Woman answering phone: Hello?
Filmmaker (on telephone): Oh hello there. Im trying to get some information about what the official IDF policy is regarding children going to school during curfew in Hebron.
Woman answering phone: From which newspaper?
Filmmaker: Im a filmmaker from London.
Woman answering phone: Filmmaker from London. One second, okay?
Answerphone music
Press Office Spokesman: Hello?
Filmmaker: Hello there. Im trying to find out what the official IDF policy is regarding children going to school during curfew in Hebron. There seems to be a lot of confusion about this.
Press Office Spokesman: Ah, well, make no mistake about it. When there is a curfew no one... no one is allowed out of the house.
Voiceover: For Palestinian children in the West Bank city of Hebron, getting to school in the morning is no easy task. In the part of the old city known as H2, the Palestinians are sometimes kept under curfew for months at a time. So while the Israeli settler children are free to go to school, the Palestinian children are regularly prevented from doing the same. With Israeli soldiers ensuring that the streets are used by Israelis only, the Palestinian children have taken to the roofs.
Title: Secret Hebron: The School Run
Voiceover: Every morning the children of the old city have to scrabble across the roofs in order to get to school. Going out of their front doors has become too dangerous because of the Israeli soldiers who patrol the neighbourhood enforcing curfew.
Zleikha: Many people use this ladder, of course, to go up the roof. Because its low - they dont want to be seen by soldiers, so as not to be stopped. So we are going this way. They do not feel the danger of going up the roof and coming down to the houses. And they get used to it. Even when they close their eyes they can go up and down.
Filmmaker: Do you ever have trouble with soldiers spotting the children on the roofs? What has happened in the past?
Zleikha: Ah, if they see them they will meet them on the other side of the streets and stop them from going to school.
Filmmaker: And how often does that happen?
Zleikha: It depends. Sometimes its every day and sometimes... When the children are unlucky it happens every day. Now we are getting our children ready from 7 or even before 7. Their school starts at 8. But they make the children go out as early as possible to avoid the soldiers seeing them. Because after 7.30 the soldiers start to come at the checkpoints or at the places where the children walk.
Filmmaker: So theyre having to get up really early just to try and miss the soldiers.
Zleikha: Yes.
Filmmaker: Are the children getting very tired? Are their mothers getting very tired?
Zleikha: The mothers and the children. The road there is very dangerous. Even more dangerous than this one.
Voiceover: Eventually the children do have to risk the soldiers on the roads if they are to make it to their schools which are dotted around the area surrounding the old city itself.
Zleikha: The soldiers havent noticed the children. The children are lucky today. These are the three exits that the children use when going to school. If they are lucky with that one they can use it, if they are lucky with this, they can use it and if not, the only option they have is the third one.
Ladder Lady: There are about 50 children who use my house as a crossing way to go to their school. Its only opposite my house. The school is there. And many times the soldiers harass the children, prevent them from going, and beat them. Ah, its not an easy thing to do.
Filmmaker: Can you tell me what its like as a mother having to watch your children run across trying to avoid the soldiers?
Zleikha: Its so, so worrying. You know, when - just waiting for the children to go. Waiting for them to come back. One is getting more and more nervous. More anxious also. That the children will get stopped or get hurt. Get beaten. Because many times the soldiers at this area here come and beat the children.
Press Office Spokesman: If there is information of terror infrastructure inside a city, a village, anywhere, we will impose a curfew and we will operate in order to dismantle this terrorism infrastructure. So a curfew will be imposed and the unfortunate thing is that children will not go to school.
Voiceover: As well as its more moderate residents, Hebron is also home to extremists from both communities, including the right-wing Israeli Kach organisation, which has been branded a terrorist group by its own government, and Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings inside Israel. From the killing of 29 Palestinians in Hebrons Ibrahimi Mosque by an Israeli settler in 1994 to the more recent killing of 12 Israeli soldiers and security guards by Palestinian gunmen in November 2002, both communities have suffered. But only the Palestinians are under curfew.
Soldier: What did I tell you yesterday?
