Childhood under Siege
On the violation of rights of Palestinian children under Israeli military occupation
Compiled by Lesley Whiting
1) Introduction
2) The Palestinian Context
3) The rights of Children
4) Living with Violence
5) Psychosocial effects of violence
6) Impacts on Education
7) Reflections on Youth
8) Arrest, Detention, Torture of children
9) Blaming the victim - racist myths
Introduction
The following is a brief overview of Palestinian childrens lives under occupation, particularly within the time frame of the 2nd Intifada. Information has been collected from various sources, including personal observations, testimonies of Palestinian parents, children and teachers, experiences of International activists with ISM, and Palestinian and International NGO's which are listed at the end.
This brief report cannot do more than provide the smallest glimpse of the lives of Palestinian children which obviously can neither do justice to the extent of their suffering, or their hopes, reasons for optimism and their struggles for freedom. However in my brief forays into the occupied territories I saw enough to alert me to the very real and frightening problems of Palestinian children. I hope, here, to begin to reveal how the specific goals and policies of the Israeli occupation deprive Palestinian children of almost all of their basic rights, and how it forces them to live under harsh conditions of continuous violence, brutality and obstacles to their well-being and development - indeed their very existence.
One major concern which emerges is for the well-documented fact that brutalised and physically and psychologically traumatised children usually grow into adults who face grave difficulties in establishing psychologically healthy families and social relationships, thus negatively affecting the whole society. A generation of such children, having learned from their oppressors that brutality and violence is considered an effective means to solve conflict, are not likely to find it easy to produce, as adults, either the kind of conditions to build a healthy nation of their own, (clearly part of the intention of the Israeli occupation), or a just and peaceful coexistence that most people hope for in the region.
Unless the root cause, the multilayered belligerent occupation which permeates and strangulates every aspect of Palestinian life, is fully revealed and removed and the resulting traumatisation of bodies and minds of the next generation are healed, road maps and all kinds of peace processes imposed from without are unlikely to produce anything but the most superficial and temporary results. It is therefore in the hope of stimulating interest in the issue that I offer the following.
Rights of the Child
In 1990 the UN convention of the rights of children came into force, which was ratified in most countries except the USA and Somalia. In 1991 the CRC was agreed to and signed in Israel. When Israel submitted in 2000 (6 years late), its report on childrens rights, there was absolutely no mention made of Palestinian children in the occupied territories. Despite the fact that under international law the foreign occupying power is responsible for the occupied citizens under their jurisdiction, it appeared to be a move to absolve itself of that responsibility.
Some of the relevant rights of children (including 1951 Rights of Refugee Children) to be kept in mind while going through these pages, and which are violated regularly in the Occupied Territories are:
-Right to life
-Right to Education
-Right to aquire a nationality
-Right to leave and enter their own country
-Freedom from arbitrary or unlawful interference with one's family, privacy or home
-Protection from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse
-Right to highest attainable state of health
-Right to rest, leisure and play
-Freedom from being subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or deprived of liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily
-The protection of children in armed conflict
Moreover, the Fourth Geneva Convention which is relative to the protection of civilians in time of war are also routinely violated by the following practices by Israel in the Palestinian Territories:
-systematic torture
-collective punishment (including house demolition and restriction of movement)
-prolonged closures (leading to the loss of employment etc)
-expansion of settlements and the transfer of the civilians of Israel (settlers) into the Occupied territories for purposes of colonisation
-detention and imprisonment of Palestinians outside the OPT (in Israel)
-administrative detention for prolongued periods
-revocation of residency rights
-expropriation and exploitation of natural resources (notably confiscation of land and water) to meet the needs of the occupying power.
-use of heavy military weapons in populated civilian areas
-denial of access of food and medical supplies
-denial of access of sick and injured to hospitals
The Palestinian Context
The current Intifada is well into its 3rd year. 2002 saw greatly intensified Israeli military violence and re-invasion of the West Bank & Gaza, with frequent and often massive incursions and the imposition of severe internal closures creating a state of total seige in most major Palestinian towns and cities.
The Intifada represents an intensification of military activities that are a part of daily life in the West Bank & Gaza. For ordinary Palestinian civilians in most towns and cities this means nightly military operations with tanks, APC's gunfire and shelling, routine house to house searches; arbitrary arrests, detention, interrogation and torture, missile attacks from helicopter gunships on heavily populated civilian areas, particularly Gaza, as well as the ongoing problems of checkpoints, regular house demolitions, settler violence, land and water confiscation.
