a mandate to administer Palestine (previously ruled by the defunct Ottoman empire), in order to make the territory an independent Palestinian state and a national home for Jewish people. From 1922 to 1947, many Jewish people immigrated to Palestine, often impelled by Nazi genocide in Europe. The resulting changes in land ownership and demography led to a Palestinian rebellion in 1937, followed by continuing violence from all parties. In 1947, Britain handed the problem back to the UN, which proposed a partition of Palestine into Jewish and Palestinian states. In 1948 Israel proclaimed its independence and in the war that followed, it expanded to occupy 77% of the territory of Mandate Palestine. Most of the Palestinian population of the new Israeli state were expelled or fled to the West Bank and Gaza, or to neighbouring states. The West Bank and Gaza were occupied by Jordan and Egypt respectively. All Palestinians were stateless and most were refugees.

Direct occupation In the 1967 war, Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. The war made another half a million Palestinians into refugees outside the Palestinian territories, and meant that those in the Palestinian territories lived under illegal Israeli occupation. Israel put all water resources in the occupied territory under military control, and began to confiscate its land. Israel began to settle its citizens in the occupied West Bank and Gaza in 1972 and annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, in spite of international protest at the illegality of these actions. In 1987, Palestinians in the occupied territory began an intifada (mass uprising). Israel countered this uprising with methods that killed and injured many people. Palestinian rights were further jeopardised by this violence.

The Oslo process In 1993, after several years of negotiation, Israel and the Palestinian leadership signed an agreement that created (in 1994) an interim self-government called the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The current negotiations between the PNA and Israel are often called the Oslo process. This process allows the PNA to administer highly populated fragments of the Palestinian territories, that are surrounded by Israeli settlements and military posts. PNA security forces control a dozen fragments of the West Bank (less than 18% of the land), and three sectors of Gaza (60% of the land). Since 1994, Israel has directly occupied most land, and maintained an indirect occupation of PNA controlled land through a system of closure. Closure means that main roads are blocked to Palestinians, and trenches are dug

12 around some Palestinian settlements to prevent people finding alternative routes. Closures can be “total” or “partial”. They can be “external” – totally or partially obstructing the movement of people and goods from the West Bank and Gaza Strip to Israel and East Jerusalem, or they can be “internal”, banning movement between the PNA’s fragments of land. The military positions that implement the closures generate violence.

The intifada In September 2000 a new intifada broke out. This means that Palestinians go on demonstrations, and some carry out armed attacks against the Israeli army and population. The Israeli army implements more closures, with excessive use of force against the Palestinian population and security forces. Between September 2000 and June 2001, 117 Palestinian children and 16 Israeli children were killed as a result2. This report shows how this complex situation jeopardises Palestinian children’s rights, Palestinian development and the Palestinian education system.

13 A. Introduction

1. Geography, education and occupation

275 schools in the Palestinian territories are within 500 metres of an Israeli military post. They make up 15.6% of the total number of Palestinian schools, serving 118,662 students out of a school-going population of 865,5403. The reason why there are so many Israeli soldiers near schools is because Israel still occupies the Palestinian territories using a system of closures.

1.1 Closure impoverishes the Palestinian territories Between January 1994 and September 2000, the Israeli army closed the Palestinian territories for 292 days. These closures caused fluctuating but broadly negative economic growth in the territories4. Between September 2000 and the completion of this report in July 2001, there were nine uninterrupted months of severe or total closures. One working day’s severe closure is estimated to cost the Palestinian economy about $8 million and puts tens of thousands of people out of work5. A survey of 2,915 households completed after six months of closure showed that half of them had seen their income drop to less than half of its pre- closure levels6. Unemployment rose sharply when the closures began, from 11% to almost 30%. Unemployment figures do not include people who have given up hope of finding a job: if these “discouraged” workers are included, unemployment reaches almost 40%7.

1.2 Closure and education Closure has wideranging negative effects on education. Closure stops people and goods moving: this has obstructed school construction, and hampered national training in a year when implementation of a new curriculum began. Teaching time has been significantly curtailed because of sharp declines in teacher attendance – teachers often live outside a school’s catchment area. UNRWA schools in Gaza face particular difficulties, because almost 1,000 UNRWA teachers in north and central Gaza live in South Gaza.

The heavy restrictions on movement have severely damaged Palestinian social and economic life, but some positive outcomes for schools have nevertheless been extracted from the situation. Closures have frequently been implemented using excessive force, and this force has been frequently targeted against schoolchildren8. This study suggests that teachers may be using less physical punishment against children because of teachers’ sympathy for children living under the violence of occupation. School dropout has fallen in some areas: children who had dropped out of school to enter the labour market may be returning to school as a consequence of mass unemployment. However, this study suggests that girl dropout may be increasing in some areas. Except in a few directly occupied areas where curfew is used instead of closure, children’s school attendance has been little affected. Almost all of the child participants in this study see a soldier or cross a checkpoint

14 on their way to school. However, relatively small catchment areas mean that most children do not face longer journeys to school as a result of closure9.

1.3 Rights and geography This study was undertaken in four areas of the Palestinian territories that are particularly vulnerable to closure and the violence and poverty it generates. When the Palestinian territories are closed, military points – situated around settlements and strategic positions – turn into flashpoints. This means that in periods of conflict, people’s rights are gradated by their proximity to settlements or army bases. People near settlements have more violence and less mobility and are more likely to lose their jobs because they cannot get to work. Children’s rights are likewise affected. The next section describes some of the geographic variations of rights as they affect education.

15 2. Study areas

Khan Younis educational district is made up of the South Gaza towns of Khan Younis and Rafah and surrounding villages. South Gaza is separated from the north by a frequently closed bypass road. Khan Younis abuts the seaside settlement of Gush Katif, and Rafah is all but surrounded by Gush Katif and the Israeli-controlled border with Egypt. The ubiquitous perimeter fences in South Gaza make it the most violent place in the Palestinian territories for children. Of 2,169 child casualties in the first eight months of closure and violence, 715, or 33% came from Khan Younis, an area that has less than 10% of the total population. The Israeli army has killed 19 children there. Children in Khan Younis are much more likely to be hit by live fire than rubber bullets or teargas – almost half the live fire attacks on children were in Khan Younis. They are more likely to be hit in the upper body or head10. South Gaza is the poorest part of the Palestinian territories – poverty rates were over 50% in 1997, and they have risen dramatically since then11. This study shows that violence, even more than poverty, affects the life of children in Khan Younis.

Hebron educational district covers an industrial city in the south West Bank ringed by settlements. The old centre of the city, called H2, has about 400 Israeli settlers living in intimate proximity to Palestinians, guarded by about 1,500 Israeli soldiers. The Israeli army deals with the tension that this causes by imposing curfew, or house arrest, on the Palestinian population. This means that Hebron’s attendance rates for teachers and students are much lower: the whole district has lost 20% of teaching time, and attendance can drop to almost nothing on some days. Teaching in the most severely affected schools has to be crammed into 3½ hours or less. All the Hebron child participants in this study live in H2. Hebron is also a violent place, because settler and Palestinian populations live so close to each other. About 16% of all child casualties in the Palestinian territories come from there, and as in Khan Younis, soldiers are more likely to use live fire and aim for the upper body. This study describes children’s lives in one of the strangest parts of the Palestinian territories.

South Hebron district is a resource-poor, arid and underdeveloped rural area, and one of the poorest parts of the West Bank. Poverty rates there reached almost 45% in 1997; now they are much higher12. High numbers of landless workers lead to higher than usual dependence on jobs in Israel. Like much of the rural West Bank, South Hebron is less violent but much more vulnerable to village sieges on closure days. This seriously affects teacher attendance. The district uses volunteer teachers in schools vulnerable to closure. There has always been a problem with dropout in the area, linked to poverty, child labour, and the presence of Bedouin groups previously excluded from the education system. This study shows that the impoverishment and isolation of closure have increased the reluctance of some families to keep girl children in school.

16 Tulkaram district is in the north West Bank on the border with Israel, made up of Tulkaram town and surrounding villages. It is heavily dependent on the Israeli economy and has been badly hit by closure. As in South Hebron, teaching time has been lost because of village sieges. Most of Tulkaram town schools are about 100 metres from a major Israeli military emplacement. Tulkaram Industrial Secondary, the nearest school to the front line, was badly damaged by artillery shells. Six children have been killed, and 76 injured since September 2000. This study was only partially completed in Tulkaram, but it shows many of the patterns of child experience found in the other areas.

17 3. Who is responsible for children’s rights in the Palestinian territories?

