This is not a story about numbers. Granted, numbers are very relevant, but not today. This is about role-play, about imagining yourself in another’s position and then, once realized, demanding justice, accountability and compensation for the unbelievable atrocity that must no longer be ignored.

This is about the Nakba, but this time, it is yours. Imagine that in a matter of days, sometimes hours, your entire world is turned upside down. You no longer have a home, belongings or money, except for whatever you could manage to hastily stuff in your pockets before running for your life. Zionist militias, armed and ready, invade your city or burn down your village and you have nowhere to go, so you flee. You have heard that in neighboring villages and towns, these militias have slaughtered hundreds of people, pillaged their homes and claimed the land as their own. Deir Yassin, where over 100 innocent people were killed, is just one of these documented massacres. This terrifies you to the bone, so you flee, children, house keys, maybe some pictures or personal documents, in tow. You join the leagues of other terrified people who are walking to an unknown future, hoping beyond hope that this nightmare will end in a few short days. Not in your wildest dreams did you imagine that you would never see your home again; that it does not matter if you left your front door unlocked or the clothes still hanging on the clothesline. Someone else, a stranger, will soon have taken your place.

This is just temporary, you convince yourself; this situation is not sustainable, you say, because nobody has the right to take away your home and your property, much less your homeland. If anyone dared, there was a world that believes in justice, rights and humanity that would not allow it. At least that is what you believed then.

But this is not your story and you should be very grateful for that. This is the story of the Palestinian Nakba and it is as real as it gets. According to official UN estimates, at least 750,000 women, men and children, or 75% of the Palestinian population of historical Palestine, were displaced, expelled and ethnically cleansed over the course of a few months, never to return to their homes. Their false hopes of return eventually turned into shattered dreams and a lifetime of exile in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jordan, or for those exiled closer to the northern border of Palestine, to squalid refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon.

Even the United Nations, upon realizing the magnitude of the Nakba or “catastrophe’ that had occurred, did not believe it would last for 75 years and counting. It created UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, to cope with the fallout of Israel’s creation over the wreckage of what was once Palestine. The agency was meant to provide emergency assistance to Palestinians displaced by the war until a permanent solution could be found. Its mandate has been renewed repeatedly since then for obvious reasons.

For those who were exiled, it is hard to tell when it finally dawned on them that they would never go home. Hope is a double-edged sword because it motivates people to continue to strive for their goals, in this case, the legitimate demand to return to their rightful homes. However, the flip side is the disappointment and desperation that takes over when year after year, this demand is ignored, maligned and pushed back by the powers that be, first and foremost by Israel, the perpetrator and maintainer of the atrocity and secondly, by its powerful global allies, the United States in particular.

The result is that these people, who had productive and meaningful lives just like anyone else, were so cruelly uprooted and dispossessed by no fault of their own and demand nothing more than their legitimate right of return. This is a right enshrined in international law and in particular, UN General Assembly Resolution 194, which clearly states: “Refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date...”

These are nice words, ones that by any standard, should be binding. However, for anyone who has languished in the Biqa’a camp in Jordan, the Shati’ camp in the Gaza Strip or the Yarmouk camp in Syria, this resolution is nothing but useless ink on paper. The Palestinians have and never will relinquish their inalienable right of return to their original homes; time has proven that. Still, this is only part of the equation. It falls on the international community to uphold the standards, which it espouses. It has an ethical, legal and moral obligation to ensure that justice is realized for Palestine refugees and that Israel, the creator of this catastrophe, is held accountable for its dark past and crimes against the indigenous people of this land.

Now, think of this story, not from the lens of the Palestinians, a foreign people you may not know much about. Think of this story as if it were your own: it was your house that was stolen, your land that was given to another people, your relatives massacred and displaced and you whose identity and cause have been systematically denied for almost a century. Can you see it?

Hard times are exactly as they sound. But when these ‘hard times’ continue for close to 60 years, they become basically intolerable. Ask any Palestinian living under Israel’s brutal occupation and they will erase any doubts that ‘hard times’ doesn’t even come close.

Take this testimony from a woman, a teacher living in the northern West Bank city of Tubas, who told MIFTAH about the terrifying night the Israeli occupation army raided her home. The raid took place on February 23, 2022 at around 4:30 am. This is not unusual for occupation forces, which are trained to storm homes with families quietly sleeping in their beds, in the wee hours before dawn, to instill fear and panic and turn their lives and homes upside-down in a second.

This teacher, Maha, shares her home with her older sister, Dua’ and her elderly mother. She and her sister are also blind. “I was awakened by my sister yelling: who are you? Are you djinn or human? Maha, answer me! Is that you?” There was no answer. “I was still in bed when I felt something – I was not sure what – pull off my covers and push me to the floor. I was terrified and started calling out for Dua’. I could feel there were people in the room, all around me, right before one of them began to beat me. I was so scared and called out to my mother but I couldn’t hear her voice.”

Maha spent half an hour in sheer terror, alone, confused, being beaten and not knowing the fate of her elderly mother, as the Israeli trespassers ransacked her home, petrifying them all. “I cannot begin to describe the terror I felt; I have never felt that way my whole life,” she recounts.

Finally, after what seemed to be an interminable period, she heard the voice she was longing for the most: her mother. “She was screaming to us, telling us that the intruders were Israeli soldiers and that they had a large dog with them.” This terrified her even more, especially since she was forced to remain on the floor and she could hear her sister’s cries. “I remember thinking: if only I could see, to know what was happening around me, I would then go back to being blind. I just wanted to help and calm my sister down. I just wanted to help my mother. The soldiers made me totally incapacitated.”