Internal closure is imposed frequently by strict 24 curfew, and a tightly controlled system of check points and roadblocks creating a state of "lockdown" .This severely disrupts every aspect of civilian daily life, denying access to work, all types of services and institution and denying children access to school or even safe places to play out doors.
During hours of curfew, the policy of the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) is "shoot on sight" and "shoot to kill". All major towns and cities have experienced days, weeks and sometimes months of 24 hour curfew which amounts to the collective imprisonment of a population within their own homes. Curfew is often arbitrarily announced, to be lifted briefly for short periods to permit residents to get foood and essentials, and reimposed suddenly, sometimes by shooting. The anxiety produced is intense -(neither children or adults always know when there is curfew, and if there is, whether if they step outside they will be shot on sight).
Systems of checkpoints and roadblocks severely restrict movement, and are symbolic of the total permeation and disruptive effect of the occupation on Palestinian life. Checkpoints are notorious for being places where Palestinians will face long delays, humiliation, brutality and where daily people, cars and ambulances are routinely denied access to hospitals and services sometimes at the cost of lives.Roadblocks sever all access to and from villages so even delivery of food and essentials becomes an arduous and difficult task.
According to B'tselem (Israeli Centre for Human Rights in Occupied Territories) the situation of prolonged and sweeping curfews is a violation of international law which cannot be justified by security needs and renders disproportionate harm to civilians. B'tselem's view is that the curfew policy constitutes collective punishment, absolutely prohibited by international law.
Poverty levels have soared rapidly. The intensification of the crises has resulted in a massive decline in national income, and devastation of the infrastructure and economy. SinceOctober 2000 economy has lost over half of the GDP, unemployment has increased by 3 times and more that 2/3rds of households live below the poverty line.
Massive destruction of civilian and administrative infrastucture has taken place, particularly in the invasions of April and May 2002, in the systematic trashing of government offices, confiscation and destruction of records and statistics, electricity, communications, sewage, water and other services. There is ongoing concern about the possibility of a humanitarian disaster. In April 2002 the FAO stated that the total blockade of the WB & Gaza has paralysed the Palestinian economy which is now in deep recession with millions of people severely impoverished and food insecure."
Living with Violence
According to UNICEF, all 1.8 million Palestinian children have experienced violence in some form during the Israeli military operations of April - May 2000. From the beginning of the 2nd intifada until now, over 400 Palestinian children have been killed, around 7,000 wounded, and 500 of those permanently disabled. According to Defence for Children International there are about 300 children currently held in Israeli military or civil detention.
Violence against children takes many forms:
Children may be witness to violence against fathers, friends and brothers, in streets, check points or in own homes. Appendix 3 In house to house searches, routinely carried out in the early hours of the morning - especially in the refugee camps - many ISM volunteers report soldiers forcing entry, frequently abusing, beating or humiliating the residents, forcing them into the streets (sometimes in rain or freezing weather) at gunpoint, shoot over the heads of sleeping children, ransacking and trashing of homes, and stealing property. In many cases they smash holes through the walls to enter neighbouring houses to avoid having to move through the streets. Male residents may be forced to remove clothing, detained or arrested without any reason being given. Sometimes troops occupy houses, this means that the entire family are forced into one room and held there at gunpoint, while the soldiers occupy the house sometimes for hours or even days for military purposes. Appendix 1
Children have been routinely teargassed, attacked with soundbombs, verbally abused or injured with shrapnel or rubber bullets on their way to school. Their sleep is often broken by machine gunfire, the sound of tanks moving in the street, tank shelling, US Apache helicopter gunships, from which missiles are fired into homes or at cars, the scream of F16 fighter jets, sniper fire, explosions, as soldiers explode doors to force entry into houses. This is particularly bad in Gaza where many parents report that they never get an unbroken nights sleep, and fathers often stay up all night on alert for an attack from which they have to protect their families. Many houses have been shelled by artillery fire. Most children at a very early age, have developed the skill of defining the different of weapons and calibre of bullets used simply by the sound. Most children have extensive collections of spent Israeli ammunition which they can name accurately, ranging from tear gas cannisters, to various calibre of bullets and American made missiles. They have, for many, become the playthings of childhood.
