Israeli Military fails twice in a day to escort children

Israeli military fails at school patrol twice in one day - October 17th, 2011

At-Tuwani -On October 16th the Israeli military failed, twice, to escort the school children of Tuba and Maghair al Abeed past Ma'on settlement and Havat Ma'on outpost. Because Israeli settlers have attacked and harassed the Palestinian schoolchildren multiple times in the past, the Israeli army has committed to escorting the children each day as they walk to and from school.

According to members of Operation Dove, and the schoolchildren themselves, the army failed to meet the children in the morning to escort them to school. Instead, the soldiers in the jeep stopped halfway along the route, then drove away as the children were running to meet them. "They were probably new, and didn't know what they were doing," said one of the schoolchildren that walks to school with the escort every day. "They didn't see us, even though we were right there at [the meeting place], waving and whistling at them."

In the afternoon, when the children were ready to go home, the army again failed to even arrive for the escort. The children made repeated phone calls to the Palestinian District Coordinating Liason, which made repeated phone calls on their behalf to the Israeli army, which made repeated promises that the soldiers were on their way. After waiting over an hour and a half without seeing the soldiers, the children left without the military escort, accompanied by members of Christian Peacemaker and Operation Dove. The children arrived home safely by 3 pm.

The failure of the soldiers to arrive on the 16th was not an isolated incident. In the previous month, the soldiers failed to escort the kids properly on five occasions, sometimes letting the kids walk alone in places where they have been previously attacked, or staying far away from the kids during the whole path, or failing to intervene if threatened by settlers.

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma'on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]

Operation Dove and Christian Peacemaker Teams have maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.

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• schoolchildren
• right to education
• army
• Israel
• Palestine
• escort negligence