Palestinian School's Day of Activities Defies Occupation

Monday the 7th of April will see a day of fun activities for the children of Fasayil, a small village in the Jordan Valley, part of the occupied West Bank. The events will take place in the village school and will be a part of the Brighton Tubas Friendship and Solidarity Group’s two week delegation to the area. The day’s aim is to re-launch the campaign to support and fundraise for Fasayil School.

The building of the Fasayil primary school is a joint project between the Popular Committee of Fasayil, the Palestinian Save the Jordan Valley Initiative of the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign and the Brighton-Tubas Friendship and Solidarity Group. Construction begun in the summer of 2007 in defiance of Israel’s ban on house building in the area and the school constitutes a physical manifestation of the Palestinian people’s peaceful resistance to the occupation. All construction in Fasayil requires a permit from the Israeli authorities, but since the occupation of the West Bank in 1967 none has been granted. The aim of this policy is to make it increasingly difficult for the Palestinians to stay on their land and in the Jordan Valley.

The villagers were almost immediately issued with an injunction on the continued building of the school by Israel’s ’Military Civil Administration’ and hence the building was threatened with demolition if the work continued. The locals, however, were defiant in their response: ” They can knock our school down as often as they want. We cannot stop them from doing so. We will build the school again and again and again. They cannot destroy our determination to give proper education to our children.” After a successful petition launched by the Brighton Tubas Group, the school’s plight received some mainstream media attention (see  http://news.independent.co.uk/education/schools/article3180160.ece) and the Israeli Military Civil Administration were forced to concede that “humanitarian considerations” must be taken into account before demolishing the school.

In Early December, the project suffered a setback as some of the walls collapsed during unusually heavy weather. As the villagers were painfully aware of the likelihood of the school project being demolished already from the beginning, the shell of the building was built cheaply out of traditional materials such as mud and straw bricks so that the cost of rebuilding would not be too great. The village is now in the process of repairing the damaged parts with more sturdy concrete blocks as well as adding a second building.

Therezia Cooper from the Brighton Tubas Group says ”The determination of the people of Fasayil not to let this occupation crush them and drive them from their land is truly inspirational. Education is a human right and hopefully the activities day will allow the children to experience the school for what it is supposed to be and have some fun. This will be a small victory over the occupation in itself”.

Journalists based in the area are encouraged to get in contact on the numbers above and come to Fasayil on Monday afternoon.

For photos of the building of Fasayil school see  http://charity.dc5b.com/fsp/

Photos of the activities day will be available after the event.

ENDS

Notes for journalists

From the 5-15th of April 2008 a delegation from Brighton will visit Tubas and the Jordan Valley.

The Brighton-Tubas Friendship and Solidarity Group was set up in 2006 and is a network aimed at fostering links between community groups in Tubas and the Jordan Valley in Palestine and Brighton in England. The Jordan Valley is an area Israel is annexing particularly forcefully with the aim of removing its Palestinian population and making their life there impossible.