In some cities children are routinely exposed to settler violence. Hebron is a particular example, where paramilitary gangs of heavily armed settlers from the illegal Kiryat Arba settlement roam the streets and frequently verbally abuse or beat up children without provocation, often in sight of Israeli soldiers who often either do not intervene, or who have been known to side with the settlers. (In the year 2000, seven Palestinian children some under 10 years old were killed when settlers (in different incidents) intentionally drove their vehicles into groups of Palestinian children). Appendix 2
Youth become involved in violent clashes, throwing stones at tanks, who often respond with tear gas, rubber bullets and live gunfire.
Besides this significant numbers of children mentioned increased beatings at home or school. NGO's confirm that parents under stress and perpetual anxiety from unemployment, poverty violence and uncertainty result in tension in family relationships which manifest in increased domestic violence.
Psychosocial Effects of violence on children
Under curfew, TV for many becomes the only form of entertainment. Hobbies are few and opportunities to participate in sports, play outdoors, or visit cinema's, clubs, friends or parks is non-existent. TV is often interrupted by breaking news of an attack, a shooting a killing or new series of demolitions, which heightens the sense of anxiety or insecurity. Many families reported that they cannot not even allow their children to look out of windows, due to fear of sniper fire.
Children responded by becoming emotionally distant, and exhibiting a great deal of sadness, anxiety and fear. Mothers report that "our chldren live in a constant state of fear. Children feel that nowhere is safe, since the army can and does violate the sanctity even of home, can attack on the way to school or at school, or on the way home. Indeed children also suffer from severe anxiety about their ability to get home safely, or if they do, that their home, parents or siblings will still be there intact. Many parents report in dismay that they feel their children have no childhood, they become adults very young, sensing that not even their parents can protect them. Mothers also report that children under 5 are the worst affected. Virtually no counselling exists for this age group.
Children exhibit typical behavioural symptoms which range from
- enactment of violence towards each other and aggressive behaviour towards parents
- lack of concentration and inability to focus on lessons
- not caring for themselves, not eating properly, neglecting their personal hygeine
- self wetting, clinging, screaming, hysteria, nightmares
- extreme anxiety, feeling that no-one can protect him/her
- parents report that some children respond to sounds of military activity by wetting their pants, screaming fits, or throwing up.
The incidences of symptoms is generally proportionate to the incursions and televised violence in that area. For many children the favourite games have become imitating a funeral procession with friends, or enacting the daily conflict they see around them by playing "Israelis and Palestinians "
Daring Israeli soldiers has become a favourite game of youth - who slip away from their parents protecting into the streets, often with results that are lethal.
Impact on Education
At the end of the 2001 - 2002 school year, the Ministry of Education reported that 216 students had been killed, 2,514 students injured and 164 arrested. 17 teachers had been killed and 71 arrested.
Approximately 50% of students and 35,000 employees from the education sector were prevented from reaching schools. Most children spent their 2-3 month "summer break" imprisoned at home under strict military curfew.
Rita Giacaman from Birzeit University conducted a detailed study on schools in the Ramallah area, which is fairly typical. According to the results published in "Schooling at Gunpoint", 42% of schools were directly affected by gunfire, of those approximately 50% were fired on while school was convening, the other approximately 50% while the school was empty. Most reported that this happened not once only but on several occasions. Schools sustained extensive damage including broken walls and doors, shattered windows, furniture , computers libraries books and water tanks destroyed. Some had been shelled by tanks.
Around 48% had been invaded and some had been occupied by the army, which had then been surrounded by barbed wire to prevent access. Upon return, the staff and students found doors that had been blown off, shattered glass, destruction of labs, bathrooms, libraries, cafeteria, school records, visual aids and toys, classrooms urinated in, and property stolen.
Difficulties Accessing school
Almost all students face a variety of difficulties in accessing schools. The biggest problem being checkpoints, where children face the possibilities of extensive delays, involving long periods of waiting sometimes in scorching sun, rain or freezing weather, being verbally or physically harassed or humiliated, being shoved or beaten or intimidated with weapons, exposed to rubber bullets (lethal at close range), teargas and and sound bombs.