Headmaster: Yesterday we came to school and we were told something else.
Soldier: Who told you?
Headmaster: One of the Danes (from TIPH) told us.
Soldier: They dont care about the Israelis. There is an order not to open the school. Its not to open.
Headmaster: The, the ...
Soldier: Shut your mouth. Did you ask any permission? Did you ask any permission?
Headmaster: No permission.
Soldier: No permission. In 15 minutes Im coming back and Im going to take this school apart.
Statistic: During the first term of 2002/3 at least 580 schools in the Occupied Territories were closed due to Israeli military interventions - UNICEF
Soldier: I told you the day before yesterday. Shut your mouth.
Headmaster: The DCO say you can go to school, but the soldiers, they say every day it is forbidden for you to go to school. Its forbidden for you to enter the school. You have to close the school now and then the children go home.
Soldier: Hey! Get out of here! Get out of here! Go home!
Voiceover: The District Co-ordinating Office, or DCO, is part of the Civilian Administration for Hebron. Made up of Israeli and Palestinian sections their policies sometimes appear to be at odds with those of the Israeli Defence Force, the IDF.
Filmmaker: Why cant they go to school?
Soldier: School is closed - there is no school today.
Diane: There is today because the other children are in school.
Filmmaker: The other children are in school, why cant these go? Sorry, I dont understand.
Filmmaker (on telephone): Some of the confusion thats been occurring in Hebron comes because the DCO said that the schoolchildren were to be allowed to go to school even though curfew was on. And there is confusion among the soldiers as to whether or not they should be letting the children through. And so you you have a situation where some of the soldiers ...
Press Office Spokesman: I dont know what a specific soldier has told you or one soldier or another. When a curfew is imposed everyone knows. When children are allowed to go to school they know it.
Filmmaker: This is not what Im finding on the ground. There does seem to be a lot of confusion.
Press Office Spokesman: Uh, well, uh, wh.... There isnt any confusion from our part.
Diane: The one soldier who is from the Ukraine wanted to let them go to school.
Lorne: The thing is, they have to accountable to their supervisor. And they have to explain why they let the kids go through.
Soldier: Go home. Go home at once! Go home right now!
Gry: The Israeli DCO say that they want children to go to school during curfew, but the official policy is that they cant. But sometimes the brigade is flexible and they let the children go through. But you never really know. The thing is, you cant tell whether on each day, whether the kids are allowed to go to school or not.
Filmmaker: Why cant the children go to school?
Soldier: I am a simple soldier. Im just doing my job. Im doing what he tells me.
Diane: Im trying to call the DCO, because this morning one of the - some of the commanders were saying that children could not go to school. And the DCO has told us that children are supposed to be allowed to go to school. So Im calling to clarify that so that we can hold people accountable when children are turned away at gunpoint from going to their schools.
Filmmaker: Do you know why they cant go? Do you know why they cant go?
Soldier: I dont know.
Voiceover: I spent over two weeks trying to get clarification about the policy from the Civilian Administration, which oversees the DCO. No one was prepared to make a statement.
Lorne: United Nations Charters say all children are allowed to go to school.
Policeman: Not in a curfew. There is a curfew now, they cant go ...
Diane: Oh, no, thats no ... thats not the case. Can we see an order to that effect? A piece of paper?
Policeman: There is a police officer here who explains to you there is a curfew. He is the law here.
Diane: Thats not the same as an order. What we can do is make a complaint to Israelis that we know who talk to people in the Knesset, and they can talk with many Israelis. Because I know most Israelis do not want children kept from school.
Policeman: Check this thing out. Is there any arrangement that kids can go to school? Please check.
Filmmaker (on telephone): With curfews that stop children going to school, this falls into the category of collective punishment which is illegal under international law.
Press Office Spokesman: Well, terrorism is illegal under international law as well. And somehow something has to stop it. And you cannot remove a curfew because children have to go to school. Because if you have information about terrorists coming out of a city, the children inside Israel will die. Okay? They wont just not go to school, they wont go anywhere anymore.