Maha’s story is one of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have endured grueling house raids, arbitrary arrests, home demolitions and settler attacks. Still, even when there are no ‘active’ Israeli assaults on Palestinians, merely existing under Israeli military rule is anything but normal. Every Palestinian in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip is all too familiar with the hundreds of Israeli checkpoints interrupting the geographic flow between Palestinian cities, villages and camps. They are accosted by the sight of the illegal annexation wall, cutting along, and in places, deep into, West Bank territory, severing Palestinians from their farmlands, from their loved ones, from Jerusalem and from historic Palestine. They must apply for permits to build, to travel, to seek medical attention or to visit their loved ones in Israeli prisons, all at the whim of Israeli occupation authorities.

The raid on Maha’s house that night ended in zero arrests, but hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians have not been as lucky. Since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip in the June, 1967 war, over one million Palestinians have been illegally arrested by its occupation forces. That is a staggering number for a population that stands at approximately 5.3 million, according to Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimates for 2022. At present, there are nearly 5,000 Palestinian men, women and children being held in Israeli prisons and detention centers inside the West Bank and in Israel, the latter illegal under international law, which does not allow an occupying party to imprison their ‘subjects’ outside of the territories it occupies.

International law has never been an obstacle for Israel, something the Palestinians know all too well. According to testimonies collected by MIFTAH field researches, collected between 2020 and 2022, Israeli occupation forces never presented a legal search or arrest warrant during the raids. All of the testimonies stated that large numbers of soldiers participated in the raids, sometimes exceeding 20 or 30, irrespective of children, women or the elderly. Once detained, the men, women and oftentimes children, are taken to Israeli detention centers, sometimes held for days on end without having access to legal counsel, mistreated, deprived nutritious food, sleep, appropriate clothing and in the worst case, tortured.

The detainee is then brought before a “kangaroo” Israeli military court, which for Palestinians, has an almost 100% conviction rate. They are charged with ‘crimes’, all related to some form of resistance to the occupation and summarily sentenced, or placed under administrative detention. While this form of detention, which allows Israeli authorities to hold Palestinians without charge or trial, is technically not banned under international law, it is never meant to be renewed for years, as is the case with the Palestinians.

The nightmare does not stop there, however. For the families of prisoners, visiting their loved ones in Israeli prisons is always a grueling process. According to a January, 2023 MIFTAH report on Israeli violations of Palestinian rights in the West Bank, affidavits from families visiting imprisoned relatives in Israeli prisons reported that on average, the entire process takes between 12-14 hours. What’s more, once they arrive, the actual visit only lasts 45 minutes and takes place in rooms with no direct contact and a glass wall separating them at all times. In a 2019 testimonial, documented by the Israeli rights organization B’Tselem, 80-year old Hilweh Shabaneh, from the Ramallah-area village of Sinjil sums up the horrific journey to visit her son in the Nafha Prison.

“From four o’clock in the morning to nine o’clock at night, 17 long hours of dragging around from one place to another, from one bus to another and one security check to another, getting on, getting off, on and off. Even if I were made out of iron I would collapse”.

Shabaneh then unwittingly sums up Palestinians’ sentiments regarding life under Israeli military occupation, overall.

“I swear to God, I wouldn't wish this on anybody.”

- https://www.btselem.org/freedom_of_movement20200212_arduous_journey_of_palestinians_visiting_relatives_jailed_by_israel

The right to education is an internationally protected right under international law and an integral part of the international law foundation. In the case of Palestine, education has always been a challenge like every aspect of Palestinian lives. Frequent closures of cities, hundreds of military checkpoints and the construction of the annexation wall prevents thousands of students and teachers from reaching their schools and universities. Palestinian students are regularly subjected to intimidation, assault and arbitrary arrest by Israeli soldiers, many schools have been closed down, raided and attacked by military orders, making it harder for them to practice and pursue their education freely and fulfil their potential.

The continuing Israeli occupation significantly impedes education in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). As noted by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education: “military occupations are another appreciable curb on the human right to education, the most egregious example being the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” There is substantial evidence that Israel is failing in its duties under international human rights and humanitarian law with regard to education. In this research; the researcher will focus mainly on the challenges that women face in practicing their right to education and the definition of the right to education under international law; with a focus on the effect of the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian authorities' funding and quality for education concluded with an overall impact of these aspects on the right to education in Palestine and the role of international law in protecting this right.

The right to education has been recognized in a number of international and regional legal instruments: treaties (conventions, covenants, charters) and also in general comments, recommendations, declarations, United Nations resolutions and frameworks for action. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted in 1948, states in Article 26: 'Everyone has the right to education. Since then, the right to education has been reaffirmed in various international treaties including:

• UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education (1960)
• International Covenant on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965)
• International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (1966)
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (1979)
• Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
• International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their families (1990)
• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006).

The right to education has also been recognized in ILO Conventions and international humanitarian law, as well as in regional treaties. International human rights law guarantees the right to education. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights adopted in 1948, proclaims in Article 26: “everyone has the right to education. The right to education is legally guaranteed for all without any discrimination, states have the obligation to protect, respect, and fulfil the right to education and there are ways to hold states accountable for violations or deprivations of the right to education”. Article 26 must be read along with Article 2 UDHR, which sets out the principle of non-discrimination: [E]veryone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

The principle of non-discrimination and equality is a general principle of international human rights law which is essential to the exercise of and enjoyment of all human rights, including the right to education. It is also enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, the ICESCR and the ICCPR,8 as well as all the major international human rights treaties. Furthermore, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has commented on the principle of non-discrimination, underlining that it is an “immediate and cross-cutting obligation” for States parties to the ICESCR. As a result, States’ constitutions and other legal and policy texts must not contain any form of discrimination, and States must also ensure that non-discrimination is applied in practice. The principle of non-discrimination and equality is particularly important for the realization of the right to education. Indeed, before the right to education was even adopted in the Covenants, a specific treaty was adopted to prohibit discrimination in education

