3: In their eyes
By Skip Schiel

Photos: Birzeit University student waiting for a taxi, Singing at Friends Lower school, September 2004

Showing the human face of the situation in Palestine --one of my strongest hopes for this current journey of discovery in the Levant .

Last week as I sought a shared taxi (called "serveece taxi here, a most innovative way to build a public transport system under occupation) in Ramallah's center, Al-Manara, I noticed a huge crowd of students waiting to travel the 10 or so miles to Birzeit University .

--What's up? I inquired. (my Arabic is primitive, but I can usually find someone with enough English to make sense of my words.)

--Flying checkpoint, might not be able to get to the university today.

While waiting for the taxi I sought faces, those that might show the frustration and anxiety of the infringement to the right to education. I've chosen one to show you.

Eventually I found a taxi driver willing to transport me and five students to the checkpoint. My heart fluttered as I realized this would be my first experience on this trip with the reality of occupation for students: the flying checkpoint. No advanced warning, no explanation, can happen any time, students can be arrested and detained, cameras might be confiscated, no connection with events in Israel (this was the day of the French Hill bombing in Jerusalem but the bombing occurred in the afternoon, the checkpoint in the morning.)

Half the usual number of students (2500 of 5000) and staff (300 or so of the 700) found a way to university that day (some live in the village of Birzeit and might not have been checkpoint blocked). Minor, maybe, but important in the aggregate. During the first Intifada, the school was closed for some 3 years. During the current Intifada, a major roadblock and sometime checkpoint curtailed access for over 2 years, until removed last December. For more information about this Surda checkpoint, try the link below.

In contrast, yesterday I easily walked to the Friends Lower School (archaically known as Friends Girls School ) near Old Ramallah and found faces that suggest what freedom might look like. Students were apparently happy, joyful, and--a good sign--usually ignored me. Little more than a passing smile. They appeared engaged with each other and with their teachers. I show one set of faces from some 100 images I made.

Despite the ease of access currently, we need to remember that occupation means uncertainty and lack of personal control. At any moment the clamp might squeeze shut, the dreaded occupying force might decide to close, curtail, invade, target, or otherwise interrupt the right to education. The massive boot falls heavily and with surprise. In 2002, targeting armed militants, Israel conducted Operation Defensive Shield, invading and utterly controlling many regions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They shot a missile into the police station bordering the other wing of the Friends School , the Upper or Boys School , damaging several rooms. Luckily (this time)--since students were not at school--they killed or injured no one.

Such is life under occupation, a reality I'm trying to digest, understand, portray.

"Surda Checkpoint, West Bank," by Jean-Marc Mojon in the Palestine Monitor, July 2003--

http://www.palestinemonitor.org/Special%20Section/Closure/Surda%20Checkpoint.htm

"Education Denied," by the Right to Education Campaign of Birzeit University--

http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/news/catindex28

Friends schools in Ramallah--

http://www.palfriends.org /

Photo spread about the flying checkpoint--

http://right2edu.birzeit.edu/news/article215

"Truth Against Truth," by Uri Avnery of Gush Shalom, a stunning portrayal of the Palestinian and Israeli narratives--

http://www.gush-shalom.org/Docs/Truth_Eng.pdf