Statistic: Child fatalities 29 Sept. 02 to 2 Jan. 03: 83 Israeli, 386 Palestinian - UNICEF
Sue: I feel very strongly that every child here has the right to go to school, as in fact every child in the world has a right to an education. And these children are prevented by soldiers. And these children want to go to school. And any child who actually wants to go to school so badly that theyre prepared to run in front of armed soldiers, Im prepared to stand in front of those armed soldiers and make sure that those children do get to school safely and get home again safely.
Soldier: Its forbidden. Go inside. Go home!
Sue: The DCO has given permission for them to go to school. They should go to school.
Voiceover: The presence of international observers is sometimes enough to persuade the soldiers to allow the children through. But not always.
Sue: Every morning he says the school is closed, but they are open. The DCO says it is okay. Every child, every child in the world has a right to go to school.
Soldier: If Arabs go to school ... If Arabs go to school ... they teach ... how do you say ... If Arabs go to school ... they teach ... how do you say ... Anti-Semitism
Sue: I dont know, but we will, we will telephone to the DCO and we will speak to him.
VO: When the Israeli army decides to enforce a curfew, extensive use of tear gas, percussion grenades and rubber bullets puts the whole community, including the young children, at risk.
0:16:05 Gry: We have reports of children being hit by rubber-coated bullets, of being sent to hospital because of the teargas. They have been beaten, and teargas has been thrown towards the schools. And also, of course, children are afraid. Because they never know whether the soldiers will stop them or not and whats going to happen to them.
0:16:35 Islam: When I go to school its so scary. So dangerous. Because whenever we meet soldiers they usually force us back with teargas or they throw percussion grenades at us.
Statistic: 40% of Palestinian children killed in 2001 were inside their homes, on the way to school or in school. - DEFENCE FOR CHILDREN INTERNATIONAL
Marwa: The school is open but Im scared to go to school in case theyre rioting in the streets. Theyll attack me and I wont be able to come home.
Oday: One time our school was closed so we were all sent to another school. When we were walking down to the school we met a jeep, a military jeep. The soldiers shot rubber bullets at us. They hit my boots. And it ripped my boots.
Statistic: On average, more than 18 Palestinian children are killed every month - UNICEF
Voiceover: On 15th March 2001 in a well-documented attack, Israeli soldiers threw a percussion grenade into a crowded schoolyard.
Secretary: After the third class the children had a break outside. They were out in the playground with their teachers. All of a sudden a military patrol was passing by and they threw a burning bomb - at the children. At that time seven children were hurt. They got burns on different parts of their bodies and they were taken to hospital.
Filmmaker: Can you tell me the sort injuries that children are coming in with?
Doctor: They have been beaten by soldiers. Israeli soldiers and settlers. Most of them are limb fractures. Fractures of the hands or the legs. This is the most frequent.
Mohammeds uncle: It started when Mohammed and some other boys were going back home from school. It was quiet. There was no curfew. Everyone was going back and forth. The soldiers were in the street and called Mohammed. Then they caught him and started beating him. One soldier beat him and sent him to the other one, so he was like a ball from one soldier to the other. Then they put him in the jeep.
Mohammed: After they drove me around for a while they took me back to the school. They tied my hands behind my back and blindfolded me and started beating me.
Voiceover: A member of TIPH saw what was happening and called an ambulance. It is common in the Occupied Territories for soldiers to prevent ambulances from reaching wounded Palestinians.
Mohammed: The ambulance came to get me three times. But the soldiers said, He is okay. Nobody is injured. So the ambulance had to go back and forth three times before they could reach me.
Uncle: Nobody could do anything because the soldiers were so aggressive. They tried to beat anyone who approached Mohammed.
Doctor: He sustained multiple blunt traumas, the more serious of which was the one in the left testicle.
Voiceover: Mohammeds injuries kept him in hospital for over a week.
Statistic: More than 8,000 Palestinian children were injured between 28 Sept 2002 - 2 Jan 2003. 40% of these were aged 12 or younger - DEFENCE FOR CHILDREN INTERNATIONAL, BTSELEM
Director of Ministry of Education: Inside their classrooms they suffer from shootings, especially in the last two years. They do not feel secure and when any person does not feel secure his life is not a true life.