Several incident's illustrate the type of harrassment commonly faced by schoolchildren. In March 2003 a large group (over 100) of students were trudging across a muddy hillside (due to closures) from their school in Nablus in heavy rain. They were suddenly confronted by the soldiers in jeeps who took their ID's and held them at gunpoint in the freezing rain for 2 or 3 hours, for no particular reason. Eventually the soldiers scattered all their ID's in a pool of muddy water, from which the children were forced to scramble to retreive them.
ISM volunteers on school patrol in Nablus witnessed and was attemping to help primary school children attempting to get home along a street past a tank. When the children attempted to pass, the tank would rev its engine, throwing up clouds of dust and fumes and manouvere around terrifying the children and suddenly it would charge at them and the soldier would fire above the heads of the terrified and screaming children. There was no stone-throwing or other "provocation" happening at the time. It appeared to the volunteer that the soldiers were doing this simply as a kind of "sport". The situation continued for about 30 minutes until the children could be got to safety.
5 disabled students have been beaten up on their way to or from school, four disabled students have been subjected to rubber bullet fire, and 3 detained at the checkpoint until after dark. (The latter is also highly traumatising because anyone seen moving on the streets after dark can be shot on sight).
Student from many cities report being teargassed on the way to and from school, there are some reports of teargas cannisters being thrown into schoolplaygrounds - enclosed spaces from which children could not escape the acrid burning and suffocating effects.
In Hebron, students face the additional problem of assaults by heavily armed settlers as mentioned previously. In the old city of Hebron, for some school children the only route to school involves jumping from roof to roof, with the help of a few strategically placed ladders put in place by Palestinian residents. Sometimes soldiers come and kick down the ladders, forcing the children to flee back across the rooftops to safety, or seek another route.
2 of the 3 universities in Hebron are have been completely closed by the army for the past year. Professors have attempted to arrange lectures in high schools after school hours, but even these schools have now been theatened by the army to refuse to allow entry to university students or face closure themselves.
The impact on childrens Mental health and performance.
Obviously, schooling itself under such stressful conditions, becomes a traumatic experience, and equally obviously, the normal learning processes are severely affected. A suitable and receptive mental environment for learning cannot co-exist in a child's mind dominated by fear and anxiety.
Rita Giacaman's "Schooling at Gunpoint" reports the following:
" When prompted to respond to the impact of such events .principals and teachers reported that several students were clearly traumatized, with fear and feelings of being physically threatened and violated dominating their state, a state that could not possibly have a llowed them to concentrate on their studies. Many fell into serious worry episodes, either fearing coming to school, or fearing getting back home or both. When attacks took place while school was in session there were reports of some children fainting in shock and fear. Others reported episodes of crying for no immediate or apparent reason, crying at night, unexplained bouts of screaming, enuresis, unusually high levels of hyperactivity and fainting..The impact of trauma was reflected in younger childrens drawings and play. We were told that younger children began to draw only "gloom" in black and white or red (for fire) colours, images of tanks, soldiers and clashes, or acted out in play Army vs the Shebab (youth) confrontations, funeral processions and even so called "suicide bomber" themes during recess. These themes seem to have dominated their consciousness.
Some principals reported that students began to rush out of class immediately after hearing any noise outside, thinking it must be shooting, some reported getting into hysterical behaviour mode, which staff had difficulty in controlling. Other reported that student begin to imagine that the army is always at the school, making it difficult for them to concentrate. Students also feared being seated by windows, due to experiences of shattering glass, and reacting fearfully to any evidence of previous army presence, as in flashback, extreme sadness and negative change in facial features, Symptoms of psychological stress include frequent headaches and other aches, children spacing outafter exposure to trauma, and even nervous collapse among some students. "
"..reports indicated that almost all teachers noted an increase in students inability to study, with 88% noting that this was a major problem, and the rest reporting similar problems such as students being continuously distracted, fixated on what will happen next, or the prescenc of confusion and anxiety among students. Some students could only focus on the dangers in the streets, and worry more about getting home than what's going on in class. Some reported that students were simply stunned, not able to learn at all. Older students begin to seriously worry about the imminent possibility of never completing their studies, and the bleak future that lies ahead. "
Reflection on Youth
The impact of the occupation upon youth is highly disturbing. Days, weeks and months of being imprisoned in their homes during ongoing curfew takes their toll. Despite the parents efforts, young boys slip into the streets. Many parents find themselves powerless to prevent this, and volunteers have witnessed children following tanks and being rounded up by adults, only to escape and return again and again to the streets. Schools are closed, shops are boarded up and whatever cinemas or clubs there were have long closed down. Urged partly by their own anger and outrage and partly by the inner need and the peer pressure to "defend my country" and "resist the occupation" they go to join the clashes and throw stones at tanks, which symbolise the oppression and humiliation of their country, in an open act of defiance and resistance. Soldiers in the tanks ( which are built to withstand artillery fire) respond sometimes with teargas or rubber bullets, but more frequently with live ammunition. 3
An occasional diversion are the cybercafe's - those which open into the inside of malls or shopping centres frequently keep their shutters partly open, knowing that young boys will congregate in flocks in front of the computer. The eardrums of anyone entering are greeted by a barrage of machine gun fire, as boys "train" on a computer game called "Counterpoint" where they can shoot the enemy in sanitised cyberspace, the blood an guts reality of being killed or maimed while virtually defenceless against live ammunition is temporarily suspended.