Prolonged occupation and unfinished peace negotiations complicate all accounts of responsibility for Palestinian children’s rights (see above, Background). But nearly all international legal authorities believe that Palestinians benefit from the protection of two legal regimes:

· International humanitarian law (IHL), the law that protects people in times of war and occupation. It is codified in treaties like the Geneva Conventions · International human rights law, the law that protects people in war and peace from the power of the state. It is codified in international agreements like the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Israel accepts the terms of these agreements and conventions, because it has ratified them, but it disputes their application (see below).

Current Israeli practices violate IHL. Israel’s use of lethally excessive force against children is a violation of their right to life, and their right to special protection13. IHL obliges Israel to facilitate the proper working of the education system14. Three schools have been commandeered by the Israeli army, and eight schools have been hit by artillery shells, in direct violation of the laws of war15. Closure and all other forms of collective punishment are likewise banned by IHL16.

Israeli practices also violate international human rights law, including the CRC. Children’s rights to life, protection from injury, freedom from collective punishment, education, access to health services, and an adequate standard of living, have all been violated17.

However, Israel refuses to accept that it is bound by either legal regime in the Palestinian territories under its occupation. It is not bound to apply the protections of IHL for children under occupation, claims Israel, because the Geneva Conventions only apply to territories seized from a state (Palestine was never a state)18. It is not bound to apply the protections of IHL for children in war, claims Israel, because the current events in the Palestinian territories do not amount to a state of war19. It is not bound to apply the protections of international human rights law (including children’s rights), claims Israel, because nearly all Palestinian children in the occupied territories live in areas under the (ambiguous and partial) jurisdiction of the PNA20.

The overwhelming majority of international legal authorities reject all these Israeli claims and believe that Israel is responsible for applying all the protections of both international legal regimes for Palestinian children in the current situation21. Israel, in contrast, effectively claims that no international legal regime applies to Palestinian children. What does this mean for education rights? The next section looks at the impact of occupation, closure and violence on the development of education.

18 4. Development, education and occupation

4.1 The Oslo process and development Over the past decade, Israelis and Palestinians committed themselves to the Oslo process, a series of negotiations and interim measures that were intended to eventually replace the direct Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza with a Palestinian state. Donors invested over $3 billion in this peace process for Palestinian territories whose development had been retarded by a quarter century of occupation. More than 10% of this investment went to the education sector22. Educational investment, says the World Bank, has paid off – it prevented the collapse of a sector neglected by the Israeli occupying authorities, funded a rapid increase in enrolment, and maintained class densities at adequate rates. A 1999 poll showed that Palestinians rate education as the PNA’s most effective sector23.

Many Palestinian quantitative educational development indicators compare favourably with those of neighbouring countries. But the growth of Palestinian education contrasts with the overall decline in Palestinian development since Oslo. Instead of a promised Palestinian state, seven years of negotiations have left the Palestinian territory fragmented and economically dependent on Israel. Most Palestinians have become poorer and unemployment rates have fluctuated wildly, and increased overall24.

Education is an important development target because it gives people capabilities to overcome their problems. It fuels economic growth and can dramatically improve health and gender equity. However, international experience shows that education cannot achieve these aims when weak macro-economic policies and external shocks produce economic stagnation25. Israeli occupation created these weaknesses and shocks to maintain control over territories and populations. Direct occupation arrested Palestinian development 26. In the years of the Oslo process, “de-development” has been replaced by a precarious development process that has often been based on the short-term adaptations and survival strategies that the negotiations require27. Closure has put this precarious development process under severe pressure. This study demonstrates that children, even in primary schools, are aware that their education may not secure their economic futures.

4.2 Socio-economic impacts of education Positive socio-economic impacts of education are hard to trace in the Palestinian territories. One result of the Oslo process is that the most educated Palestinian men are more likely to be unemployed, because they are unable or unwilling to work in either of the two employment growth areas that were open to them until the labour market collapsed in October 2000 – manual labour in Israel, or public sector work in the PNA28. The skewed labour market has meant that returns to education (the difference that extra years of education make to individual wages) are almost non-existent in the Palestinian territories29. Closures and violence, and the unemployment they generate have aggravated this. This study shows that children understand that the economic benefits of education are deferred by the violence around them.

19 The only area where Palestinian education has clearly documented positive developmental impacts is gender equity. Nearly all Palestinian girls go to school, and more educated women get married and pregnant later. They are less likely to die in childbirth, have marginally fewer children and are more likely to have paid employment (having paid employment significantly lowers fertility rates, although few Palestinian women do have it)30. During the past seven years, girl enrolment (a priority for the Ministry of Education and donors) has risen31. For girls at risk of dropout, violence and closure jeopardise these advances. This study shows that girls are clearly aware of new dangers to their education, and fear that they may lose educational rights.

4.3 Quality education The purpose of education is not just economic. The CRC says that children have a right to a high quality education, that develops their personality, talents and abilities, their human rights, their understanding of cultural identity; and that prepares them for a responsible life in a free society32. Direct occupation undermined the quality of education – schools were overcrowded and dilapidated, sometimes subjected to military attack.

The last seven years of investment has sought to remedy these problems, but the precarious nature of Palestinian development has deeper impacts on educational quality. Since the rise of Palestinian universities in the 1970s, pedagogical styles have been influenced by progressive educational philosophies. But the pressures of large classrooms and short teaching days often push teachers to adopt styles that reinforce the authoritarian rather than the democratic traditions in Palestinian society33. These pressures are exacerbated by closure and violence, and this study shows more dependence on rote-learning in Palestinian classrooms, rather than the kind of responsive and participatory approach to learning envisaged by the CRC.

4.4 Teaching about rights and identity Education is an essential foundation for rights-based development, but this foundation is jeopardised when development does not enhance people’s capabilities or ensure them rights. One of the most striking findings of this study was the difficulty that Palestinian children face in envisaging their political futures on the basis of rights. Two out of 120 child participants imagined that they would see a Palestinian state in the next decade. Almost all of the rest envisaged poverty and violence. Children throughout the study stressed their desire to understand and interpret their extraordinary political situation, and recommended that they have more opportunities to do so in school. The study presents this and other recommendations from children, teachers and parents on how to improve education under occupation.

20 5. The school as a place for rights based development

How can development enhance children’s rights when those rights face constant attrition under occupation? Donors and development practitioners have been asking this question for a number of years, and it has acquired new urgency in the current conflict, and the rapid regression that has been caused by the policy of severe closure. Child participants in Khan Younis came up with some clear answers about the way that schools can enhance their rights. Their ranking of the purposes of education showed that personal development was more important than the potential for economic security or betterment:

CHILDREN SPEAK: Ranked purposes of education from children in Khan Younis · To develop your personality and intellectual abilities · To get new information and develop skills and interests · To get a new and good social position · To get future security · To vanquish the foe and protect the homeland through the weapon of education · To realise justice and equality and democracy · To learn about other cultures · To spend your time usefully · To express yourself (this purpose was prompted), and to beautify life

Child participants then linked these purposes to photographs representing children’s rights, taken in Latin America and the UK, and a simplified Arabic version of the CRC. Education is linked to many rights, they said: play, access to information, the right to an adequate standard of living, participation, self-expression and non-discrimination. Child participants felt that schools provided some rights linked to education. These included education itself, information, play and “democracy and fairness”. The schools’ biggest failure was that they did not protect children from discrimination, said the child participants. Discrimination between rich and poor children, high and low achievers, and girls and boys, jeopardised children’s rights to participation and made school a less democratic place (see Recommendations).

Schools could help to provide other rights linked to education; they can give children the skills needed to enter the labour market. But they could not give jobs, that was the responsibility of “the state”, they said.

The CRC is a set of obligations for states, not for non-sovereign authorities like the PNA. Some child participants paid special attention to CRC article 42, not usually of interest to children in these kinds of workshops – this article deals with the state’s duty to implement the CRC. They recognised that neither schools nor the PNA have the power to guarantee

21 their socio-economic rights, or to guarantee them protection from the Israeli tank that sat a few hundred metres away on a hill in Gush Katif. Nor could schools or the PNA guarantee children’s right to a nationality. None of the children were conscious of the fact that Israel was responsible for implementing their rights under the CRC (see Who is responsible for children’s rights in the Palestinian territories?).

Childhood is a unique and unrepeatable time in personal development, and the CRC tries to set minimum standards to ensure that it is a fulfilling one. It is also a time when much of an individual’s social and economic future is decided, and the CRC tries to promote equity for children’s futures. Child participants believed that schools have a significant role in implementing children’s rights by making childhood a time of freedom, learning, participation and self-expression, and that schools should enhance educational quality and levels of participation. Child participants believed that schools should also prepare children for future development by equipping them with skills for future social, economic and personal security. They recognised that neither their schools nor the PNA can provide them with their socio-economic rights because of occupation and the violence and poverty it generates.