Headmaster: When the children in the school, his mind not inside, his mind outside. His mind outside - why? Because of the soldiers around the school, hes thinking about what will happen now when I leave the school, what will happen with the soldiers. When I come, when I come tomorrow what will happen? This is, this is the ideas in the minds of the children. Not what well, well take in the class.
Voiceover: According to UNICEF, scores on final exams in the main subject areas have fallen in part due to the psychological effects of violence and the disruptions that keep teachers and students from reaching classrooms. Passing grades in Arabic fell from 71% in 1999-2000 to 38% in 2001. Mathematics dropped from 54% to 26% in the same period.
Voiceover: When the children of the old city arent at school there is very little for them to do. With curfew strictly enforced, playing in the streets or in the local playground is a big risk. So for many, its back up to the roofs.
Filmmaker: What would happen if they went down to the playground during curfew?
Zleikha: Soldiers will come and chase them. Sometimes they point their guns at them. Many times they use percussion grenades. They just throw it at the children. The children are more violent now than before. And in dealing with each other they are not as patient as they used to be. And they - when they want anything, you know, when a child wants something from the other and the other child does not give it to him, then he beats him to get it. We find bullet shells everywhere, and rubber bullets are also everywhere. So they collect them from the streets and play with them. If not playing with these real materials, they choose the toys that represent the soldiers and the armies - the tanks, the jeeps, the guns. The bigger the gun is, the stronger the boy is.
Voiceover: Some of the young Israeli soldiers dont appear to be much more than children themselves.
Soldier: Shall I do another one?
Voiceover: During the first term of the 2002-2003 school year more than 226,000 children and over 9,300 teachers in the Occupied Territories were unable to reach their regular classrooms.
Lars: They stop people on a routine basis here. Checking IDs, just stopping them, holding them for - its not abnormal to hold people for several hours. Although according to IDF policy they shouldnt ... if its an ID check it should be done in 20 minutes. Thats the maximum time they say the soldiers should use to check the ID.
Filmmaker: Do you have trouble getting teachers willing to try and come in?
Headmaster: Every day they try to come, but not every day enter the school. Because of the soldiers, of course.
Headmistress: Their teacher is absent. So we have to put two classes together in order to get lessons. You know that its difficult for children to forget for a long time, to forget for example alphabets, mathematics and so on. So we have to do our best in order to continue the education.
Filmmaker: How much school are they missing?
Headmaster: In the normal situation we have 20 days holidays at the end of first semester named Spring Semester holidays. In this year we cant take it because we have more than 40 days through the first semester we didnt arrive to school because of the IDF soldiers.
Director: The Israelis occupied three of our schools since more than two years, since 28 months. They occupied it and changed it into military positions.
Headmaster: If we want to teach them the peace they must come to school. When they are in the streets we cant teach them anything. Just how to throw stones in the streets. Thats - thats what I see.
Filmmaker: When I talk to the soldiers and I say, Why are you stopping the children from going to school? They say, Because in the schools they teach them to hate us, they teach them to be terrorists.
Director: We ask them to believe that they have the right to live in this land, because it is our land. And the Jews also, they have the right also to live, as equal as the Palestinians. Thats the truth. We do not learn them how to hate the others, but how to love the others. How to co-operate with the others. How to share in building a true peace and real peace in this area for the two peoples.
Voiceover: According to UNICEF, a generation of Palestinian children in the Occupied Territories is being denied their right to an education. The United Nations has appealed to the Israeli authorities to facilitate safe access of Palestinian children to their schools and allow the functioning of educational establishments.
Filmmaker (on the telephone): Okay, so just one final thing. If I can just clarify to make perfectly clear that it is the official policy of the IDF that during curfew the schoolchildren are not allowed to go to school.
Press Office Spokesman: Thats correct.
Filmmaker: Okay, thank you very much.
Press Office Spokesman: No problem.
Filmmaker: Bye bye.
Press Office Spokesman: Bye bye.
