"Apron" in front of the tank

A striking example reflects one aspect of what is happening in the occupied West Bank by the occupation authorities, which sponsor and provide military, financial, and political support for the increasing daily assaults by settlers across the occupied territories. These assaults have resulted in the displacement of more than 90 residential communities and the ascent of over 38 martyrs, which has now risen to 40 with the attack on the town of Al-Mughayir, leading to the martyrdom of two and the injury of many by the gunfire of settlers on the town to the east of Ramallah. Additionally, the school in Al-Malih in the Jordan Valley has been demolished. However, the model discussed in this article here is what is occurring in another area, specifically in Masafir Yatta, south of Hebron, particularly in the small village of Umm Al-Khair, where the residents, numbering 516 citizens, live in catastrophic conditions in every sense of the word due to the direct and ongoing targeting by packs of settlers, with the protection, support, and cover of the occupation army.

In addition to the continuous attacks aimed at displacing the village's residents by settlers through organized and repeated assaults on the people, the execution of the young activist and human rights defender, Awda Al-Hdhalin, has been documented. After one of the settlers, named (Yanun Levy), aimed his weapon at the young man and shot him directly in the chest from a short distance, he became a martyr. This is just part of a series of multiple assaults involving land confiscation, erecting caravans, establishing settlement outposts, and supplying them with water and electricity.

However, today, the terrifying scene is in a curve that is also different from the previous forms, as for the past few days, school students in the village have been prevented from reaching their schools. 51 male and female students have been unable to attend and sit at their desks due to the settlers blocking the paths leading to the school with barbed wires, placed at long distances to create an extended barrier preventing the students from passing. These children have done nothing wrong except carry their school bags, notebooks, rulers, and pens! They only want the opportunity for education and to look towards the future, away from the barbed wire openings and the mouths of guns. Today, they also organized a (peaceful) sit-in to express their feelings as children deprived of going to school over the past days after the return of in-person education. However, the response from the heavily armed soldiers was to fire tear gas and bullets, military armored vehicles, helmets, and automatic firearms against children whose number does not exceed the fingers of one hand, who came to say that it is their right to learn in a safe, stable environment without terror or fear, sometimes with police dogs and other times with the harassment from settlers, followed by an attack on the school and militarily closing the area in various manifestations. The occupation aims to prevent education in the region and to prevent the basic elements of life from existing there.

They brought more tanks and military forces against a "blue and white apron" worn by girls no older than 10 years who are in elementary school—a large crowd of automatic rifles and tear gas in the face of the students of Umm Al-Khair. What danger do these small students at this age pose to an armed army that protects settlers and gives the green light for continuous attacks and assaults on the village and other surrounding villages? Is the school uniform now a threat to the security of the area? Or is it an all-out war within the policies of ethnic cleansing being carried out to erase the Palestinian existence? Education is one of the targeted sectors, like health and agriculture. The policies of ignorance may be a prelude to deportation and emptying the area of its owners after pressuring to change the curricula, bombing schools, and other practices and measures. What is happening to prevent students from reaching their schools? And what democratic, civilized world allows itself to remain silent about these assaults? Masafir Yatta is one of the areas planned to be evacuated, along with the surrounding outposts, like Carmel and others, which do not wish well for the residents of Umm Al-Khair or their students. In fact, they do not want a Palestinian presence there at all.

Education is a right for all. This is the slogan of international organizations and the principles of human rights and international laws that everyone today praises. This slogan is now challenged at the Umm Al-Khair School, where its students have the right to receive lessons away from the chains of tanks and the sounds of bombs and bullets. The message from Umm Al-Khair today, under the barbed wires, with the voices of the students, is that we want to legally and morally protect our right to education. It is the responsibility of the United Nations and international institutions, and this is what everyone awaits, even if it takes time.