22 B. Research results

1. Children’s daily life outside school

1.1 Children have too much time to think Closure and the violence it generates have changed almost every part of Palestinian children’s daily lives – their economic life, their home life, their behaviour and speech in the playground and classroom, and their consumption of mass media. Many parents keep their children, especially girls, at home for fear of their safety. Children complained that this isolation and lack of mobility means that they have too much time to brood about life – one said that “too much thinking causes heart disease”.

Children’s experience is impoverished as a result, and many child participants complained of an oppressive sense of tedium brought on by the isolation of home life. Researchers initially felt that the first stage of the research gave too emphatically negative a picture of children’s lives. When this concern was put to child participants, however, they insisted that the results of the first stage of research had been accurately interpreted. Khan Younis child participants said:

The intifada affects everything in our lives, [children’s responses weren’t pessimistic because] of the way the question was framed. Shelling, child killing, bulldozing lands, shelling schools – that’s what we live through. There’s a siege. There are no fun activities, like going to Gaza, to the beach, to funparks, trips ... We can’t think about our lives in an ordinary way like the rest of the children in the world.

1.2 Too much television 120 daily diaries completed by child participants showed that they are spending much more time at home. Television is a big part of their experience, and it is dominated by news of conflict and nationalist songs. In Hebron, local television stations have rebroadcast very popular historical dramas of Arab nationalist heroes. Parents who participated in the study said that children switch over from cartoons or Mexican soap operas when the news comes on. This probably represents a significant shift in the Palestinian experience of childhood. A study conducted in the summer of 2000 (by the National Plan of Action for Palestinian Children [NPA]) of 1109 children aged 11-17 found that only 7.9% of children watched the news, with most preferring science, sports, violent films or art programmes34.

Although most aspects of children’s lives have changed dramatically since September 2000, children get few opportunities to discuss their extraordinary political circumstances, and for many, particularly girls, the television is the main way to satisfy their fascination with resistance. However, some child participants complained that television has become monotonous. Palestinian television spends most of its time presenting the constant changes in the situation, which fills the screen with pictures of death and house demolition. “Television shows nothing but martyrdom” said one Gaza child (Gaza households without

23 satellite television can only watch national Palestinian TV, while West Bank children usually have access to some of the 27 local stations that broadcast more foreign material and more discussions).

CHILDREN SPEAK: Children’s descriptions of their lives in the old city of Hebron in exam week [An ordinary day is when] we can do the exam in the ordinary way and there is no shelling or confrontations and most people can get to school, and we see our friends and there is no closure. An unusual day is when there is an increase in tension and there is violent shelling and suicide missions. But it’s also unusual for people to feel relaxed, like we do after the exams and families can visit relatives.

The best day [of the past week] was when we went to a sports festival in another school; the day when we discussed the intifada, when we had a course on first aid, when we finished the exams, because the exam was easy. We are longing for the holiday on Monday.

But Thursday was bad because of violent confrontations in Hebron and because we couldn’t get across the checkpoint to go to school on time and we were afraid. Friday was bad because school was off and there was a lot of work. It was a day of rage, when there is an expression of protest against the practices of occupation. Most Fridays are days of rage, there are more casualties, and you can’t visit friends. Saturday was bad because there are always a lot of confrontations on Saturday, and gangs of settlers stand in the street and harass people a lot, and the roads are closed and we had to go over an unpaved road and came late for the exam.

Boredom complicates life. Child participants said that boredom makes them feel trapped and discouraged, tense and sad about life, and provokes them to anger. Child participants in the old city of Hebron, who frequently live under curfew, gave the following description of problems caused by boredom:

Fear dominates, you think about the all the things that cause anxiety, you get psychological problems. Boredom causes violence and aggression against younger children in the family and neighbourhood. People lose their balance, and boredom influences their motivation for education and life. Useless wasting of time leads to bad patterns of behaviour, like laziness and oversleeping, and can lead you to becoming delinquent.

24 MOTHERS SPEAK: Hebron mothers describe their children’s lives [The children filled in schedules of their daily routine during an exam week but these] don’t reflect the reality of shelling days when every programme changes and there is no study or play or work and everyone has to be ready for any circumstance. The exam period was extraordinary because there was a lot more study – usually there’s very little.

There’s a difference between boys and girls days. Domestic work is for girls, but some mothers try to involve boys too. But girls refuse to do housework, and there are no social or leisure activities outside the house. Boys don’t go to the organisations or clubs, and most of the play is in public squares, they work outside the house, and they study less than girls. There’s a lot more TV watching, and a lot of interest in news and relevant issues. Children watch a lot less cartoons, and girls have a big interest in the news and the events, more than the boys. Between themselves, children talk mostly about [violent] events.

1.3 The experience of violence varies geographically One of the features of Israeli occupation is that people’s rights are gradated by their proximity to settlements and military positions, because the occupation works by fragmenting territory around these points. The occupation, and the rights gradations that stem from it, become more conspicuous when there is resistance against it. This study was undertaken mostly in the areas most affected by this rights gradation. Children experience the violence of occupation in different ways, depending on the place where they live (see above, Geography, education and occupation).

In rural South Hebron, there is relatively little direct exposure to violence. However, some child participants reported that they have changed sleeping rooms out of fear. The unemployment and economic disruption caused by the closures that enforce occupation have significant effects on home life though (see below, More violence at home). In Tulkaram town, many schools sit on the edge of the Green Line that separates Israel from the occupied West Bank, and in October 2000 tanks fired on the schools. Tulkaram child participants reported interrupted sleep and a fear of going outside. In Hebron and Khan Younis, children live in the shadow of settlements and their exposure to violence is much greater as a result.

Child participants in the directly occupied old city of Hebron, for example, are afraid of being out in the street, where there are armed settlers and soldiers on patrol. They are afraid of shelling at night, and are not able to leave the house alone. Grannies scare small children into obedience with imaginary helicopters or tanks, instead of ghouls or bogies. In Khan Younis, a child was killed playing with unexploded ordnance, and that makes children afraid of exploring outside. Khan Younis children frequently complain that “there’s no sea this year” – between them and the beach lies the Israeli settlement bloc of Gush Katif. Children do not see armed Israeli soldiers and settlers in the streets of Khan Younis, but the settlement border abuts some of the poorest housing areas, and this leads to many confrontations:

25 Violence is the big problem because Khan Younis is near many flashpoints. Shelling brings fear. Where will we live if our houses are shelled?

1.4 More violence at home Children are not the only group to suffer from boredom – all family members are affected. Child participants were reluctant to discuss family problems, and many gave a positive picture of increased social solidarity as a result of the intifada. However, questioning on other topics suggested a quarrelsome and tedious home life that reflects the conflict and unemployment outside, a child perception borne out by parents who participated in the study. The worst sort of day for child participants in South Hebron is when there are “family problems in the house or between people across the whole country, with lots of empty time, or no free time at all”.

Many children and some parents (mostly mothers) described homes dominated by the presence of unemployed, irritable fathers. One unhappy mother described the following home life:

There’s a lot more violence at home because of the current events. Hitting with sticks and swearing. Mothers and fathers force children to do things … children hate their fathers for it. Husbands humiliate their wives, and brothers hit their sisters. Violence is okay if it doesn’t leave psychological effects, if I hit you to make you do the right thing. But I have to hit my son a lot now.

Parents do not know how to deal with their children’s needs, said the mother interviewed above. This can be particularly hard on the cleverest children said one mother. Child participants asked that parents be given guidance on how to deal with their children’s feelings and developmental needs (see below, Recommendations).

1.5 Girls and boys have different vulnerabilities In all areas, girl participants said that they spend more time at home. Palestinian girls’ experience is restricted by family pressure and the lack of facilities for them, particularly outside cities35. If anything, girls are facing even more restrictions and more time at home, and this is compounded by the sadness of conflict and impoverishment. Many child participants felt that girls face bigger problems than boys because of their increased isolation. “Girls watch their families lacking things and can’t do anything about it and that makes them suffer from psychological problems”, said one girl participant in Khan Younis.

Palestinian boys have always enjoyed greater freedom of movement than girls, and although many parents try to keep boys in the house, some boys have taken part in confrontations with soldiers. Children involved in this study saw participation in confrontations with the Israeli army as a positive thing – in Khan Younis, child participants in confrontations were ranked the most popular in the school. In Hebron, field researchers noted that:

26 Child participants focussed on the fact that girls face bigger problems because they are not able to confront the events and respond to the provocations of the army and settlers of girls [that are especially targeted at] those wearing Islamic dress.

Boy participants in the research sympathised with the girls’ sense of increased isolation. Many girl participants sympathised straight back. The boys face bigger problems “because they directly confront the occupation and are more exposed to danger”, said Hebron child participants. Khan Younis girl participants felt that boys “are at risk of [becoming candidates for] suicide missions”. Boys carry family responsibilities if the household head dies, and they may have to go to work young. If they are very poor, said child participants in Khan Younis and Tulkaram, boys are at risk of becoming collaborators with the Israeli occupation, to feed their families. .