With closures of schools and universities, the education process disrupted, soaring unemployment and economic collapse, it is difficult for young people to have a vision of a future which holds forth hope. To compound this, for adolescent boys, the image of the father figure at home, unemployed due to closures and ecomomic collapse, humiliated, with his ability to protect and even provide for his family severely undermined by the occupation, the psychological need for a role model amidst their dangerous lives is unfullfilled. There is the ever present danger of a psychological transfer or authority to the image of the militants who are seen to be actively involved in the struggle for freedom, and the martyrs who are seen to have sacrificed themselves for the cause.
The results of a questionaire, conducted in Hebron given to local youth speaks for itself. Iin response to the question "what do you want to do when you've completed your studies?" 72% of the responses expressed some form of death wish.
The dilemmas and challenges which face every Palestinian parent or educator, of keeping the young people off the streets, helping them build a vision of hope and optimism for a future and channelising their fully justified rage into a constructive means of resistance are formidable. (It is important to acknowledge here that amazing work is being done in this regard, but is beyond the scope of this current report).
.
Arrest, Imprisonment and Torture
According to DCI (Defence for Children International) approximately 350 children arecurrently being held under Israeli military or civil detention. During the first Intifada Israel arrested 175,000 Palestinians. In 2001, the Mandela Institute estimated that there were 2,247 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. Israel does not use the term "political prisoners" but calls them "security detainees", thus delegitimising their political efforts and disassociating them with other legitimate struggles of people for independence (such as in South Africa), but also protecting Israels reputation as a democracy.
The use of torture on Palestinian prisoners, including children, is an ongoing and systematised procedure. The Israeli Human Rights organisation B'Tselem estimates that around 85% of Palestinian political prisoners are subjected to torture.
In 1999 Israeli Military order #132 was re-enacted permitting the Israeli army to arrest children of 12 years and older, since which time the number of 12 - 14 year olds held has been on the gradual increase.
Arrests of children may happen in the home, in the street or at checkpoints. Arrests from home usually happen during the small hours of the morning, when heavily armed soldiers may forcibly enter the house, waking the family from sleep, violating all domestic boundaries that normally permit the child a sense of privacy, security and safety. They frequently verbally or physically abuse the residents, often resort to obscene sexual gestures, remarks or threats to the women, and "search" the house which usually means overturning and ransacking, sometimes stealing, the contents.
When children are arrested from the street, they are usually blindfolded, hand-cuffed and often laid face down in the jeep, where they may be beaten, and verbally abused. The family doesn't know where they are being taken, and, as the children are usually detained within prisons inside Israel are unable to visit them, which means they are likely to be deprived of any necessary counsel. Confinement, before being charged often takes place in tiny, dirty, foul smelling cells, either with no light or with continuous light, and no windows and filthy blankets.
Interrogation may be carried out by any of three bodies.The police, known for their widespread use of torture and harsh measures against palestinians; the military, who routinely use physical torture such as beatings and burning with cigarette ends; or the GSS, who use methods of psychological torture, sleep deprivation and prolonged "position abuse" which involves tying the body into unnatural positions for long periods which can cause extreme agony and internal damage of organs and tissues. When the interrogating bodies extract a "confession" the child is presented with a statement in Hebrew which cannot understand, which he is forced to sign. Appendix 4
Children may be held for days or years, cut off from his or her family, pending trial, under the same conditions as those who have been sentenced with the exception of wearing civilian clothing. If he is eventually released without charge, he will not be able to claim any compensation for the days, weeks months or years he has spent in detention.