The right to education under international law encompasses both entitlements and freedoms, including the :

• right to free and compulsory primary education.
• right to available and accessible secondary education.
• right to equal access to higher education.
• right to fundamental education for those who have not received or completed primary education.
• right to quality education both in public and private schools.
• freedom of parents to choose schools for their children which are in conformity with their religious and moral convictions.
• freedom of individuals and bodies to establish and direct education institutions in conformity with minimum standards established by the state.
• academic freedom of teachers and students.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (1979) mentioned the right to education under article 10: -

Article 10 States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in order to ensure to them equal rights with men in the field of education and in particular to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women:

(a) The same conditions for career and vocational guidance, for access to studies and for the achievement of diplomas in educational establishments of all categories in rural as well as in urban areas; this equality shall be ensured in pre-school, general, technical, professional and higher technical education, as well as in all types of vocational training;

(b) Access to the same curricula, the same examinations, teaching staff with qualifications of the same standard and school premises and equipment of the same quality;

(c) The elimination of any stereotyped concept of the roles of men and women at all levels and in all forms of education by encouraging coeducation and other types of education which will help to achieve this aim and, in particular, by the revision of textbooks and school programmes and the adaptation of teaching methods;

(d) The same opportunities to benefit from scholarships and other study grants;

(e) The same opportunities for access to programmes of continuing education, including adult and functional literacy programmes, particularly those aimed at reducing, at the earliest possible time, any gap in education existing between men and women;

(f) The reduction of female student drop-out rates and the organization of programmes for girls and women who have left school prematurely;

(g) The same Opportunities to participate actively in sports and physical education; (h) Access to specific educational information to help to ensure the health and well-being of families, including information and advice on family planning.

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) devotes two articles to the right to education, articles 13 and 14. Article 13, the longest provision in the Covenant, is the most wide-ranging and comprehensive article on the right to education in international human rights law. The general comment 13, adopted by the committee on Economic, Social and Cultural rights provide interpretation and clarification of Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights.

Article 13 (2): The right to receive an education - some general remarks

- While the precise and appropriate application of the terms will depend upon the conditions prevailing in a particular State party, education in all its forms and at all levels shall exhibit the following interrelated and essential features:

(a) Availability - functioning educational institutions and programmes have to be available in sufficient quantity within the jurisdiction of the State party. What they require to function depends upon numerous factors, including the developmental context within which they operate; for example, all institutions and programmes are likely to require buildings or other protection from the elements, sanitation facilities for both sexes, safe drinking water, trained teachers receiving domestically competitive salaries, teaching materials, and so on; while some will also require facilities such as a library, computer facilities and information technology.

(b) Accessibility - educational institutions and programmes have to be accessible to everyone, without discrimination, within the jurisdiction of the State party. Accessibility has three overlapping dimensions:

(i) Non-discrimination - education must be accessible to all, especially the most vulnerable groups, in law and fact, without discrimination on any of the prohibited grounds (see paras. 31-37 on non-discrimination);

(ii) Physical accessibility - education has to be within safe physical reach, either by attendance at some reasonably convenient geographic location (e.g. a neighbourhood school) or via modern technology (e.g. access to a “distance learning” programme);

(iii) Economic accessibility - education has to be affordable to all. This dimension of accessibility is subject to the differential wording of article 13 (2) in relation to primary, secondary and higher education: whereas primary education shall be available “free to all”, States parties are required to progressively introduce free secondary and higher education;

(c) Acceptability - the form and substance of education, including curricula and teaching methods, have to be acceptable (e.g. relevant, culturally appropriate and of good quality) to students and, in appropriate cases, parents; this is subject to the educational objectives required by article 13 (1) and such minimum educational standards as may be approved by the State (see art. 13 (3) and (4));

(d) Adaptability - education has to be flexible so it can adapt to the needs of changing societies and communities and respond to the needs of students within their diverse social and cultural settings.When considering the appropriate application of these “interrelated and essential features” the best interests of the student shall be a primary consideration.

II. STATES PARTIES' OBLIGATIONS AND VIOLATIONS

General legal obligations:-

43. While the Covenant provides for progressive realization and acknowledges the constraints due to the limits of available resources, it also imposes on States parties various obligations which are of immediate effect. States parties have immediate obligations in relation to the right to education, such as the “guarantee” that the right “will be exercised without discrimination of any kind” (art.2 (2)) and the obligation “to take steps” (art. 2 (1)) towards the full realization of article 13. Such steps must be “deliberate, concrete and targeted” towards the full realization of the right to education.

44. The realization of the right to education over time, that is “progressively”, should not be interpreted as depriving States parties’ obligations of all meaningful content. Progressive realization means that States parties have a specific and continuing obligation “to move as expeditiously and effectively as possible” towards the full realization of article 13.

46. The right to education, like all human rights, imposes three types or levels of obligations on States parties: the obligations to respect, protect and fulfil. In turn, the obligation to fulfil incorporates both an obligation to facilitate and an obligation to provide.

47. The obligation to respect requires States parties to avoid measures that hinder or prevent the enjoyment of the right to education. The obligation to protect requires States parties to take measures that prevent third parties from interfering with the enjoyment of the right to education. The obligation to fulfil (facilitate) requires States to take positive measures that enable and assist individuals and communities to enjoy the right to education.

Finally, States parties have an obligation to fulfil (provide) the right to education. As a general rule, States parties are obliged to fulfil (provide) a specific right in the Covenant when an individual or group is unable, for reasons beyond their control, to realize the right themselves by the means at their disposal. However, the extent of this obligation is always subject to the text of the Covenant.

