'We have a right to go to school'

Around the world millions of children are not getting a proper education because of poverty or war. In the second report in the BBC's Hunger to Learn series, Katya Adler meets children in Gaza whose schooling has been repeatedly interrupted by conflict.

It is early morning in northern Gaza. The streets are filled with children on their way to school. Most carry backpacks almost as big as themselves. All are dressed in crisply-ironed uniforms. It is quite an incongruous sight as they walk past piles of rubble and devastation - leftovers from Israel's military operation earlier this year.

In the Elyen family home, nine-year-old Huda is nervous. Her mother is still preparing sandwiches. Huda is worried she will be late for school.

As bags are packed and hair plaited, there is not much wriggle room for the three school-aged children here. The Elyens live in a flimsy, one-bedroom shack.

Their house was destroyed and one of their cousins killed in an Israeli airstrike in January. Amer, their father, is worried about the winter. He tells me he cannot afford a proper roof.

He has been out of work for three years, ever since Israel imposed heavy restrictions on border crossings into the Gaza Strip, crushing the already weak local economy.

Amer says he hopes his children will finish their schooling, regardless of poverty or violence.

He had to leave school as a young boy to help support his brothers and sisters. He firmly believes that education can open doors to a better life.

But many of Gaza's schoolchildren are less optimistic. They know that no matter how educated they are, opportunities are scarce. Unemployment is rampant.

Escaping Gaza for a better life elsewhere is almost impossible, as neighbouring Israel and Egypt keep their crossings with Gaza pretty much sealed shut.

Schooling is also repeatedly interrupted by conflict. This is sometimes due to violence between rival factions in Gaza but mainly because of military action by Israel. Israel says this is in response to rocket and mortar fire by Gaza militants, aimed at Israeli citizens.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8303532.stm

Stop attacking Israel and use some of that international aid for schools.

There's not some one-sided thing where everything can be blamed on Hamas. Hamas didn't bomb that school in the article, Israel did. And it's unreasonable to expect kids in Gaza not to be traumatised and angry at Israel when their schools get destroyed and fellow students have been killed during OCL.

This story wasn't about blame anyway. It was about what schoolchildren in a place where's there conflict have to deal with. Most of us could never begin to imagine facing what those kids have. Reading stories like this shouldn't leave people thinking 'let's blame someone!', but should leave them thinking that the effect this has on children is yet another very compelling reason why all of us should oppose violence from either side that harms civilians and especially children, and support any and all moves to end the violence...

and allowing Hamas to escape responsibility in this case so Israel can be demonized is pretty sick

Schools aren't shields, and it's the IDF that destroyed the school, not Hamas. Now if you want to go back and read what I said about the point of the article and give the blame game a rest for five seconds, maybe you'll have learnt at least one thing since you joined DU...

Hamas did not have to fire any rockets for 8 years on Sderot, where schoolchildren there were also deprived - and intentionally so by Hamas.

Hamas brought this destruction upon Palestinian children and not holding Hamas to account for their warmongering (passing blame onto Israel for defending its citizens) will only guarantee that more Palestinian children are affected for the worse in the future.

This article is a puff-piece for Hamas, and is in no way balanced.

Maybe in all fairness, the article should focus on what Hamas teaches these children, like brainwashing them to be martyrs and shields, make money digging tunnels, work in combat roles for Hamas, etc.

These children should be pitied greatly, but not just for the reasons the article cites - which has some validity - but more because of Hamas' deliberate and systemic child abuse.

No true advocate for children would shamelessly write only half the story here and serve as cover for Hamas.

It's absolutely ridiculous to have problems with articles about children in conflict zones and the effect conflict has on them by labelling it a 'puff-piece for Hamas'. There's been articles on the effect of conflict on Israeli children in Sderot, and it'd be just as pathetic if someone labelled them a puff-piece for the Israeli govt.

You've missed the point that the focus of the article was on children, not on who you think should be blamed for the conflict. It's not about you saying that Palestinian children should be pitied, nor about you displaying the one-sided Blame Hamas For Everything attitude I was talking about in the post you replied to. In fact, I'm not even sure why you bothered replying to what I said in the first place as it's clear that yr not interested in doing anything by sitting there and turning everything into a tirade about Hamas...

It's ultimately the next generation that suffers the most.

Israel's hermetic sealing of the strip

is geography and history that difficult for some?.....do we really have to do the "gaza has a border with egypt and egypt has proven time and time again that it opens and closes, send supplies doesnt send supplies when ever it feels like it"


or has gaza moved and now israel controls its southern border?
______

its been several years now...that should be enough time to learn 4th grade geography....or is something else motivating the "ignorance?"

(i suspect its the classic: say it enough times and people will believe it, or the keep slinging the mud and some will stick mentality-both are based on the concept of lying and the "ends justifies the means"....a rather immoral stance in my opinion)

That Egypt also does it doesn't make it acceptable for Israel to do it, imo....

stating that Israel has sealed gaza is in fact false....(and its not hermetically sealed as the tunnels and the sea are active smuggling routes....)

one may claim that the blockaded is illegal, inhumane etc..but that does not excuse making up stuff.

infact i would take it further, making up stuff, demonizing the "other" only makes matters worse..its better to stick to the facts that are clear, and have the arguments rest on the interpretation and consequences of those facts.

it has been awhile since the all Egypts fault claim has been made so we'll go with this its 3/4 Israels and 1/4 Egypts which I am sure is not good enough but a bit closer the the truth and besides last I heard Egypt was not blockading Gaza's air and water

oh and this

its been several years now...that should be enough time to learn 4th grade geography....or is something else motivating the "ignorance?"

nope sorry to "disappoint" I am pretty good at geography and the second part of your comment what was that, veiled reference to what antisemitism?

please I would have thought such BS below you but I guess I was wrong

when there are posts about israel that ignore really really obvious facts..i have no idea whether its antisemitism, anti colonialism, anti european stealing indigenous land, anti westernism, or whatever the various "anti" is being tribute to israel by the author. They are quite a few of them and sometimes they mix and mingle to produce some interesting concepts.

but i would expect after egypt and has open and shut it border so many times that the concept of israel controlling all of gazas borders is no longer a viable position. And likewise i would expect anyone who knows better and prefers facts to ones preferred fantasy that at a minimum they would refute such a claim..unless of course one believes that facts shouldn't interfere with the goal....

its a valid position: the ends justifies the means...i personally think the concept is immoral, and that lying to defend a position is simply wrong.

<snip>

"Gaza schools damaged by Israeli bombing will be exposed to the cold and rain this winter unless Israel relaxes its blockade to permit the import of windows, doors and building materials, officials said.

Officials of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and Gaza's Education Ministry say thousands of pupils face "darkness and cold" this winter in poorly lit and sparsely furnished schoolrooms.

Ministry spokesman Khaled Radi said more than 170 schools that suffered some damaged in the three-week Israeli offensive from December 27 to January 18 had not yet been repaired.

"The extent of the damage makes these schools unfit to face winter. Thousands of our children will have to study in rooms without electricity or heating," Radi told Reuters."

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