There are no studies on collaboration and little evidence that it is linked to poverty. But this exercises revealed that children are deeply preoccupied by the new risks and anxieties created by the current situation.

TEACHERS SPEAK: How do teachers deal with children’s fascination with the violence around them? A Save the Children study conducted in December 2000 asked this question of teachers in different schools36. In a Khan Younis primary school, one teacher estimated that maybe half of the boys want to demonstrate and throw stones after school, and most of the girls support them.

Before the [current] intifada it wasn’t like this, the children talked about having our own state, about when we will have elections. Now, after what has happened they think more about stones and guns. They see this everywhere and some of them, naturally, think this is the answer. We try to explain that there are other ways to fight for our rights, through our words, and through learning and teaching others about what is happening.

Another teacher said: “They won’t go [to the confrontations], because they are young … [but when they say they want to get involved] I tell them, ‘what’s the use in dying, you can fight the occupation by getting a good education”. Teachers admitted, however, that the children with a fighting spirit fared better psychologically than the fearful ones.

In an UNRWA boys basic school in Nablus, the head teacher said that he and his staff have tried hard, in co-ordination with police and political factions, to dissuade children from going out to confrontations with the Israeli army. “We told the boys ‘You’re not at the right age [to go out on demonstrations]’”. The head teacher estimated that about 10% of the boys in his school were at risk of taking part in confrontations with the Israeli army. He believed that proximity to flashpoints was the most important incentive to children’s participation: boys living near the firing lines were most likely to take part.

27 1.6 Female participants believe that girl dropout has increased as a result of closure and violence South Hebron girl participants who talked of their future frequently mentioned their fear of early marriage, and researchers initially believed that this indicated that South Hebron girl participants were preoccupied with concerns unrelated to current political events, because of their rural isolation. This interpretation was contested by female participants in the study, however, who claimed that the experience of closure and violence has made society more patriarchal, because of the presence of disempowered fathers in the home, and the need for Palestinian society to resort to tradition in times of difficulty. Yatta, the area of South Hebron where the research took place, is one of the poorest places in the Palestinian territories, with a 45% poverty rate in 199737. Female enrolment increased significantly since the inception of the Palestinian Ministry of Education38. This progress is now jeopardised, with parents reluctant to send their children to distant schools. Parents are concerned for their daughters’ safety, and keep them at home. In some crowded homes, fathers arrange for their daughters to be married before they finish their schooling.

Female school dropout statistics suggest that the female participants were correct in claiming that closure and violence exacerbates some of the problems of women and girls. This conclusion will need to be checked when national dropout rates for 2000-2001 are collated. Some areas studied saw a striking increase in dropout for marriage and engagement in the first term of the academic year 2000-2001. In South Hebron, for example, 80 girls dropped out of school to marry in the two terms of the academic year 1999-2000. In the first term of 2000-2001, 100 girls dropped out to marry39. Increase in early marriage dropout was also evident in Khan Younis, where it accounted for most of the slight increase in dropout in the first term of 2000-200140.

In contrast, Hebron saw a sharp decrease in early marriage dropout41. However, girl attendance is affected by events there too. Many children there need to cross a circular bypass road for the Israeli settler population in order to get to school. Of 22 children who dropped out because of the difficulty and cost of transport in the first term of 2000-2001, 20 were girls. In the second term of 1999-2000, only two girls dropped out for this reason (see above, Geography, education and occupation)42

1.7 Male participants doubt that girls’ problems have been exacerbated Male researchers in Hebron and South Hebron were not so sure of female participants claims. They did not think that Palestinian society was becoming more patriarchal, to compensate for the sense of male disempowerment that results from huge increases in unemployment and poverty. They believed that differences between the experience of girls and boys under the age of fourteen are not highly pronounced. Girls’ education still has a powerful progressive influence on conservative societies such as Yatta, they said. But they agreed that a number of pressures on the family increase the level of early marriage – including poverty, crowded homes, and the presence of an unemployed father in the house.

28 1.8 Children still follow childhood pursuits Children were asked to tell jokes as part of a number of exercises that tested their interest in childhood pursuits, because so many of the results suggested that their lives are harsh, sad and overwhelmed with political violence. These exercises showed convincingly that Palestinian children still are children – they enjoy jokes and want very much to play. Many would like to have more school activities, and more summer camps (see below, Recommendations). Many girl participants are still interested in fashion too. Centre partings for girls, jeans and tight blouses, are the latest thing in the playground for the more daring girls. For boy participants, cowboy jeans and US Marine haircuts (several boys protested that all these fashions are sinful).

But child participants in different areas said that their concerns were increasingly restricted to the most important things in life, and that fashion and childhood pursuits are secondary to the politics and violence that dominates their lives. This was borne out by one group of Khan Younis girl participants who were asked to sing songs. They started with abtal filistin (“The Heroes of Palestine”), and went on to sing filistini ana (“I am a Palestinian”) and filistin al-arabiya (“Arab Palestine”). In between each song, they were asked if they knew any “other kinds” of songs. It was only after they were specifically asked for non-nationalist songs that they sang a Mother’s Day song.

1.9 Children’s attendance at clubs has decreased since September 2000 School is a big part of children’s daily experience, but the nature of the school experience has changed a lot since September 2000, and schools are no longer able to provide an adequate range of extra-curricular activities (see below, Recommendations). Clubs are also difficult to access. A 1998 survey showed that few children – 22.5% of boys and 6.2% girls – attended clubs43. For the child participants in this survey, club attendance is decreasing. In South Hebron, there is no club for girls, but some boy participants go to a football club twice a month, and few children can afford to visit private computer clubs. In the old city of Hebron, girls have access to a Qur’an centre but boys have no places for organised activities. Attendance at the Qur’an centre is down from once a week to once a month for many child participants. In Khan Younis, “no-one goes to clubs”, said one child participant. There are clubs in Khan Younis and Rafah, but many of them charge subscriptions of about $2.40 a month, unaffordably expensive for poor or large families.

Child participants in the study were asked what had not changed since September 2000. They had real difficulty in answering this. In most places, there are fewer family visits, and wedding celebrations are more restrained. In Hebron there are more family visits (“because it’s so boring”, said one child). No-one stays out late and people do not visit homes at risk of shelling.

29 2. Children, poverty and vulnerability

2.1 Children think that social divisions have been exacerbated How do children experience the dramatic increase in poverty? Most child participants said that poverty was a major factor in child vulnerability, and they were asked to rank the problems it causes. Khan Younis child participants said that they were afraid of going hungry and ranked deprivation from basic needs as the biggest problem of poverty. Hebron, Tulkaram and South Hebron child participants ranked the psychosocial problems of poverty higher. Poor children are introverted, they said, and people laugh at them.

In other exercises, child participants sometimes suggested that social solidarity had increased as a result of the intifada, but this exercise gave a different picture. “Solidarity is for funerals, for old people, not for the playground, and certainly not for the queue for the school canteen,” said one field researcher. This comment was borne out by a striking finding of the study – child participants in all areas stressed that there were new “big class distinctions in society, which may stir people up against others”, and ranked social divisions as the biggest problem of poverty.

CHILDREN SPEAK: Khan Younis children talk about the psychosocial problems of poverty · poor children get laughed at because their clothes are worn and they don’t have pocket money, and that makes them get psychologically tired and leave school · teachers discriminate against poor children · children of martyrs can’t afford clothes · children who can’t afford to buy a sandwich like other children suffer psychologically · poor children feel sad to see their neighbours buy things and eat when they can’t do the same · poverty means that there isn’t co-operation between people, they have to spend what they have on their own children

Teachers also noted this increased social division in schools – better off children (whose parents have regular incomes) are targets for jealousy that sometimes causes fights. Ministry of Education schools have nominal fees (about $15 a year). In 1998, families spent an average of 3.6% of household income on this and other costs of education44. Families are clearly struggling with the hidden costs of education, said teachers, who noted an increase in petty thefts of school materials like notebooks and pens. Teachers noted an increase in school violence; girls scratch and pull the hair of better dressed girls, and boys without pocket money fight with those in the canteen queue (see below, Are classrooms more violent?). Children cannot afford to take part in school activities that charge fees and in the worst case noted, children were punished for not contributing to the school development funds that are used to purchase items like school photocopiers. Child participants believed that some teachers discriminate against poorer children in class.