Violations

59. By way of illustration, violations of article 13 include: the introduction or failure to repeal legislation which discriminates against individuals or groups, on any of the prohibited grounds, in the field of education; the failure to take measures which address de facto educational discrimination; the use of curricula inconsistent with the educational objectives set out in article 13 (1); the failure to maintain a transparent and effective system to monitor conformity with article 13 (1); the failure to introduce, as a matter of priority, primary education which is compulsory and available free to all; the failure to take “deliberate, concrete and targeted” measures towards the progressive realization of secondary, higher and fundamental education in accordance with article 13 (2) (b)-(d); the prohibition of private educational institutions; the failure to ensure private educational institutions conform to the “minimum educational standards” required by article 13 (3) and (4); the denial of academic freedom of staff and students; the closure of educational institutions in times of political tension in non-conformity with article 4.

Article 50 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) states: "The Occupying Power shall, with the cooperation of the national and local authorities, facilitate the proper working of all institutions devoted to the care and education of children." Israel is therefore obligated to ensure the orderly operation of the educational institutions in the territories.

ICL prohibits persecution as a crime against humanity in the treaty statutes of the ad hoc tribunals as well as the ICC. The Rome Statute defines persecution as the “intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by reason of the identity of the group of collectively”. Unlike other expressions of the crime, the Rome Statute also requires that persecution be committed in connection with another crime or at least one inhumane act. Although untested, it is possible that the intentional and severe deprivation or prevention of education of a particular group can, if the other elements of the crime are fulfilled, constitute persecution. In order for the deprivation of education to amount to a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute, it must meet the following criteria:

• education must be defined as a “fundamental right”;
• its deprivation must be intentional and severe. Further, it must be contrary to international law, and not, for example, consistent with limitations permitted by IHRL;
• the denial of education of a particular group must on discriminatory grounds: based on a group’s political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, or gender identity (or other grounds universally recognized by international law, potentially including disability);
• the deprivation of education must be part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population or in connection with any other act prohibited by the Rome Statute; and
• the perpetrator or perpetrators of this deprivation knew it was part of a widespread or systemic attack. International criminal jurisprudence has so far recognized examples of persecution including murder, imprisonment, deportation and other related conduct. However, persecution can include other conduct that “severely deprives political, civil, economic or social rights”. In particular, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia “ICTY” has recognized that the exclusion of members of an ethnic or religious group from educational institutions can potentially constitute persecution under the ICTY Statute, even though it was not specifically listed as an example therein. This demonstrates the potential protection that the crime of persecution offers to ensuring education in situations of insecurity and armed conflict.

The right of children to receive an education belongs to this category of rights which are irrevocable under any claim or pretext. Historically, peoples and states that prevented children from exercising their right to education have been viewed as barbaric. Humanity having recognized, in the lengthy course of the formation of civilization, that children have the right to education - that is, that education is no mere favor conferred by parents, states, churches, or whoever implements the right -considers all those who infringe this right to be acting inhumanely. Categorically, such behavior is no different from any other abridgement of human rights.

The Right to Education in Palestine

Since the start of the Intifada in 1987, the Israeli authorities have closed down the majority of the education institutions in different areas under occupation for extended periods. The education system has also suffered from strikes and from clashes with the Israeli occupation forces have forcibly entered schools, sometimes opening fire; many students and teachers have been arrested, killed, or physically injured.

For decades Israel has been violating Palestinians' right to education through numerous education-related incidents, such as attacks or threats of attacks on schools, delays at checkpoints, military presence at school entrances, closed military areas in addition to the use of live ammunition and tear gas in and around schools, school search, confiscation of education items, detention of students and school staff, settler related violence, or school demolitions and stop-work orders . Israel’s measures prevent the development of the Palestinian educational system. Not at once, Israel was held accountable for its violation of the Palestinian right to education or any violation.

These violations play a huge role in creating obstacles to Palestinians' education, making it hard for them to have quality education and to enjoy their right safely. These violations affect Palestinian women the most with a consideration that the Palestinian society is a patriarchal society that may stand in the face of women education if they may face such obstacles and violations. Even though these violations affect the life and education of Palestinians and especially women; the percentage of educated women in Palestine is remarkable and one of the highest around the world with a 99.6% in 2020 for completion of different educational levels (elementary education, secondary education, upper/senior secondary education) and according to data of 2019-2020, the net enrollment ratio in the elementary stage increased for 98.4% .

One of many measures Israel undertakes is the demolition and closure of schools, especially in the South Hebron Hills area. Since the start of 2021, Israel has demolished 1,032 Palestinian-owned structures across the occupied West Bank. The list includes homes, schools, shops and farming facilities. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said that Israeli demolitions have displaced 1,347 Palestinians in that period . Usually, the “reason” behind the demolishing in Area C is building without a permit which is nearly impossible to be issued in Area C.

One of these schools is located in the Bedouin village Abu Nuwar, where 670 Palestinians live in tents and sheet-metal shacks. The only school in the village was partially demolished for the sixth time since 2016. The 26 children study in a local community center and barbershop.

One of the most targeted villages is “Burin”. Burin is home to about 3000 Palestinian and is surrounded by two illegal settlements, an illegal outpost, and a military base. The only school in Burin sits at the entrance of the village and is attended by about 300 boys and girls. The school is often on the frontline of settler and soldier raids on the village. According to Middle East Eye interview with an activist from Burin, “Every week there are at least two or three attacks, from both settlers and soldiers. “The settlers will come down from the mountain and try to break the school windows and attack teachers and students with rocks. Sometimes they even shoot live bullets”.

