Safai, Masafer Yatta – demolition of a school

About a kilometer after the Meitar barrier, we saw the military bulldozer again, which is continuing its clearing operations: uprooting bushes and trees along the road, the purpose of which is to make it easier for the security forces to monitor the area where there were many gaps in the fence. The breaches have already been closed.

We went, with Nasser Adara's guidance, to help at At-Tuwani. From there we continued in the Masafer Yatta area, on roads that are not roads, only some of which are paved, thanks to the organization of the local people. Small settlements, scattered around the edge of the Judean desert, some of them are legal and most of them are condemned to be evicted and demolished.

Safai

Children aged 6-13 study at the school. They had a violent encounter with the IDF, who encircled, closed the area , threw stun grenades, and finally destroyed the school. Galia Oz spoke with the children, trying to hear what feelings, thoughts and emotions arose, following the violent event to which they had been exposed.

This school was built to serve about 26 small children who cannot walk every day 12 km, 6 km each way, to the regional school and back. Until then they studied in one of the caves in their area. The school building was new -- built about two months ago, and the children got to study there for a week.

But the forces of destruction which arrived in the middle of the first lesson, surrounded the school, threw stun grenades, the children fled in panic from the classrooms, and then the school was destroyed.

Answering Galia’s questions, 13-year-old Suad described how she opened the windows and helped the little ones jump through them and get out of the classroom.

The children had difficulty expressing themselves and talking about the demolition event. The little they said was about the bad Jews who came because they don't want them to study at this school, and want them to go somewhere else. Heartbreaking.

Suad's extended family lives together in a large living cave that holds 20 people, and also in the surrounding shanties.

There were no classes today because the teachers went to Ramallah. In the photo that someone from the family sent us, you can see how the school is going there now.

On the way back, we saw the military fire zone signs which have been posted in the area, and also the signs which the settlers had put about against the machine oil recycling plant that they are trying to build in At-Tuwani. The claim is that the factory pollutes the air. We saw a sign asking for any presence of BDS activists to be reported to the settlements.