30 Poverty also significantly affects the way that child participants perceive their future (see below, Children’s view of the future)

2.2 Vulnerability shows geographical variation Child participants were asked to define and rank the most vulnerable groups of children. Field researchers took a long time explaining to the child participants what vulnerability means – a diminished ability to manage one’s life and cope with its problems. There was some geographic variation in responses: Khan Younis and Hebron child participants thought that the most vulnerable children are those who lived near flashpoints or who took part in confrontations; followed by those who have been impoverished by the economic consequences of closure and violence. Tulkaram child participants thought that bereavement and exposure to violence create the highest degree of vulnerability, followed by impoverishment. South Hebron child participants, however, talked about domestic and economic vulnerabilities, like early marriage and poverty.

The exercise ran the risk of producing a “victim list”, a child’s view of who is to be the most pitied, rather than a picture of which children are most at risk. Although child participants focused on the vulnerabilities caused by closure and violence, they strongly resisted the notion that they had written a victim list:

[Hebron] children said that the ranking was based on problems faced in life and that pity was the last of priorities. Life in current circumstances is hard and the problem of children is confronting the occupation and their continuous exposure to the army.

In fact, some child participants mentioned the vulnerability of children who would not normally expect any pity, such as the children of collaborators.

2.3 New vulnerabilities have been created, and old ones are sometimes ignored One significant finding was that child participants ranked vulnerabilities created by the last few months of closure and violence as higher than vulnerabilities that existed before the upsurge in violence. Further discussion with child participants revealed even when they ranked pre-existing vulnerabilities higher, they saw these as exacerbated by the new violence and poverty (see above Female participants).

But some child participants initially described pre-existing vulnerabilities as less damaging. For example, children disabled by the current violence were seen as more vulnerable than those who were disabled before it began. Children in Khan Younis discussed carefully the difference between old and new vulnerabilities, and decided the following:

Were there no problems before the intifada? There were problems before. There was poverty but it’s got worse. People can’t help each other any more.

31 So who has a harder time, the people who were poor before or the people who are newly impoverished? Children that were poor before are used to it, it’s the people who were poor and got poorer that have the hardest time.

Khan Younis is a place where new vulnerabilities are highly visible. One third of child casualties in the intifada are from Khan Younis district, and it has the highest concentration of poverty in the Palestinian territories45. School counsellors, who carried out the fieldwork for this study, took note of the results from children. Counsellors’ workloads have been heavily affected by the events of the past few months, with a significant increase in psychosocial work and special attention for children injured by the violence. They feel that they prioritise children who have been made vulnerable by months of violence, and that they do not have enough time for children with pre-existing vulnerabilities (see Recommendations).

32 3. Children’s daily life at school

3.1 Changes in the classroom Child participants complained that there are fewer non-formal activities at school. Teachers’ educational methods are not aimed at arousing the interest of children they said. These perceptions were borne out by teachers who took part in this study. They attributed the problem to the density of the curriculum, limited class time, large class sizes and changing patterns of school violence. In initial discussions with groups of teachers in all four study areas, the teachers stressed that children’s attention in class had decreased, and that there was a serious deterioration in school discipline and a rise in intra-child violence.

Is the Palestinian classroom is becoming more violent? Are teachers resorting to more rote- learning to cope with pressures on their job? In this study, these questions were addressed to teachers, and some of their answers were checked with a small group of child participants.

3.2 Are classrooms more becoming more violent? This study came up with some complex answers to this question. Teachers are not allowed to use physical punishment, and this makes any teacher violence is difficult to measure. The NPA study mentioned above showed that 43.5% of children had witnessed verbal or physical violence in the classroom, and that 76.5% of them thought it was unacceptable46. Physical punishment is used against boys more than girls.

In areas most affected by violence, teachers report a rise in intra-child violence, but a decline in their own use of physical punishment to control the class. Teachers feel that children have enough problems to deal with, and that makes them treat children more gently, especially on days when there is a lot of military action. Teachers believed that this was also part of a general trend against the use of physical punishment in schools, prompted by the law and social changes. There is also a personal trend away from physical punishment – inexperienced childless young teachers are more likely to resort to violence, and gradually learn other methods of class control. “I used to hit them like crazy when I started”, said one young woman teacher, in a school where most teachers were observed carrying sticks or lengths of hose.

Most teachers believed that the overall level of violence is increasing, because of increased intra-child violence. They found it harder to say whether teacher violence against children is increasing. Children are hyperactive, said teachers in Hebron and South Hebron, they harass each other during breaks, and fight. Children sometimes attack teachers, throwing chalk or hitting them. In Khan Younis and Tulkaram, children have started carrying sharp objects (such as the blades of pencil sharpeners) for fights; in Khan Younis, they vandalise chairs and fold up paper into pistol shapes and talk of martyrdom incessantly, say teachers. Child participants in Hebron concurred with their teachers: both small distressed boys and bigger aggressive adolescents lash out at their teachers. Teachers feel a need to be gentle with their students, even if this sometimes gives an opportunity to careless students to avoid work, and makes the class a more chaotic place for keen ones. Children notice that teachers are less likely to hit them, and in the current

33 atmosphere of violence sometimes play up to this. And teachers are faced with more complex class management problems. One Khan Younis school lies at the foot of a hill, which has a tank atop it. Teachers there said:

The worst days for class management are the shelling days. There’s total silence in class, children sit on the floor, terrified. The teachers are more terrified than the students. The first term was very hard but by the second term people were learning to cope. When it’s a really bad day we don’t teach, we sit them on the floor and talk psychology. Teachers give them hope for the future, tell them they’ll do well. But sometimes you can only get them going if you use metaphors like “education is a weapon”.

The overall impression from teachers is that teachers’ use of physical punishment is becoming more irregular and unpredictable, but not increasing.

3.3 Children’s feelings of terror affect the class Terrified children create new problems for school discipline. Another Khan Younis school that abuts the Gush Katif settlement bloc, and is the target of frequent shelling, introduced a new rule allowing children to leave the class for the toilet without teachers’ permission because 20 children regularly wet themselves in class.

When children are not terrified, they are quarrelsome and violent. Concentration drops and cheating increases. Hebron teachers said that they are stricter as a result. Teachers who have to deal with checkpoints on the way to school, or teachers who lose sleep because of shelling, are more preoccupied and harsher on students. But most teachers said they used violence less, although they use rote-learning techniques more. They admitted that rote- learning requires a harsher classroom regime.

3.4 Changes in teaching methods Many Palestinian schools have no special educational facilities, like laboratories or libraries47. And Palestinian teachers are pressed for time. A quarter of all schools operate on more than one shift (most double shift schools are in the Gaza Strip)48. Student access to school has been little affected by Israeli closures (see above Geography, education and occupation), but teachers’ access to schools has been seriously affected, particularly in the rural West Bank, Hebron and Gaza. Teacher lateness and non-attendance has shortened the school day, and this affects teaching methods significantly.

Teachers know that the quickest way to get through a tight syllabus is to use rote methods. One Hebron counsellor explained:

There is a lot more rote-learning. In school, they don’t have regular attendance, it’s an emergency situation … they’ve got to focus on the syllabus. Science teachers stop using the lab and use rote-learning because it’s quick.

34 3.5 More rote-learning Children do not like rote-learning. The NPA study mentioned above found that over 80% of children preferred methods that helped children to think and participate49. Teacher participants also identified these methods as more effective:

TEACHERS SPEAK: Teachers’ indicators of effective education · Using a variety of methods and avoiding rote methods · Not putting fear into children or using violence against children · Interacting with children at their level and treating them independent human being · Mentioning students names · Encouraging students · Being attentive to different levels of comprehension · Dealing flexibly with students · Using fun, drama, storytelling, games and role play · Giving a broad account of the subject, and linking it to reality · Encouraging study and research and reports · Letting children participate effectively · Effectively ordering and dividing time in classes

But teacher participants in this study said that they could not use best practice. Khan Younis teachers gave the following reasons for resorting to rote-learning.

The syllabus is too long, the time is too short, and classes are too big. There aren’t enough resources for teachers, and creative teachers don’t get appreciation for their efforts. Rote-learning is the quickest method, and at the moment the intifada makes you speed up all the time. And the shelling makes you lose concentration.

Not all of these reasons are related to the last few months of closure and violence, but it is clear that current events do not help teachers use more creative methods. On the worst days, the Khan Younis teachers don’t teach at all, on bad days, they use rote methods, and when life is normal, they try to use more discussion in the class. In the old city of Hebron, curfews seriously curtail teaching time and there one counsellor said that teachers made special efforts to get children to participate:

Children no longer get sports or music or art, it’s been taken off the syllabus. It’s true that there’s more rote-learning, but the removal of activities means that children have lost their “breather” and teachers take account of that. There’s also more discussion in class.

