The Alternative Information Center, a peace activist information center located in Jerusalem, entered and videoed a new school in the Bedouin village of al-Khan al-Akmar in the West Bank, located between Jericho and Jerusalem. Like two thirds of the Palestinian population in 1948, a majority of the Bedouin people were ethnically cleansed, either fleeing on news of massacres or being forcibly ejected by Zionist militia, many ending up in makeshift villages in the West Bank and Gaza.
This is one of those villages, attempting to provide a normal education for its children.
The school seen in the video was built with old car tires in partnership with an Italian NGO. But it now faces several threats: the village is surrounded by the settlements of Mishor Adumim and Kfar Adumim and the Israeli enterprise Maat is penetrating the hill where the village is located. To get around the Israeli prohibition of construction in area C, this school found that the only way to resist is not to exist.
While the village is attempting to provide a normal education to its children, what is most disturbing about the video is the state of existence of the villagers. While the adjoining Israeli settlements have modern homes and facilities, sufficient water, even swimming pools, and services, the village is right out of the nineteenth century in what it is able to accommodate its citizens.
Take a look at what’s on the ground, the reality of Palestinian life in the territories.