Filmmaker (on telephone): Oh hello there. Im trying to get some information about what the official IDF policy is regarding children going to school during curfew in Hebron.
Woman answering phone: From which newspaper?
Filmmaker: Im a filmmaker from London.
Woman answering phone: Filmmaker from London. One second, okay?
Answerphone music
Press Office Spokesman: Hello?
Filmmaker: Hello there. Im trying to find out what the official IDF policy is regarding children going to school during curfew in Hebron. There seems to be a lot of confusion about this.
Press Office Spokesman: Ah, well, make no mistake about it. When there is a curfew no one... no one is allowed out of the house.
Voiceover: For Palestinian children in the West Bank city of Hebron, getting to school in the morning is no easy task. In the part of the old city known as H2, the Palestinians are sometimes kept under curfew for months at a time. So while the Israeli settler children are free to go to school, the Palestinian children are regularly prevented from doing the same. With Israeli soldiers ensuring that the streets are used by Israelis only, the Palestinian children have taken to the roofs.
Title: Secret Hebron: The School Run
Voiceover: Every morning the children of the old city have to scrabble across the roofs in order to get to school. Going out of their front doors has become too dangerous because of the Israeli soldiers who patrol the neighbourhood enforcing curfew.
Zleikha: Many people use this ladder, of course, to go up the roof. Because its low - they dont want to be seen by soldiers, so as not to be stopped. So we are going this way. They do not feel the danger of going up the roof and coming down to the houses. And they get used to it. Even when they close their eyes they can go up and down.
Filmmaker: Do you ever have trouble with soldiers spotting the children on the roofs? What has happened in the past?
Zleikha: Ah, if they see them they will meet them on the other side of the streets and stop them from going to school.
Filmmaker: And how often does that happen?
Zleikha: It depends. Sometimes its every day and sometimes... When the children are unlucky it happens every day. Now we are getting our children ready from 7 or even before 7. Their school starts at 8. But they make the children go out as early as possible to avoid the soldiers seeing them. Because after 7.30 the soldiers start to come at the checkpoints or at the places where the children walk.
Filmmaker: So theyre having to get up really early just to try and miss the soldiers.
Zleikha: Yes.
Filmmaker: Are the children getting very tired? Are their mothers getting very tired?
Zleikha: The mothers and the children. The road there is very dangerous. Even more dangerous than this one.
Voiceover: Eventually the children do have to risk the soldiers on the roads if they are to make it to their schools which are dotted around the area surrounding the old city itself.
Zleikha: The soldiers havent noticed the children. The children are lucky today. These are the three exits that the children use when going to school. If they are lucky with that one they can use it, if they are lucky with this, they can use it and if not, the only option they have is the third one.
Ladder Lady: There are about 50 children who use my house as a crossing way to go to their school. Its only opposite my house. The school is there. And many times the soldiers harass the children, prevent them from going, and beat them. Ah, its not an easy thing to do.
Filmmaker: Can you tell me what its like as a mother having to watch your children run across trying to avoid the soldiers?
Zleikha: Its so, so worrying. You know, when - just waiting for the children to go. Waiting for them to come back. One is getting more and more nervous. More anxious also. That the children will get stopped or get hurt. Get beaten. Because many times the soldiers at this area here come and beat the children.
Press Office Spokesman: If there is information of terror infrastructure inside a city, a village, anywhere, we will impose a curfew and we will operate in order to dismantle this terrorism infrastructure. So a curfew will be imposed and the unfortunate thing is that children will not go to school.
Voiceover: As well as its more moderate residents, Hebron is also home to extremists from both communities, including the right-wing Israeli Kach organisation, which has been branded a terrorist group by its own government, and Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings inside Israel. From the killing of 29 Palestinians in Hebrons Ibrahimi Mosque by an Israeli settler in 1994 to the more recent killing of 12 Israeli soldiers and security guards by Palestinian gunmen in November 2002, both communities have suffered. But only the Palestinians are under curfew.
Soldier: What did I tell you yesterday?
Headmaster: Yesterday we came to school and we were told something else.