Masafer Yatta area of the Hebron hills, 210 Palestinian children living in a cluster of 12 small villages face daily challenges getting to class in an active military training zone. There are only three schools in the entire area, and most of the communities do not have access to school buses, forcing kids to walk several kilometers to and from school, any busses secured for children were often stopped and turned around by Israeli forces in addition, during active training periods, soldiers will close certain areas leading to the school for up to 10 days, leaving teachers and children sitting at home until the army reopens the area. Recently Israel's court paves way for the eviction of over 2000 Palestinians from Masafer Yatta which will lead to the displacement of thousands of Bedouin Palestinians and cause a severe effect on education. According to the Palestinian ministry of education report in 2021; 26,808 students and 1,029 teachers were either prevented from getting to school or faced long delays at checkpoints, resulting in "35,895 classes wasted".

Even though human rights are inherent to all human beings, they cannot be given or taken away. Israel slips Palestinians of their basic human rights on a daily basis even the simplest ones including their right to education. In many cases many Palestinian women stop their education in the early stages because of the obstacles that they face, many women do not feel safe going to school or college for many days and sometimes years. The lost feeling of safety that every Palestinian feel prevent many from pursuing their passion, many dreams were killed because of these violations. These challenges do not affect only the lives and rights of the people affected; they have a huge effect on the social and economic aspects too and it leads to early dropouts from school.

According to a report published by MIFTAH; the Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research spending in 2020-2021 on education is (3.140.7) Millions ILS from (16.120.3) Millions ILS annual budget, meaning overall (19.5%) of the overall annual budget. Meaning that the spending from the side and the budget provided by the Palestinian authority for education are very low compared to the needs and the development that the education sector in Palestine needs. Manny Palestinian villages do not have more than one school in the whole village and that leaves a lot of students to go to another village which adds to transportation expenses. On the other side; In 2021 the youth unemployment rates reached 40% in the West Bank and 62% in Gaza and about half a million children in Palestine need humanitarian assistance to access quality education. The high rates of unemployment leave no choice to many Palestinian than to dropout from school and in many cases go to work inside the green line or in settlements. Despite the impact of conflict on education, very low levels of humanitarian funding are provided for education. This prevents the education sector from responding swiftly to needs after periods of intense conflict – including responding to the effects of attacks on education and restoring schooling

Children and women are the vast majority of those adversely affected by the occupation and in the reaffirming of the implementation of international humanitarian law and human rights law that protect the rights of women and girls during and after conflict. These two majorities require a special lens that can provide detailed protection and recognition; after many movements towards creating this lens for the protection of women and children; the women, peace and security (“WPS”) agenda was formally initiated by the united nations security council (UNSCR) 1325 resolution in 2000, that was the first landmark resolution on women, peace and security that addresses the impact of war on women and the importance of women’s full and equal participation in conflict resolution, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction. The resolution also calls for special measures to protect women and girls from conflict-related sexual violence and outlines gender-related responsibilities of the United Nations in different political and programmatic areas . The 1325 United Nations Security Council Resolution has four pillars: - protection, prevention, participation and relief and recovery.

When we talk about any aspect of Palestinian lives there is a cycle of connection between every aspect of the obstacles that women face in practicing their right to education from the Israeli occupation, the quality and funding from the Palestinian authorities to the education sector and the high rates of unemployment leaves too many social, economic, psychological effects. The 1325 UNSCR main purpose is to provide the four pillars (protection, prevention, participation and relief and recovery) to women and children. In the case of Palestine, it is strongly believable according to the reality and data provided that the 1325 UNSCR is not fulfilling its obligations towards Palestinian women and children and this falls on the state parties. It should provide protection to women and women are not being protected in any aspect of their lives including in pursuing their education, it should provide prevention from assaults and harassment but on the other side women are facing harassment from the Israeli soldiers and settlers on a daily basis, it should provide participation for women but they can’t participate in decision making if they can’t pursue their education freely and enjoy their basic human rights, it should provide relief and recovery and I don’t even think we are in this stage because women are still facing these violations on the day to day life and in every moment of their lives. Many women lives are being slipped because of these violations on every side, especially in the educational sector. The state parties of the 1325 UNSCR and the International bodies and community must hold Israel accountable of the continuous commitment of Human rights violations which amount to crimes against humanity, of which is the right of education to women and girls; Violence against women in all its forms is a source of grave concern that threatens women education and future potential. Children experience distress, fear and intimidation when going to and from school in high-risk areas, often having to pass through checkpoints or walk-through settlements. Constant exposure to soldiers and settlers' violence in addition to the mentality that women have that they need to protect themselves when they go to school should be stopped and it won’t stop without action from every international body.

Challenges that Palestinian women and girls face to exercise their education rights under military occupation, they are exposed to violent and terrorist attacks due to settlement expansion, forceful displacement, mobility restrictions imposed by Israeli occupation forces.

At the end, education is not a privilege that is asked for, it is a human right and human rights are inherent to all human beings, they cannot be given or taken away.

Education is a sacred right that is protected in every international convention and under international law. Israel is committing human rights violations towards every aspect of Palestinian lives, under the eye of the international community and the world, the Israeli occupation is violating its obligations towards the Palestinian making their lives miserable by every aspect.

The violations towards education and specially regarding Palestinian women by the Israeli authorities is a gender-based violence that is directed against women because she is a woman and it affects women disproportionately and according to the 1325 UNSCR, the party states should protect women from all kinds of violence against women, including by prosecuting those responsible for violations of international law. The application of women, peace and security agenda that is supposed to protect women rights and prevent a violation towards it is not serving it required obligations towards empowering Palestinian women rights and protecting it, day by day women rights are descend more and more and in my opinion, even though 1325 UNSCR is created and centered towards the protection of women in times of conflict, the women in Palestine are still facing many obstacles and restrictions, it is crystal clear to any eye that the Israeli occupation have no respect to the international law, conventions and resolutions related to the protection of human rights and it’s failing its obligations, therefore it’s time to stop calling for respect and start calling for an end to the lifelong impunity and accountability.

