The Cordoba School: A symbol of hope

Perhaps the most important responsibility for me during my time as an EA (Ecumenical Accompanier) in the Hebron placement, has been my role in accompanying the pupils of the Cordoba* school to and from the school. I had identified with this role even before coming to Hebron because I've always had the opinion that no matter what a country's present difficulties might be, conscious efforts should be made to ensure that those who represent the next generation do not suffer from the hangover left by their predecessors. The idea is hard to achieve as history has proven and too often it is the children who've paid the price for the bad decisions and unjust actions that have changed countries' social discourses throughout the modern era. It is an area that does require more attention because the societal impacts of events such as military occupations, wars, apartheids or ethnic cleansings, become sewed into the social fabric and are not merely parts of history but become entrenched in the country's future because of their negative effects on the children of that society. The Cordoba school is an example of the efforts that should be made to ensure the positive future of the children.

The Cordoba School is a Palestinian mixed school with 125 pupils of which 43 are boys in grades 1-6. The girls are educated from grades 1-10 and the school is the only school in Hebron were both boys and girls attend. Hebron is located in the south of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (or the West Bank) and the city is regarded to be one of the most dangerous and volatile areas of the West Bank because of the settler violence that has plagued the area throughout the occupation. To paint a clearer picture, the school is located in the H2 area of Hebron which following the Oslo Protocol of 1997 remained under the control of the Israeli military after 70 percent of the city had been given back to the Palestinian Authority to control. Within H2 is an area known as Tel Rumeida which the UNOCHA reported as the area with the highest number of recorded settler attacks in the West Bank in 2008. In fact, 40 percent of all settler related violence in the West Bank in 2008 occurred in Tel Rumeida and the Cordoba school is located within this area of high violence.

The 'School Run' as we refer to it, is the daily activity that the Hebron EAPPI team engage in with the objective of providing a protective presence for the children who have to walk to and from the school. The need for this intervention was realised after regular attacks on the school and its pupils had made life for the school children dangerous and unbearable. The school which was founded in 1971 became surrounded by settlements when in 1974 the Beit Hadassah settlement was established and in 1986 the Tel Rumeida settlement was built behind the school. The Beit Hadassah settlement shares the same street (Al-Shuhada Street) with the school and stands imposingly directly opposite the school. Further down Al-Shuhada Street are two more settlements – one called Beit Romano and another one known as Avraham Avinu. The four settlements have a combined occupancy of 400 - 500 settlers and it is settlers from this group who are believed to have been the settlers documented on more than one occasion, engaging in violent attacks directed at the children and teachers of the school. The children of the school have had to endure several stone throwing incidences whilst going to and from the school and the school has even come under attack during class time. In 2007 there was an attempt to burn the school building down and following that particular attack the school principal, Reem Shareef, made the decision to change the school times in order to minimise the contact that the Cordoba pupils have with the children from the settlements in the mornings and afternoons. Until this point the settlers from Beit Hadassah and the Cordoba kids had been meeting each other daily in Al-Shuhada Street as the settler children were leaving the settlement also on their way to school. This decision has had an impact in minimizing the contact between to two groups of children and in reducing the number of attacks although not totally preventing them. The school principal believes that the protective presence of the EAPPI & the TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) has also contributed to the reduction in the number of attacks although it hasn't completely prevented them as we learnt in 2005 when a Swedish EA filmed an organised attack on the children and teachers as they were leaving the school. The attack that the EA filmed was uploaded onto the internet and can been viewed here.  

A testimony to the strength of the staff and the children is the school principal, Reem Shareef. Since 2006 when she took over as principal at the school she has been instrumental in ushering in the necessary improvements to the school for the benefit of the children. Following the 2007 arson attempt she managed to raise funds for a project with the help of the International Community of the Red Cross (ICRC) to rehabilitate to the school. The project was completed in early November and a celebration of the rehabilitation was held on 14 November 2007 but the celebrations were marred by an attack on the 25th November 2007 when settlers once again attacked the school.

A recent report by an Israeli organisation called Yesh Din, The volunteers for Human Rights, has labelled the recent wave of settler violence in the West Bank as 'acts of terror,' as the attacks are politically motivated and organised centrally and directed at civilians. It is often the settler youth that attack the Cordoba school children and these attacks are often random although some, such as the arson attempt, would mostly likely have been premeditated. However, the high concentration of settlements in Tel Rumeida and ongoing settler violence can be seen as an effort to strike fear and discomfort into the Palestinians still living, working or going to school in the Tel Rumeida H2 area, in order to facilitate their permanent departure from the area. In 1980 there was an attack on the Beit Hadassah settlement by Palestinians but despite the increased Israeli Defence Force presence and that of police as well as several restrictions on Palestinians freedom of movement within the Tel Rumeida area, the tensions in the Tel Rumeida area still exist and acts of violence against Palestinians occur.   

Despite these adversities the Cordoba School has continued to go on and thrive. Everyday the children continue to surprise me with their joy, smiles and laughs. Reem pointed out to me that this can be attributed to the projects that the school has initiated over the last three years which were focused on the children's mental health. "The children weren't always like this, they weren't happy, they weren't normal," Reem told me. In 2006 and 2007 a Hebron organisation focused on psychological health funded projects aimed at addressing the mental impacts that the violence has had on the school children. In 2008 and 2009 the Palestinian Red Crescent & Italian Red Cross funded a project to equip the Cordoba school teachers with the skills to identify and address as much as possible, the psychological needs of the children at the school. These steps have gone a long way in improving the mental wellbeing of the children. I try and believe that they are normal children but how can they be when they are living in such abnormal circumstances. I hope that what they see and experience during these difficult years will make them stronger and better people and that they will not succumb to the type of evils that these kinds of experiences can lead to. My thoughts are also with the settler children who have been raised in a culture of violence. They too deserve better than this. I hope that one day my presence or any presence of internationals won’t be required on Al-Shuhada Street to keep the two groups apart. And I hope that no matter what the solution adopted in the future is, be it a two-state or one, that both of these groups of children will grow up to be normal people, living in normal circumstances with nothing more than memories of their abnormal past.  

* Some sources spell Cordoba as Qurtobah