Soldier: Who told you?
Headmaster: One of the Danes (from TIPH) told us.
Soldier: They dont care about the Israelis. There is an order not to open the school. Its not to open.
Headmaster: The, the ...
Soldier: Shut your mouth. Did you ask any permission? Did you ask any permission?
Headmaster: No permission.
Soldier: No permission. In 15 minutes Im coming back and Im going to take this school apart.
Statistic: During the first term of 2002/3 at least 580 schools in the Occupied Territories were closed due to Israeli military interventions - UNICEF
Soldier: I told you the day before yesterday. Shut your mouth.
Headmaster: The DCO say you can go to school, but the soldiers, they say every day it is forbidden for you to go to school. Its forbidden for you to enter the school. You have to close the school now and then the children go home.
Soldier: Hey! Get out of here! Get out of here! Go home!
Voiceover: The District Co-ordinating Office, or DCO, is part of the Civilian Administration for Hebron. Made up of Israeli and Palestinian sections their policies sometimes appear to be at odds with those of the Israeli Defence Force, the IDF.
Filmmaker: Why cant they go to school?
Soldier: School is closed - there is no school today.
Diane: There is today because the other children are in school.
Filmmaker: The other children are in school, why cant these go? Sorry, I dont understand.
Filmmaker (on telephone): Some of the confusion thats been occurring in Hebron comes because the DCO said that the schoolchildren were to be allowed to go to school even though curfew was on. And there is confusion among the soldiers as to whether or not they should be letting the children through. And so you you have a situation where some of the soldiers ...
Press Office Spokesman: I dont know what a specific soldier has told you or one soldier or another. When a curfew is imposed everyone knows. When children are allowed to go to school they know it.
Filmmaker: This is not what Im finding on the ground. There does seem to be a lot of confusion.
Press Office Spokesman: Uh, well, uh, wh.... There isnt any confusion from our part.
Diane: The one soldier who is from the Ukraine wanted to let them go to school.
Lorne: The thing is, they have to accountable to their supervisor. And they have to explain why they let the kids go through.
Soldier: Go home. Go home at once! Go home right now!
Gry: The Israeli DCO say that they want children to go to school during curfew, but the official policy is that they cant. But sometimes the brigade is flexible and they let the children go through. But you never really know. The thing is, you cant tell whether on each day, whether the kids are allowed to go to school or not.
Filmmaker: Why cant the children go to school?
Soldier: I am a simple soldier. Im just doing my job. Im doing what he tells me.
Diane: Im trying to call the DCO, because this morning one of the - some of the commanders were saying that children could not go to school. And the DCO has told us that children are supposed to be allowed to go to school. So Im calling to clarify that so that we can hold people accountable when children are turned away at gunpoint from going to their schools.
Filmmaker: Do you know why they cant go? Do you know why they cant go?
Soldier: I dont know.
Voiceover: I spent over two weeks trying to get clarification about the policy from the Civilian Administration, which oversees the DCO. No one was prepared to make a statement.
Lorne: United Nations Charters say all children are allowed to go to school.
Policeman: Not in a curfew. There is a curfew now, they cant go ...
Diane: Oh, no, thats no ... thats not the case. Can we see an order to that effect? A piece of paper?
Policeman: There is a police officer here who explains to you there is a curfew. He is the law here.
Diane: Thats not the same as an order. What we can do is make a complaint to Israelis that we know who talk to people in the Knesset, and they can talk with many Israelis. Because I know most Israelis do not want children kept from school.
Policeman: Check this thing out. Is there any arrangement that kids can go to school? Please check.
Filmmaker (on telephone): With curfews that stop children going to school, this falls into the category of collective punishment which is illegal under international law.
Press Office Spokesman: Well, terrorism is illegal under international law as well. And somehow something has to stop it. And you cannot remove a curfew because children have to go to school. Because if you have information about terrorists coming out of a city, the children inside Israel will die. Okay? They wont just not go to school, they wont go anywhere anymore.