This paper was written by Ola Sami, the second scholarship recipient from the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA ) of Sweden in support of women, peace and security in memory of Zaida Catalan.

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Ever since the Palestinian status upgrade to a non-member observer in the UN, Israel has threatened to “punish” Palestinians for what it said was a “unilateral step” that impedes peace. As part of this “punishment” Israel is now going to build 3,000 settlement units in E1 - a Palestinian territory in the West Bank that would connect the settlement of Ma’ale Aduminm with Jerusalem while bisecting the West Bank. If it goes ahead with this plan, the north and south of the West Bank will be cut off from each other and with Jerusalem. The Israeli government has also withheld tax money worth $120 million it collected on behalf of the PA for the month of November and said it is using it to pay the PA’s debt to the Israeli electric company.

This is not the first time Israel has threatened to “punish” Palestinians for seeking international diplomatic redress and solutions amidst halted peace talks with Israel. Last year, it did the same when Palestine got full membership at UNESCO, and in 2006, when it refused to forward tax money after legislative elections in which Hamas won the majority of seats; this “punishment” game is a stale old game Israel likes to play. Yet it still surprises me how Israel publically announces that it will “punish” Palestinians. It might be just me but the word “punish” denotes either a paternalistic or a patronizing relationship; if neither, then it at least denotes a hierarchical one. Further, and especially when publically used without shame, “punishment” implies that this asymmetric relationship is one where not only mere capacity and power but also the right to use this power i.e authority, is given to one side over another. This is what I find problematic in the case of Israel: what gives it the authority to “punish” Palestinians?

Indeed, Israel has the military, diplomatic and economic upper hand both because it is an internationally recognized state and because it’s an ally to the sole global superpower, the United States of America. This is an undeniable fact but, the way I see it, it’s only a fact that gives Israel the mere capacity or power but not legitimacy or authority to “punish” anyone, much less the Palestinians. Power doesn’t always entail authority; neither does it come with the right to use that power. This is a point Israel continues to miss.

This is not about the linguistic appropriateness of the word “punishment” but about the meaning the word entails and the message it carries when looking at the Israeli-Palestinian relationship. In other senses of the word, when parents “punish” their children, it’s because they are the primary caretakers of their children; they take responsibility for the child’s needs and also its actions until it becomes an adult. It’s because parents, as grownups, are more experienced and rational than their children who they punish. This is what gives parents the legitimate authority to punish their children not just their mere ability to. The same goes with relationships between people and animals; or between God and people, if you’re religious. All these examples show that punishment is only possible in asymmetrical relationships that are based on authority rather than capacity or power.

While these are examples of natural relationships, there are also socially-constructed systems that follow suit. Case in point is the relationship between people and their respective “laws”. Most societies wrote the laws they want to uphold as a society and agreed that every member of the society is below this law. They constructed the hierarchy in which the law would have a higher hand above the people. As a result, when someone is found to have violated the law, it is investigated and the person “punished” accordingly.

In the case of Israel and Palestine though, the power asymmetry exists based on constructed measures such as military, economic, and diplomatic power. But it doesn’t exist on natural moral grounds in a way that Israel has more authority over Palestine. At the end of the day, Palestinians and Israelis as individuals have the same value and so should the ‘states’ that these two people form.

Of course the fact that Israel is the occupier and Palestine the occupied naturally puts the two in an asymmetrical relationship. But it’s an asymmetry that is not justified in any way (natural or constructed); it in no way bestows authority on Israel to “punish” Palestinians. Israel’s military might doesn’t give justification to its occupation of Palestine. Neither does its membership at the UN nor its close ties with global powerhouses afford it authority to “punish” the Palestinians. If we have to talk about “punishing” then the punishment of both sides should come from a higher entity. Only legitimate international bodies such as the International Court of Justice, the ICC or even the UN (though it is not a judicial body) have the recognized right to “punish”. Israel does not represent the people it wants to “punish”; nor does it provide or take responsibility for them; nor does it have the natural or constructed higher ground to “punish”. It just does so because it can. And this is called arrogance not “punishment”.

So the next time Israel announces that it is going to “punish” Palestinians for this and that – please let’s take a moment to be reminded that it does not have the authority to “punish”. We should call a stick a stick, and clearly state that what Israel is committing is blatant oppression with impunity.

Dear Palestine: before I pack up my things and leave, I want to say a few things. I want to say thank you for your generosity, for the numerous cups of tea with mint and coffee with cardamom. These two things shall always remind me of you. Thank you also for the multiple lunches, dinners, and weddings I was invited to. The food was always delicious, the hospitality humbling and the conversation warm. I would also like to thank you, dear Palestine, for thanking me, even when I was the student and you my teacher; when I was the guest and you my host. I won’t forget the faces of gratitude the people in faraway villages and country sides showed visitors like myself. In these places where the harsh reality of your life under occupation is prominent, the people were always eager to share their stories in hopes that they would be echoed louder around the world. Even though they receive curious visitors every now and then, they didn’t seem to be fed-up. Rather, they were always warm and hopeful even when they told the same stories to different groups at different times. Their hope and hospitality were always intact even when the reality is that we came and left and not much changed in their lives.

Dear Palestine, I’m sure you’ve heard this before but I still feel compelled to say: you are beautiful. Your hills and valleys, green fields and deserts, summer and winter, are all beautiful. You Palestine are a land of contrasts not only in your topography and climate but also in the rest of your being. Contrasts, contradictions, ironies and paradoxes are things I will remember about you. I will remember how people lived in this land way before states existed and how states now question the statehood of your people, as they deemed you a “land without a people”.