In prison, the prisoners may face attack or abuse by Israeli prison guards, In the case of Telmond prison where Palestinian child prisoners are incarcerated with Israeli criminal prisoners, there are reports of children being threatened, attacked with razors, scalded with hot water, beaten and raped.
Obviously children who are imprisoned and tortured are extremely vulnerable to long-tern psychological and physical damage, with intense incidences of post traumatic stress disorders. Once again, it is also important to point out that children who survive violent incidents are likely to be at greater risk of becoming perpetrators of violence.
Blaming the Victim
As the violations of childrens rights have emerged into the media, simultaneously, an Israeli "analysis" of the problem has emerged alongside it. Some of the strangest myths which have made their way into Western consciousness via the media are variations on the following themes, which may sound familiar:
"Their parents train them in violence", " they are schooled in hatred" , " they send their children into the front line to get injured or killed in a play for world sympathy",
" parents encourage their sons to be suicide bombers to get money (from Hamas or other organisations who purportedly compensate the families of human bombs)", "Palestinian fighters use children as human shields" or even "it's in their genes".
Needless to say, these blatantly racist myths are both a way of distorting logic in the light of alarmingly high rate of child casualties in order to abslove the perpetrator and saves Israel's face in the eyes of the word, while conveniently turning the blame on the parents and the victims for their own injury or deaths. These myths also conveniently de-humanise the Palestinians, who then become the demonised "other", supposedly capable of unthinkable atrocities against their own children.
As to the accusation that Palestinian parents send their children into danger, one wonders why is the question not asked "why should children have to walk in front of tanks of an invading army to get to school, to a shop or medical clinic in the first place?" "what are heavily armed soldiers or paramilitary gangs of armed settlers doing in the Palestinian refugee camp, market place, or at the end of the street?" and "which place in the course of living one's daily life as a Palestinian in Gaza or the West Bank under a belligerent occupying power, is not dangerous?"
Palestinian parents do not send their children to their deaths, and mothers of husbands and sons who have been killed have pleaded for their voices to be heard above the cruel distortions which blames them for their childrens deaths. They re-iterate most strongly that they would never, ever, knowingly send their children to their deaths, any more that any mother in Europe, Asia , Africa, the US, Israel or any other part of the world would do.
Conclusion
It should be clear from the preceding pages that the violation of childrens rights, in context of the general violations of international law within the occupied Palestinian Territories should be a matter of grave concern to the international community. In fact it receives relatively little publicity, and as mentioned, when it does, is often clouded by distorted claims that attempt to make the Palestinians responsible for their own childrens deaths. Until a just political solution is achieved - which includes the full withdrawal of Israeli troops to the 1967 borders - it will be necessary for the international community to exert the strongest pressure on Israel to comply with international laws and conventions (to which Israel is a co-signitory), and respect the Universal rights of children.
Further, I believe it becomes our moral responsibility to support the efforts of Palestinian Youth workers, N.G.O's counsellors and educators in their efforts to heal child victims of violence and aggression.
Finally I wish to underline that a generation of traumatised children, whose educational development has been seriously undermined, represents both a severe setback and irreparable loss for the Palestinian people and their society, and severely jeopardises the prospects for security which Israel longs for, as well as the just peace, and the atmosphere of harmonious co-existence and potential for mutual enrichment which are the future hopes of the majority of Palestinians and Israelis.
Lesley Whiting
ism_egypt@yahoo.com <mailto:ism_egypt@yahoo.com>
Acknowledgements:
"A Generation Denied" Defence for Children International www.dci-pal.org <http://www.dci-pal.org/>
"Growing Up Under Curfew" March 2003 report, Save the Children , (Sweden & UK)
"Schooling at Gunpoint " Rita Giacaman, Birzeit University
International Solidary Movement www.palsolidarity.com <http://www.palsolidarity.com/>
International Palestinian Youth League, Hebron
Schools Across Borders, Hebron
Palestinian Federation of Womens Actions Committees, Tulkarem
Thanks to Rezeq Faraj
http://rezeq.com