Statistic: Child fatalities 29 Sept. 02 to 2 Jan. 03: 83 Israeli, 386 Palestinian - UNICEF
Sue: I feel very strongly that every child here has the right to go to school, as in fact every child in the world has a right to an education. And these children are prevented by soldiers. And these children want to go to school. And any child who actually wants to go to school so badly that theyre prepared to run in front of armed soldiers, Im prepared to stand in front of those armed soldiers and make sure that those children do get to school safely and get home again safely.
Soldier: Its forbidden. Go inside. Go home!
Sue: The DCO has given permission for them to go to school. They should go to school.
Voiceover: The presence of international observers is sometimes enough to persuade the soldiers to allow the children through. But not always.
Sue: Every morning he says the school is closed, but they are open. The DCO says it is okay. Every child, every child in the world has a right to go to school.
Soldier: If Arabs go to school ... If Arabs go to school ... they teach ... how do you say ... If Arabs go to school ... they teach ... how do you say ... Anti-Semitism
Sue: I dont know, but we will, we will telephone to the DCO and we will speak to him.
VO: When the Israeli army decides to enforce a curfew, extensive use of tear gas, percussion grenades and rubber bullets puts the whole community, including the young children, at risk.
0:16:05 Gry: We have reports of children being hit by rubber-coated bullets, of being sent to hospital because of the teargas. They have been beaten, and teargas has been thrown towards the schools. And also, of course, children are afraid. Because they never know whether the soldiers will stop them or not and whats going to happen to them.
0:16:35 Islam: When I go to school its so scary. So dangerous. Because whenever we meet soldiers they usually force us back with teargas or they throw percussion grenades at us.
Statistic: 40% of Palestinian children killed in 2001 were inside their homes, on the way to school or in school. - DEFENCE FOR CHILDREN INTERNATIONAL
Marwa: The school is open but Im scared to go to school in case theyre rioting in the streets. Theyll attack me and I wont be able to come home.
Oday: One time our school was closed so we were all sent to another school. When we were walking down to the school we met a jeep, a military jeep. The soldiers shot rubber bullets at us. They hit my boots. And it ripped my boots.
Statistic: On average, more than 18 Palestinian children are killed every month - UNICEF
Voiceover: On 15th March 2001 in a well-documented attack, Israeli soldiers threw a percussion grenade into a crowded schoolyard.
Secretary: After the third class the children had a break outside. They were out in the playground with their teachers. All of a sudden a military patrol was passing by and they threw a burning bomb - at the children. At that time seven children were hurt. They got burns on different parts of their bodies and they were taken to hospital.
Filmmaker: Can you tell me the sort injuries that children are coming in with?
Doctor: They have been beaten by soldiers. Israeli soldiers and settlers. Most of them are limb fractures. Fractures of the hands or the legs. This is the most frequent.
Mohammeds uncle: It started when Mohammed and some other boys were going back home from school. It was quiet. There was no curfew. Everyone was going back and forth. The soldiers were in the street and called Mohammed. Then they caught him and started beating him. One soldier beat him and sent him to the other one, so he was like a ball from one soldier to the other. Then they put him in the jeep.
Mohammed: After they drove me around for a while they took me back to the school. They tied my hands behind my back and blindfolded me and started beating me.
Voiceover: A member of TIPH saw what was happening and called an ambulance. It is common in the Occupied Territories for soldiers to prevent ambulances from reaching wounded Palestinians.
Mohammed: The ambulance came to get me three times. But the soldiers said, He is okay. Nobody is injured. So the ambulance had to go back and forth three times before they could reach me.
Uncle: Nobody could do anything because the soldiers were so aggressive. They tried to beat anyone who approached Mohammed.
Doctor: He sustained multiple blunt traumas, the more serious of which was the one in the left testicle.
Voiceover: Mohammeds injuries kept him in hospital for over a week.
Statistic: More than 8,000 Palestinian children were injured between 28 Sept 2002 - 2 Jan 2003. 40% of these were aged 12 or younger - DEFENCE FOR CHILDREN INTERNATIONAL, BTSELEM
Director of Ministry of Education: Inside their classrooms they suffer from shootings, especially in the last two years. They do not feel secure and when any person does not feel secure his life is not a true life.