35 3.6 Children want more opportunities to discuss the events around them Children are acutely aware of the politics around them, but they do not get a chance to discuss this at home. One school counsellor commented: “There’s no political culture in the home. People don’t talk about it, the children know the slogans but do not talk about it openly with adults”. Many children ask for more opportunities to study this in class. School counsellors were instrumental in persuading schools in conflict areas to run 15 minute sessions on how to deal with the emotional turmoil of conflict. This discussion is for therapeutic and not political ends, however. Teachers encourage children to express their emotions, but the children often want to ask about the Aqsa mosque or martyrdom. Children clearly feel the need to understand and interpret events around them:

We only talk about events in civic education, drawing and history. Some teachers give ten minutes discussion in a class. We don’t talk about events at home because mother is busy and she doesn’t have time to listen to us. We like to watch the news to know what’s going on and to know how to avoid dangers. But we’re starting to get bored of the TV news

All 120 child participants were asked to predict the next ten years of their future, and then imagine what external events might affect this. Although many envisaged death and martyrdom in their futures, only two children thought that their lives might be changed by the establishment of a Palestinian state or by their return to their original homes in Israel. Some children were asked why they did not foresee a Palestinian state: several said “No awareness”. (See below, Recommendations)

36 4. Children’s view of the future

4.1 Children find it hard to imagine what the future will be like Children in trouble have great difficulty imagining the future. One exercise with children asked them to think about the next ten years of their lives, along three lifelines: social, educational and economic. They were then asked to describe what external factors would influence their lives Almost all children found it very hard to imagine what their lives will be like. Many child participants felt that their future would be full of the griefs of occupation: death, house demolition, poverty and resulting difficulties in accessing higher education. These factors were seen as unassailable – there was nothing the children could do to counter them. Child participants felt a highly diminished ability to shape their own lives and futures. Instead, many child participants saw their lives as a series of external events which would dictate what they could achieve in life. In some areas, boy participants found it especially hard to imagine the future, which may suggest that men’s roles are less clear for them. Although some girl participants in quieter areas were able to imagine a happy domestic life, the overall picture was sad. Khan Younis child participants explained:

We can’t think of the future because of the events that are dominating our minds. We wonder if we will finish our education, if poverty will dominate us, if we will become martyrs, or if the occupation will kill our fathers. Our situation might get worse, and the current situation might make us stop thinking straight, surrounding our futures with ambiguity.

4.2 Children’s view of the future is dark, but varies geographically Dying in childhood was one of the predictions that Khan Younis child participants made for themselves. Their futures, like their present, were full of martyrdom, bereavement, house demolition and impoverishment. Violence played a big part in all the future described, but child participants in Hebron and South Hebron also talked a lot about education. Some felt that they would have a successful education, but many boy participants in Hebron felt that they would lose a chance of education because of poverty. In South Hebron and Tulkaram – areas less affected by violence – some child participants were able to imagine happier futures, of Palestinian liberation, or of happy marriage. But in these areas too, child participants frequently mentioned bereavement and poverty. And when South Hebron child participants imagined that their future would be shaped by traditions – like early marriage – they understood that these traditions were not static, but that they had become more dominant as a result of the political violence that surrounds them (see above, Female participants)

A 1999 study of children and young people aged 10-22 found that older participants (aged 15-22) reflected on their future more than younger ones, because the peace process would not bring them any positive changes50. This study found that pessimism is shared by younger children. Researchers asked child participants if the study had invited them to exaggerate their pessimism:

37 South Hebron: It was not very pessimistic, the fear of death of family member is realistic and logical because of the violence of occupation

Hebron: it was not a pessimistic interpretation

Khan Younis: pessimism is a result of lack of play space and children’s exposure to live fire, the increase of the siege, martyrdom, shelling schools, closing roads affects university students

4.3 Children find it hard to imagine the future of their country A striking finding of the research was that very few child participants could envisage Palestine’s political future (see above, Children want more opportunities to discuss the events around them). Most of the 120 child participants foresaw violent and poor futures. In Khan Younis, futures were particularly dark. One of the brightest boys in the group said that he wanted to study to be a doctor and then become a martyr. In a separate conversation, a girl told researchers:

I want to study and become a lawyer and then I will be a martyr Why do you want to be a martyr Because when there is a martyrdom, all the people come together for the funeral. I want people to come together.

This fixation with the political brutality of the future may be a result of the unprecedented levels of violence currently witnessed in the Palestinian territories, much greater than the violence of the first intifada. Although children still have dreams and confidence in their potential, they find it very hard to conceptualise a future based on rights, and believe that it will cost them dearly to attain their rights. Martyrdom dominates the discourse of the current intifada, said one of the counsellors who participated in the study, where human rights and the search for a state dominated the discourse of the first.

4.4 Boys in Hebron can make choices about the labour market Children’s accounts of their daily routines showed that girls are more likely to have their daily lives restricted. Children’s accounts of the future gave some indications of the special problems of boys. Boy participants in Hebron felt that education would not help them in their futures, and believed that they would drop out of school early. Hebron has very high levels of drop out because it is a centre for industry and crafts and boys there can make the choice to work. In other study areas, work is not an option for children.

Boy participants valued education highly, but felt that they may get a better chance in life if they work in industrial or artisan jobs, and the impoverishment brought on by closure and violence helps them make the decision against schooling. However, boy drop out rates in Hebron have declined significantly – over a thousand boys dropped out in 1999-2000, almost over 32% leaving to go to work. But only 246 dropped out in the first term of 2000- 2001, with a marginal decrease in the proportion of boys leaving to go to work (26%)51.

38 This suggests that boys are not able to find work so easily in the current tight job market, a conclusion supported by evidence showing that disemployed child workers are returning to school. Nevertheless, boy participants predict that a good education will not help them find a well paid job (see above, Development, education and occupation). One field researcher explained the results as follows:

Work opportunities in Hebron are better for boys than education and the [economic] value of education for boys is lower as a result, boys are aware that educated people get public sector jobs that are not well paid.

39 C. Conclusion

This study shows that Palestinian children’s lives are tense and tedious, and dominated by the political violence that surrounds them. Their rights and development have faced constant erosion because of occupation; they understand this loss and they want to interpret it. This attrition of Palestinian rights has implications for the success of all rights-based development – that is, all activities directed at giving people the capacities to deal with the challenges of life. Occupation, closure, and the violence that they generate, have disastrous consequences for Palestinian educational infrastructure, and make it almost impossible for schools to provide relevant teaching about civic education. Prolonged closure has created new areas of vulnerability, and exacerbated old ones – that is, it has diminished children’s capacities to deal with life’s challenges. The current wave of violence has set back the progress of one of the region’s fastest growing and most successful education systems, and one that is crucial for the eventual success of Palestinian economics and society, and for peace in the region. The violence has harmed educational quality, the most important target of the Ministry of Education and many of the donors who support it. It has harmed the capacity of schools to offer appropriate and engaging services for children. Finally, the violence and political uncertainty has catastrophic effects on children’s aspiration.

Children want and need skills to deal with the new vulnerabilities that they face in this period of violence, and the old vulnerabilities that are often the product of the complex and precarious nature of Palestinian society and economy. They, and other participants in this study, made recommendations for improving their ability to cope with their present situation, and for enhancing their rights now. They made fewer recommendations about how to improve their long-term marginality.

40 Recommendations from children

Child participants in this study were promised a chance to put forward their views. Here they are:

More extra-curricular activities · More play facilities for girls, more school trips, more summer activities, more school counselling services, more sports festivals, more art, music and sport · Schools should teach life skills and help children develop positive attitudes towards life · Children should have more opportunities to take part in school committees and school committees should have more activities · Schools should encourage children to participate and find time and space for activities

Note: This was by far the most frequently expressed recommendation from children, and teachers and parents concurred. Palestinian education providers have responded to the new vulnerabilities that Palestinian children face by increasing the provision of counselling services, but informal and extra-curricular activities have suffered. In some places, concerns for children’s safety or the obstructions of closure have shortened school days considerably, and extra-curricular activities are often the first sacrifice. All research participants felt that children would benefit greatly from more activities, and children felt that they should be given a bigger role in designing and implementing these activities.

Better quality education · Schools should improve discipline but teachers shouldn’t punish whole classes for the offence of one child · Teaching methods should be less formal and more fun. There should be appropriate games for children, and modern educational methods instead of rote learning. · Schools should help slow learners · Teachers talk and listen to children more about problems · Children should have an opportunity to discuss the current events during lessons with teachers, they should be able to write reports and do research about the current events.

Note: In consultation with donors and UNRWA, the Ministry of Education produced a five- year educational development plan (5YP) in 2000. Improving education quality is a major goal of the 5YP, but aid co-ordination and planning has suffered heavily as a result of closure and violence52. Teachers agreed with children’s recommendations and also called for: smaller classes, guaranteed kindergarten places for pre-school children, and better pay.

