August 22 was to be the first day in a new school for Palestinian children who had previously had to walk a long distance to their old school, itself an overcrowded one in a converted car garage. But the night before opening day, as part of its ongoing US-supported efforts to make life hell for the Palestinians it rules over in its apartheid state, Israeli forces destroyed the children’s school so that when the children turned up, there was nothing there.
Israeli military jeeps came barreling down towards Jubbet al-Dhib’s first and only primary school late Tuesday night, terrifying locals who had been finishing preparations for the school’s grand opening set for the next morning. Soldiers shot tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets as they cleared the way for bulldozers and flatbed trucks brought in to take the school.
The school, located between four Palestinian villages on the outskirts of Bethlehem, was built with caravans on a concrete foundation by local authorities and international NGOs partnered with the European Union, hoping to mitigate the myriad of challenges facing students in the area.
Israeli soldiers quickly cleared the area with crowd control weapons, and within an hour of the soldier’s arrival the caravans had been loaded up and taken away along with the tables, desks, construction equipment and everything else other than the concrete foundation, bathrooms and tiny chairs brought for the seven-to-nine-year-olds that were expected to attend their first day of school the next morning.
The sheer cruelty of the Israeli policies is appalling. Watch this video of what happened.
I’d ask what the excuses are going to be for this, but it’s not going to see any mainstream coverage so no excuses will be necessary.
There go articles 17, 22, 25 and 26 of the UN charter.
http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
Meanwhile, defenders of the ITF’s crimes against humanity say “BDS is terrorism!”
Incredible. Israeli racism is becoming more brazen and hateful over time, not less.
Yeah, but Israel is the middle east’s one true democracy(tm) and every american politician piddles on the floor with eagerness to give them more weapons so they can do stuff like this.
@ 2 Intransitive
Israel has violated Article 17 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, IIRC some of the Geneva Conventions—(ah yes, wiki seems to think the 4th re land grabs) on occupied territories probably since the Six Day War but things have gotten drastically worse under Benjamin Netanyahu.
At a quick guesstimate those children who are walking to the old school are likely walking four hours or more each day. Actually probably more since I am using an adult’s walking pace in my estimate since I have no idea how fast a 6 or 7 year-old walks over any distance.
Holms @3
Zionism is a racist ideology, anyone who has discussed the subject with Zionists will understand that obvious truth. It’s no more hateful now than it was from its inception. The expulsion of the Palestinians was on the agenda of Zionism long before the post WW2 invasion or the Six Day War.
Marcus Ranum @4
Yes. Until the moral imbeciles that run US policy in the ME develop a conscience Zionist expansion will continue.
@ 4 Marcus
Israel is the middle east’s one true democracy(tm)
Well, true of course, just as South Africa was a shining example of democracy in the apartheid era.
Come to think of it, South Africa might be the winner in a contest between the two as South Africa was just displacing its own citizens and not civilians in occupied territories.
I would love to see the usual zionism / Palestinian genocide apologists come up with a defense for this act. At the linked article, I see one person has tried to claim that this is for the good of the students -- because the soundness of the buildings could not be guaranteed as they were built without an Israeli construction permit.
Helms,
It has nothing to do with soundness of construction. Israel refuses to give building permits to Palestinians and then uses that as the ‘legal’ reason to demolish buildings.
So… Lebensraum, anyone?
#10
Oh I know; for one thing, the school was built with EU help, which means it is almost certainly built to their building code requirements. And the EU is not known for having lax construction standards. This was just raised as an example of the pathetically weak defense of what is, after all, indefensible.
Well when you’re god’s chosen people no one else counts.
God-fucking-damnit Israel! Why? Fucking why?
I just…
I’m Jewish (well… Jewish atheist, but still…), and I grew up a Zionist. That Zionism has been slowly chipped away over the past many years, and it’s all-but gone at this point. All that’s left is “I want Israel to exist”…
And this isn’t helping.
I don’t know what the excuse will be this time (“OMG someone who looked suspiciously like a Hamas operative [according to a child using binoculars looking out an airplane window] was walking around the outside of the school with a children’s toy cap gun! It was clearly a terrorist hideout and had to go!”), but I’m disgusted. To be fair, that’s basically the only emotion I have for Israel at this point, but…
*sigh*
BTW… apparently, Israel’s excuse is “they didn’t have a permit” (fuck you, you have no right to the land; your occupation is illegal), and they claim that the Palestinian locals “threw rocks at them”… because a rock is so much more dangerous than the combined weaponry of a fucking army…