Headmaster: When the children in the school, his mind not inside, his mind outside. His mind outside - why? Because of the soldiers around the school, hes thinking about what will happen now when I leave the school, what will happen with the soldiers. When I come, when I come tomorrow what will happen? This is, this is the ideas in the minds of the children. Not what well, well take in the class.
Voiceover: According to UNICEF, scores on final exams in the main subject areas have fallen in part due to the psychological effects of violence and the disruptions that keep teachers and students from reaching classrooms. Passing grades in Arabic fell from 71% in 1999-2000 to 38% in 2001. Mathematics dropped from 54% to 26% in the same period.
Voiceover: When the children of the old city arent at school there is very little for them to do. With curfew strictly enforced, playing in the streets or in the local playground is a big risk. So for many, its back up to the roofs.
Filmmaker: What would happen if they went down to the playground during curfew?
Zleikha: Soldiers will come and chase them. Sometimes they point their guns at them. Many times they use percussion grenades. They just throw it at the children. The children are more violent now than before. And in dealing with each other they are not as patient as they used to be. And they - when they want anything, you know, when a child wants something from the other and the other child does not give it to him, then he beats him to get it. We find bullet shells everywhere, and rubber bullets are also everywhere. So they collect them from the streets and play with them. If not playing with these real materials, they choose the toys that represent the soldiers and the armies - the tanks, the jeeps, the guns. The bigger the gun is, the stronger the boy is.
Voiceover: Some of the young Israeli soldiers dont appear to be much more than children themselves.
Soldier: Shall I do another one?
Voiceover: During the first term of the 2002-2003 school year more than 226,000 children and over 9,300 teachers in the Occupied Territories were unable to reach their regular classrooms.
Lars: They stop people on a routine basis here. Checking IDs, just stopping them, holding them for - its not abnormal to hold people for several hours. Although according to IDF policy they shouldnt ... if its an ID check it should be done in 20 minutes. Thats the maximum time they say the soldiers should use to check the ID.
Filmmaker: Do you have trouble getting teachers willing to try and come in?
Headmaster: Every day they try to come, but not every day enter the school. Because of the soldiers, of course.
Headmistress: Their teacher is absent. So we have to put two classes together in order to get lessons. You know that its difficult for children to forget for a long time, to forget for example alphabets, mathematics and so on. So we have to do our best in order to continue the education.
Filmmaker: How much school are they missing?
Headmaster: In the normal situation we have 20 days holidays at the end of first semester named Spring Semester holidays. In this year we cant take it because we have more than 40 days through the first semester we didnt arrive to school because of the IDF soldiers.
Director: The Israelis occupied three of our schools since more than two years, since 28 months. They occupied it and changed it into military positions.
Headmaster: If we want to teach them the peace they must come to school. When they are in the streets we cant teach them anything. Just how to throw stones in the streets. Thats - thats what I see.
Filmmaker: When I talk to the soldiers and I say, Why are you stopping the children from going to school? They say, Because in the schools they teach them to hate us, they teach them to be terrorists.
Director: We ask them to believe that they have the right to live in this land, because it is our land. And the Jews also, they have the right also to live, as equal as the Palestinians. Thats the truth. We do not learn them how to hate the others, but how to love the others. How to co-operate with the others. How to share in building a true peace and real peace in this area for the two peoples.
Voiceover: According to UNICEF, a generation of Palestinian children in the Occupied Territories is being denied their right to an education. The United Nations has appealed to the Israeli authorities to facilitate safe access of Palestinian children to their schools and allow the functioning of educational establishments.
Filmmaker (on the telephone): Okay, so just one final thing. If I can just clarify to make perfectly clear that it is the official policy of the IDF that during curfew the schoolchildren are not allowed to go to school.
Press Office Spokesman: Thats correct.
Filmmaker: Okay, thank you very much.
Press Office Spokesman: No problem.
Filmmaker: Bye bye.
Press Office Spokesman: Bye bye.