Children’s recommendation 3 – schools should help children secure their rights · Schools should prevent female dropout by convincing parents of the need for girls to finish university education through awareness campaigns · Schools should help children discover their interests and abilities and develop the different gifts and capacities of children · Children should be given freedom of expression

41 · Schools should explain to students why education is important · Schools should teach life skills and help children develop positive attitudes towards life · There should be centres that raise awareness about children’s rights · Schools should counter discrimination by highlighting girls roles, including high attaining and low attaining students in lessons, and set up a fund for poor children and excuse them from fees.

Note: Children accepted that the occupation obstructs many of their rights in ways that schools cannot challenge. But they also felt that schools could help them achieve some basic rights.

Schools should allow children to discuss their political situation · Children should have an opportunity to discuss the current events during lessons with teachers, they should be able to write reports and do research about them · Schools should use the school radio to talk about events · Schools should guide parents on how to talk to children about their needs during development

Note: Children are acutely aware of occupation and fascinated by resistance. Several parents who participated in the study said that talk about intifada dominated children’s conversation. But children seldom get a chance to discuss current events at home. Teachers sometimes discuss current events in class, usually to help children come to terms with a night of shelling or a child who has died. But discussion of the extraordinary situation of Palestinian children should not just be therapeutic. Children who took part in this study all felt the need to interpret events, and media slogans clearly do not satisfy this need for many of them. Occupation makes it very difficult to provide relevant teaching about democracy and rights. Although children spend too much time thinking about the events around them, they are at a loss to understand them. This lack of understanding further contributes to child fixations with violence and martyrdom. Parents and teachers concurred with these recommendations.

More homework Child participants in Hebron underlined the difficulties that they face under curfew with this recommendation. Schools have put together workbooks for children who cannot get to school in curfew, and also used local television stations for teaching. The children asked for: · More homework – it uses up a lot of time and gives you a sense of achievement

42 Recommendations from Save the Children

Save the Children believes that Israel is obliged to act in accordance with its obligations under international law

· The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) should support the call of the Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, in its Declaration of 5 December 2001. That declaration called on Israel to fully and effectively respect the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and to refrain from perpetrating any violation of the Convention, and to request States to assist in the implementation of the Declaration. · The CHR should insist that the Israeli authorities act in accordance with their obligations under international treaties, in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child

Note: Children who took part in this study believe that schools play a role in implementing their rights and in teaching them about rights. However, they recognise that neither schools nor the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) have the power to guarantee their protection from Israeli military force, even when their schools and homes are targeted. They also recognised that neither schools nor the PNA can guarantee basic rights to development, including socio-economic rights that have been systematically violated by occupation and the system of closures. This report shows that Palestinian children recognise that schools and the PNA have responsibility for their rights, but no child was even conscious that the Israeli authorities have responsibility for implementing their rights to protection, survival or development. In this situation, it is vitally important for Members of the Commission on Human Rights, other Member States of the United Nations, and States Parties to the Geneva Conventions to restate the obligations that the Israeli authorities bear in respect of children in the territories they occupy.

Save the Children believes that the CHR should monitor child rights in the occupied Palestinian territories and therefore urges the CHR to:

· establish an international human rights monitoring presence, in the occupied Palestinian territories, which should include child rights protection officers. · request the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to facilitate the development of protocols and guidelines for child protection in the occupied Palestinian territories, using the experience of UN agencies, and for the use of Israeli forces, the PNA and NGOs. · request its Special Rapporteur on Education to visit the Palestinian territories to investigate the impact of violence and closures on the right to education of Palestinian children and to report to its next session.

Note: Child participants in the research identified a number of areas where their rights are being violated. They commented on some of the gross violations of children’s rights, such as the violation of children’s right to life. But they spoke mostly of the systematic and long-

43 term erosion of their rights to play and leisure, educational access and quality, to an adequate standard of living, to freedom of movement. Child participants, in common with many specialists such as the UNHCR, recognise that play and learning is absolutely essential to their development and their rights – the need for safe play spaces was their most oft-repeated recommendation.

The CHR should work to ensure respect for these rights by establishing monitoring systems for the human rights of Palestinians. But human rights monitoring systems should not only focus on gross violations of human rights, but also examine the complex causes behind the erosion of long term rights to development.

In other countries where conflict is endemic, necessitating protracted refugee assistance programmes, Save the Children’s interventions are guided by the CRC and the UNHCR Guidelines on Protection and Care of Refugee Children (UNHCR, Geneva 1994). However, the protection of Palestinian children is reliant on the implementation of a peculiarly complex legal regime that lies outside the UNHCR’s mandate. The OHCHR should make good this deficit by facilitating the development of protocols and guidelines for the effective protection of child rights in the complex legal environment that Palestinian children inhabit.

Save the Children urges donors to continue investment in Palestinian education The Ministry of Education’s five year plan, published in 2000, is based on the assumption that local communities will contribute 20% of school construction costs over the next five years, needed to deal with a projected 40% increase in student numbers over the next five years53. Local communities make significant contributions to school construction, but this study found that these contributions are drying up. Adequate school infrastructure is a precondition of quality education, and donors should continue to commit themselves to this.

44 Annex

Tools used – first stage of research 1.1 Vulnerability – children were asked to rank the most popular groups of children in the school, and they the most vulnerable groups, and then asked to rank the problems of poverty that children faced 1.2 Daily routines – children were asked to map their daily journey to school, in order to give a picture of the level of their daily interaction with occupation soldiers. They were then asked to draw a diary of their average day 1.3 Sources of information – children were asked what sources of information they relied on 1.4 Aspirations – children were asked to map out their future lives along three lines – social, educational and economic. They were then asked to predict what external events might affect their futures 1.5 Before and after – children were asked what things had changed in their lives since the start of September 2000 1.6 Teachers were asked a series of questions about the effect of violence on child concentration and their views of children’s vulnerabilities.

Tools used – Second stage of research 2.1 Discussion of results – children were presented with a summary of the researchers’ interpretations of the first stage of research, and asked to correct the summary. They were also asked to recommend how schools should deal with the problems identified 2.2 Children were asked to draw what they liked and disliked about school, and then asked to describe the purpose of school. They then looked at a photo-exhibition depicting child rights, and linked the purposes of school to child rights. Finally, they discussed what rights schools can and cannot provide in the current situation in the Palestinian territories 2.3 Children were given weekly diaries divided into two-hour segments to complete. They discussed how their week had gone, and then made recommendations on how to help them cope with ordinary life 2.4 Families were given children’s diaries (with children’s permission), and commented on children’s daily routines, then made recommendations on how children could be helped to cope with ordinary life 2.5 Teachers were asked to describe the increase or decrease of levels of violence in schools and society, and to describe changes in educational practice. They were then asked to describe how current events had affected class management and school violence, and to recommend solutions for any problems they described.

45 Samples

All of the children who took part in the study were aged between 10 and 14

First stage of research Area tools used schools authority location Sample Tulkaram All Ajandayn Boys Basic MoE Tulkaram 12 boys town Ishbiya Girls Basic MoE Tulkaram 12 girls town Tulkaram Girls Basic UNRWA Tulkaram 12 girls camp Tulkaram Boys Basic UNRWA Tulkaram 12 boys camp Hebron All except Al Zahraa Girls Basic MoE H1 2x8 girls 1.3 Harat al Shariqa Boys UNRWA H2 8 boys Basic South Hebron All Raqaa Basic Girls MoE Yatta 8 girls Al Karmal Basic MoE Yatta 8 boys Boys Fawwar Basic Girls UNRWA Fawwar 8 girls camp Khan Younis 1.1, 1.4, Abdul Qadir al MoE Khan 8 boys 1.5 Hussaini Boys Basic Younis town Tariq bin Ziyad MoE Khan 2 mixed Mixed Basic Younis groups town of 8 total 120

Second stage of research tool Hebron South Hebron Khan Younis 2.1 4 boys, 17 girls from 5 boys, 6 girls from 9 girls, 8 boys from original original sample original Ministry school sample sample 2.2 Not used Not used 5 boys, 5 girls from original sample, plus 2 girls not from original sample 2.3 3 boys, 9 girls from 4 boys, 5 girls, from Not used original sample Ministry schools but not from original sample 2.4 9 mothers from Al 6 mothers and 2 fathers Interviews with 4 families Zahraa school sample from the 2.3 sample from Tariq bin Ziyad school sample 2.5 4 male, 4 female 5 female, 3 male teachers 4 female, 2 male teachers teachers from Tariq bin Ziyad school

46 Acknowledgements

The research team members were: Khadr Mubarak, Nadia Quideer, Saadi al Taradi, Ayed al Faqih, Farida al-Jindi, Taysir Amro, Mounir Shbeir, Bashir Jouda, Huda al-Astal, Khalidiya al-Khalidi, Bassim Zahran, Hussam al-Karmi, Farid al-Jayousi, Najah Ashour, Marie Louise Weighill, Eddie Thomas, Amy Gibson

Save the Children would like to thank the Ministry of Education for its support for this research, and the Department of Education, West Bank Field, UNRWA for facilitating access to UNRWA schools.