I know history can’t be changed; but the reason why the present and the future cannot either, baffles me. The Nakba cannot be undone I know, you also know, but I don’t understand why its features should be continuously perpetrated now, in the 21st century, 64 years later. Why houses are demolished, farmlands confiscated, villages “unrecognized” now, in the present will be something I’ll continue to struggle to understand. I just hope that a time will come where we’ll all stop and realize what has happened, acknowledge how we have failed, reconcile the past and the present, find healing in forgiveness and justice and live in peace.

Puzzling is also how you are forced to live with your situation yet you have to appeal to your oppressors and those that signed you off for your basic dignity. You plead to the “international community” to hold your occupier accountable, to name-shame, castigate and even punish. When it fails as it often does, you call on the help of human rights organizations and global citizens in solidarity to prevent some of the pain that torments you on a daily basis. Sometimes, those who come to your help, be it for accompaniment, olive harvesting, protesting, documenting violations, advocating on your behalf are “good-willed” citizens of your oppressor and its accomplice. This is probably the third thing that strikes me – how you are forced appeal even to those who may belong to your occupier and its allies to win your freedom; how they’ll come to do “cultural exchange”, give “development assistance”, show “good will gestures” etc. to assuage but not to heal.

Also interesting was the realization that not only are you chained powerless but that you also have to polish and ‘oil the wheels’ of the chain that holds you captive, in order to afford yourself the slightest of movements. The wall around you and the settlements inside you are all the designs of your occupier but mostly the work of your own hands. It hurts me to see your people forced to make these decisions all the time: put food on the table by working in settlements or boycott working for the oppressor and go home empty-handed.

Dear Palestine, please know that this is not coming from a place of pity, but rather empathy. It’s coming from a person whose faith in humanity has been both shattered and reconstructed time and again throughout her stay. Shattered because I no longer know which is the stronger force, humanity’s potential for good or evil. Disappointed because I was wrong in assuming there’s always a reason (one I may or may not agree with) behind every action. Apparently pure hatred, selfishness, racism and arrogance directed at your people can serve as blatant motives. Even more disappointing and appalling is how this has been tolerated by the ‘international community”. Oh, one more thing: there’s no “community” in the “international community”; it’s all politics and lip service.

But no, pessimism is not my take-home message from you Palestine. Rather, it’s resilience. Your people have shown me what it means to live beyond and above occupation: to laugh, live and love life and embrace everything that comes, and rise above it. They endure, resist, persist and live again, just like an olive tree. They rebuild, replant, and regenerate everything that is demolished, uprooted, killed and destroyed. They do not give up, neither do they give in; but they live and they do so rising above their Nakba. That is my take-home message: to live is to rise up above life’s obstacles, to persist and to resist but (and this is important) without forgetting to enjoy life as it is and without hesitating to make the best out of it. And I am indebted to you for this lesson. Perhaps the next time I come things will have changed for the better – inshallah. Long live Palestine.

Melkam Lidet is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.

Last week, Palestinians were looking towards Gaza. The Israeli assault was turning buildings into piles of rubble and bodies of civilians, women and children included were being pulled out. The destruction may have been in Gaza but the pain and agony transcended beyond the border fence of Gaza into the West Bank. All Palestinians had the same thing on their mind: that troubled coastal strip on Palestine’s Mediterranean border to the west. Last week it was Gaza that occupied Palestinians’ minds regardless of ideological differences and geographical distances. Today once again, Palestinians all over are united as they set their eyes on New York in hopes that nations would respond to their yearning for freedom, justice and human dignity.

Exactly a week ago, on Wednesday evening, Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire. Earlier that day when the news about a bus explosion in Tel Aviv came out, I did not think there would be an agreement between Hamas and Israel at all let alone that same day. I was worried that this would provide the pretext Israel was waiting for to declare the ground invasion for which it had beefed up its troops around Gaza. When I left Ramallah that Wednesday, all looked calm but I was worried that would be my last visit to the city. Suddenly, the unpredictability and fragility of this particular situation (for me) or life under occupation (for Palestinians) became more relevant and tangible.

Right after I read the news about the Tel Aviv explosion I was talking to a friend, asking him if he heard about the news and if he was worried or nervous. He said he wasn’t: “I’m not nervous; it’s our life, so it’s normal for us”. Before I got over the biting truth of what he said, he continued: “I was born in and spent my life in this situation. I think it would be strange for me if I went somewhere else”. Sadness and frustration started to take over me as I realized what he said was not pessimistic but rather realistic; I started to think about the children of Gaza and what they might have learned from all this insanity around them.

The situation is not much different in the West Bank. Children may not wake up to drones hovering over the skies, or have their daily calorie intake measured by Israel as is the case in Gaza, but they do know what it means to live under military occupation. They see their parents being harassed by 18-19 year old Israeli soldiers with guns; their older brothers get imprisoned without charge, their houses are raided in the middle of the night, they are harassed by violent settlers, they are tear-gassed for protesting and know that live bullets might the retaliation for stone-throwing.

When Palestinian children become grownups they are confronted with the harsh reality that they aren’t really the masters of their fate. Israel and the US or international politics decide much of it for them without their input. Not only are they confronted with this reality but they also have to make peace with it, in order to live a “normal”, sane life. They resist and persevere with all their might and will all the means available to them, but they do so with the understanding that at the end of the day “it’s all in the hands of Israel”. And this has to stop.

