We don’t have the right to play. A stolen childhood.
Today, I wanted to shed some light on Palestinian refugees, a sensitive and controversial issue, often even misunderstood.
But, I won’t. Why? Because, reading the news on what is happening in Palestine, I found out that something really humiliating and frustrating happened. I always try to choose an issue and to discuss it, analyzing the different points of view and giving my personal opinion. I am not a journalist and I don’t have first- hand news, so I don’t like to post news. But, today, I have to.
Many foreign governments, institutions, non-governmental organizations are involved in Palestine, in cultural, artistic, technical and political projects. All these actors offer their expertise and their financial aid to projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Many of those projects relate to building schools, infrastructures, etc.
One project particularily note worthy was that sponsored by the Italian government (it really surprises me because Italians aren’t so pro- Palestine) and an Italian NGO (Vento di Terra): they fostered the construction of an eco- friendly school in Khan al Ahmar, with tires, metal sheets, wood and beams. The school has been projected by the Italian studio “Arcò- Architettura e cooperazione” and built by the local inhabitants of that village, located in Area C, in the street between Jerusalem and Jericho. The school has been very difficult to be built, because Palestinians aren’t allowed to live and build houses and permanent constructions in Area C, under full Israeli military control (though, the number of settlers and settlements in the Jordan Valley is “surprisingly” rising). Despite the complications and the obstacles, the school has been built and, finally, after years children can go to school, without walking for kilometers to reach the nearest school (in Jericho, where 5 children were killed and four have been crippled when crossing the street).
Living in the Jordan Valley area is one of the most stressful situations in the West Bank, because the inhabitants are under costant threat of forced displacement and house demolitions (all the inhabitants of the Jordan Vally have seen their homes demolished and now they live in shacks and they are not linked to the water and electric grid, because they don’t form part of the planning plans, as the Bedouin communities in the Naqab. In the meanwhile, their neighboring Israeli settlers are allowed to build towns and are connected to the electric and water grid).
The population of Khan al Ahmar is mainly constituted by the Jahalin community, expelled from the Naqad (Negev desert) in 1950.
Even if this school is only a “temporary” structure, it has had a positive effect on children and their parents. The school gave back to Palestinians faith and dignity.
Few days ago, though, the swing and the slide offered to the school by the Italian government have been seized by the Israeli authorities under the scared eyes of hundred children.
Honestly, I am speechless. I have no words to express how I feel.
How can those people hate so much Palestinians? How can those people hate like this innocent children? How can this happen under the blind eyes of the world? How can we accept this?
Preventing children from playing and living their childhood is another mean to kill an entire nation. Those children, who already face harsh conditions because even going to school and playing is luxury, will grow up with anger, terror, despair and without dignity.
But, aside from the human consideration of this tragedy (or at least, I consider it a tragedy), there’s another issue to be taken in consideration. The duplicity of all European governments and even the European institutions. They give money to Palestinians to build schools, hospitals, water pipes and to buy medicines, and at the same time they entertain economic relationship with Israel, never questioning the legitimacy of its actions.
A last reflection: maybe this little respect for others life is an expression of the little respect they have towards themselves.
Sources:
http://www.amnestykids.it/scuola-di-gomme/
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