47 Endnotes

1 See The United Nations and the Question of Palestine, DPI/1481, United Nations, New York 1994, also http://www.un.org/Depts/dpa/ngo/history.html, and Report of the High Commissioner on her visit to the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel, Egypt and Jordan, (8-16 November 2000), UN Commission on Human Rights, E/CN.4/2001/114, 29 November 2001, and Report of the human rights inquiry commission established pursuant to Commission resolution S-5/1 of 19 October 2000, UN Commission on Human Rights, E/CN.4/2001/121, March 2001 2 Figures from B’Tselem website, 14 June 2001, www.btselem.org, and taqrir ‘an shuhada’ wa jarha intifadat al-aqsa min al-talaba (Report on the Student Casualties of the Aqsa Intifada), Ministry of Education, Ramallah, 25 May 2001, annexes. 3 Report on student deaths and injuries of the al-Aqsa intifada, Ministry of Education, Ramallah, January 2000. This figure includes 67 schools in Jerusalem. 4 Poverty in the West Bank and Gaza: Summary, Middle East and North Africa Region, World Bank, January 2001, page 11, supplementary information from UNSCO. Total closure days for the same period (including holidays) were 446, information from UNSCO. 5 The Impact on the Palestinian Economy of Confrontations, Mobility Restrictions and Border Closures, 28 September-26 November 2000, UNSCO, Gaza, 2000 6 “Press Release on the Main Findings of the Survey on the Impact of Israeli Measures on the Economic Conditions of the Palestinian Households”, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Ramallah, April 2000 7 Unpublished World Bank report, June 2001 8 The UN Security Council described Israeli use of force as excessive in Resolution 1322 (S/RES/1322 (2000)). The relationship between closure and violence is described in Report of the human rights inquiry commission established pursuant to Commission resolution S-5/1 of 19 October 2000, UN Commission on Human Rights, E/CN.4/2001/121/88, March 2001and the use of force against children is described in the same report, section 48. 9 “Press Release on the Main Findings of the Survey on the Impact of Israeli Measures on the Economic Conditions of the Palestinian Households”, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Ramallah, April 2000 10 taqrir ‘an shuhada’ wa jarha intifadat al-aqsa min al-talaba (Report on the Student Casualties of the Aqsa Intifada), Ministry of Education, Ramallah, 25 May 2001, annexes. 11 Poverty in the West Bank and Gaza: Summary, Middle East and North Africa Region, World Bank, January 2001, page 16 12 Poverty in the West Bank and Gaza: Summary, Middle East and North Africa Region, World Bank, January 2001, page 16 13 Geneva Conventions, 3.1.a; 14 Fourth Geneva Convention, 50 15 The educational process during Al-Aqsa intifada, 29/9/2000 – 25/5/2001, Ministry of Education, Ramallah, May 2001, page 5; see also Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 8.2.b. and Statute Of The International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, 3.d 16 Fourth Geneva Convention 33 17 Convention on the Rights of the Child, 6, 19, 2, 24, 27, 28, 29 18 Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories as a Violation of Human Rights: Legal and Conceptual Aspects, B’Tselem, Jerusalem 1997, page 6 19 Center of the Storm: A Case Study of Human Rights Abuses in Hebron District, Human Rights Watch, New York, April 2001, page 13 20 In Israeli submissions to UN convention monitoring bodies, see CCPR/C/79/Add.93, 18th August 1998; CESCR,E/C.12/1Add27, 4th December 1998. 21 See Report of the human rights inquiry commission established pursuant to Commission resolution S-5/1 of 19 October 2000, UN Commission on Human Rights, Geneva, March 2001, E/CN.4/2001/121/iv; and the views of the UN Human Rights Committee on Israel’s obligations under the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, CCPR/C/79/Add.93, 18th August 1998; and the views of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on Israel’s obligations under the Convention on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights, CESCR,E/C.12/1Add27, 4th December 1998. A Conference on 5 December 2001 of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention re-affirmed the applicability of the international

48 agreement to the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, Federal Dept. of Foreign Affairs, Switzerland, www.eda.admin.ch@eda/e/home/foreign/hupol/4gc/ 22 Quarterly Report of Donor Assistance, Ministry of Planning and Information, fourth quarter, 2000 23 Aid Effectiveness in the West Bank and Gaza, World Bank, June 2000, pages 37 and 72ff 24 Aid Effectiveness in the West Bank and Gaza, World Bank, June 2000, page 11ff 25 The Oxfam Education Report, Oxfam, Oxford 2001, page 44f 26 The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development, Sara Roy, Institute of Palestine Studies, Washington DC, 1995, page 4 27 Resignation or Revolt: socio-political development and the challenges of peace in Palestine, Christopher Parker, I B Tauris, London 1999, page 130 28 al-haqq fi al-ta’lim (The Right to Education), Hamdi al-Khawaja and Kamil al-Munsa, Democracy and Workers Rights Centre, Ramallah 2001, page 37 29 Will Arab Workers Prosper or Be Left out in the Twenty-first Century?, World Bank, Washington DC 1995, page 19 30 See Women and Men in Palestine: trends and statistics, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Ramallah 1998 31 General Education Indicators, 1994/95 – 1998/1999, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Ramallah 1998, page 56 32 Convention on the Rights of the Child, 29 33 Thanks to Loren Lybarger for this comment 34 mulakhkhas al-dirasa al-mashiya hawl ittijihat tafkir al-atfal wa nazratihim lil-mustaqbal (Summary of the survey on children’s attitudes and future views) , Hasan Fatafta, National Plan of Action for Palestinian Children Secretariat, Ramallah, April 2001, page 15 35 The Situation Analysis of Palestinian Children, Young People and Women in the West Bank & Gaza Strip, UNICEF and MOPIC, Ramallah 2000, page 68 36 Palestine: the education of children at risk, Save the Children, London, March 2001 37 Poverty in the West Bank and Gaza: Summary, Middle East and North Africa Region, World Bank, January 2001, page 16 38 It is not possible to measure this increase accurately, because South Hebron did not become an independent education directorate until 1996-7. The female/male enrolment ratio increased marginally in the three years from 1997 for which figures are available. General Education Indicators, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Ramallah November 1999, page 56 39 South Hebron Education Directorate Planning Department, 2000 40 Khan Younis Education Directorate Planning Department 2000 41 Hebron and Ministry of Education Planning Departments 2000 42 Hebron and Ministry of Education Planning Departments 2000 43 The Situation Analysis of Palestinian Children, Young People and Women in the West Bank & Gaza Strip, UNICEF and MOPIC, Ramallah 2000, page 67 44 al-haqq fi al-ta’lim (The Right to Education), Hamdi al-Khawaja and Kamil al-Munsa, Democracy and Workers Rights Centre, Ramallah 2001, page 32 45 taqrir ‘an shuhada’ wa jarha intifadat al-aqsa min al talaba (Report on student martyrs and casualties of the Aqsa intifada), Ministry of Education, Ramallah, 25 May 2001, annexes; Poverty in the West Bank and Gaza: Summary, Middle East and North Africa Region, World Bank, January 2001, page 16 46 mulakhkhas al-dirasa al-mashiya hawl ittijihat tafkir al-atfal wa nazratihim lil-mustaqbal (Summary of the survey on children’s attitudes and future views) , Hasan Fatafta, National Plan of Action for Palestinian Children Secretariat, Ramallah, April 2001, page 12 47 al-haqq fi al-ta’lim (The Right to Education), Hamdi al-Khawaja and Kamil al-Munsa, Democracy and Workers Rights Centre, Ramallah 2001, page 51 48 Education Statistical Yearbook 1999/2000, Ministry of Education, Ramallah, June 2000, page 11f 49 mulakhkhas al-dirasa al-mashiya hawl ittijihat tafkir al-atfal wa nazratihim lil-mustaqbal (Summary of the survey on children’s attitudes and future views) , Hasan Fatafta, National Plan of Action for Palestinian Children Secretariat, Ramallah, April 2001, page 11 50 Risk factors and priorities: Perspectives of Palestinian young people, Birzeit University and UNICEF, 1999 page 25 51 Hebron and Ministry of Education Planning Departments 2000

49

52 Harmonising Aid for Education in Palestine, Stephen Lister and Raisa Venäläinen, FTP International, Helsinki, July 2000 53 General Education Projections in the Palestinian Territory, 1999/2000 – 2009/2010, Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Ramallah December 1999

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