That is what the Palestinian bid for a status upgrade is aimed at bringing about; its reaffirmation that Palestinians as a nation have the right to self-determination, independence and the right to decide their own future. While discussing the significance of the UN bid with two Palestinian women, one of them said she doesn’t think it would change much. She said “it’s all in the hands of Israel; if Israel says stop the money, everyone will stop the money and how will we live?” The other one, who was nodding in agreement jumped in to add “and Obama….” she said pointing her forefinger, looking up, and then nodding in utter disappointment “Obama…. “ she repeated, sighed and shook her head again. All she could say about the shattered hopes she had for the US President was embedded in that nod and in her silence, as her words failed her. But the Palestinians’ determination to appeal to the UN against all odds is, as PLO Executive Committee member Dr. Ashrawi said, their assertion that “Palestinians can’t always be blackmailed; that some rights are just not up for sale”.

The Palestinian spirit over this bid may not be half of what it was last year when the full bid for statehood was submitted. But once again, the fate of a people – the Palestinian people – will be decided by others – by those who are far from the scene. And maybe this time, more nations will make their decision based on ideals of peace and justice rather than their political interests. Perhaps many will dare to make history instead of being on the wrong side it.

The status upgrade may not mean much for a people that has long awaited freedom, but favorable response from the General Assembly would afford Palestinians some channels to seek redress for the numerous injustices inflicted on them by the occupation. It may not end the occupation immediately but it would curtail the impunity with which this occupation operates. It is a positive stride forward and one that is needed to undo an occupation that has now reached its climax through gradual developments. As an Amharic saying goes “slowly but surely, an egg will start walking”.

Melkam Lidet is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.

Having lived in Palestine for a few months now, I was starting to feel like I was finally getting down the details of the occupation that I wasn’t able to grasp from my readings on the conflict. After all, I have Palestinian friends who can’t come visit me in Jerusalem because they don’t have permits; I cross the Qalandia checkpoint like thousands of Palestinians who have to do the same on a daily basis; I’ve visited the “ghost city” of Hebron, witnessed settler attacks on Palestinians and more. I really thought I understood the tangible ramifications of the Israeli occupation on the lives of Palestinians until last Sunday, when I visited the Jordan Valley. The depth of the occupation I saw there was far deeper than the denial of personal and political freedom. Rather, it was the denial of the mere existence of a people in a system designed to dehumanize and deny Palestinians basic human dignity.

The Jordan Valley is 30% of the West Bank and inhabited by around 55,000 Palestinians, 42% of whom depend on agriculture or animal husbandry for their livelihood. Most of the Palestinian Bedouins in the Valley are refugees from the 1948 war who fled their villages in the Negev Desert. While some came to the Jordan Valley during the Nakba, others were forcefully relocated to the Valley from other places in the West Bank after the 1967 war. It was not until the Oslo agreement though that 95% of the Valley was characterized as Area C i.e. under Israeli military control – and became virtually inaccessible to Palestinians. Though the Palestinian Bedouins have lived in the area, worked the land and grazed their animals for decades, Israel has claimed much of their land as “state land” and has been handing it out to Jewish agricultural settlers and closing it off as “firing zones”. As a result, thousands of the Palestinians Bedouins in the area live in “unrecognized villages”.

As a result, 98.3% of Palestinians there have lost their agricultural production capacity due to Israeli restrictions, costing the Palestinian economy around $1billion. 49% of the Palestinians do not have access to water and the Palestinian Bedouins spend around 40% of their household income on water. These are facts and figures of the Jordan Valley but behind these facts and figures are thousands of people for whom these numbers represent a daily reality.

The 1,000 people in the village of Ras al-Auja are the perfect example. The elders of the village told us that they are 1948 refugees from Lasayfer village in the Negev. Before being relocated to the Jordan Valley in 1969, they were living in South Hebron Hills as refugees. Today, Ras al-Auja is a small Bedouin community that lives on cattle herding in temporary, tent-like structures without access to water or electricity. The spring water they used to rely on is now channeled to the neighboring agricultural settlement of Yitav, leaving them almost no water from that source. They now have to travel a few kilometers away to buy 35 tanks of water per day, at a price of 80NIS/tank. Unlike the Yitav settlers nearby who only need to turn on a switch to get electricity, the people in Ras al-Auja depend on expensive gasoline to run their generator and can do so for only a few hours a day. They can’t build permanent structures and their village is under constant threat of demolition. Further, they don’t have health centers or schools and have to walk several kilometers to access such facilities. Israel won’t provide them with these basic services but neither will it allow the PA to do so.

One could pass off the scene in the Jordan Valley as sad and unfortunate if it were somewhere else in the world. After all, there are millions in the world who do not have access to water, land, and secure livelihoods or shelter. But this is more than sad; it is outrageous because it is not the lack of resources or capacity, but a blatant Israeli policy of segregation, racism and deprivation that’s behind the injustice in the Jordan Valley. Even more outrageous is the fact that Israel is not only turning a blind eye to the situation, it is the creator of this situation and is now actively perpetuating it.

Unable to cultivate their land and graze their cattle, the people in the Ras al-Auja village, sometimes find employment in the agricultural settlements around them. Just like Moses’ mother was employed to take care of her own child in the Pharaoh’s Palace, the Palestinians work on the lands that used to be theirs, water the plants from the spring they once drank from and package products labeled “Made in Israel” in place of “Made in Palestine”. For all their hard work, they get three times less than the minimum wage in Israel or what the Thai workers in the same agricultural fields are paid, while their settler employees make millions of dollars in revenue.

There is a perfect explanation for this. Apparently for Israel, the Palestinians in the Jordan Valley do not exist. When Israel writes people off as “unrecognized” and denies their mere existence, it’s more than infringing on their freedom. It is reducing them to something less than human. And that’s what occupation in the Jordan Valley means for thousands of Palestinians: infrahumanization by the “democratic” state of Israel.

Melkam Lidet is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.