‘Our aim is that children are protected’: besieged West Bank school fortifies its defences against settler violence- After deaths of five students at hands of Israeli settlers in last academic year, al-Mughayyir’s teachers and pupils are on high alert

Children watch Israeli security forces deploying in al-Mughayyir on 29 September, when dozens of settlers from hilltop outposts raided the village, leaving at least five burnt-out cars. Photograph: Zain Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images

 

William Christou and Sufian Abu Taha in al-Mughayyir

Tue 3 Nov 2026

This year, parents in al-Mughayyir had to be persuaded to send their children back to school. Israeli settlers had killed five teenage students last academic year – one of them at the school gates.

To reassure parents, teachers of the public secondary school gave a tour of the facilities, which they had spent the summer break fortifying. Metal fences now towered over the schoolyard’s walls and the door had been replaced by a sturdy metal gate. A new wall shielded the classrooms from a hilltop where last academic year a settler had shot dead two people, including a student.

Al-Mughayyir, a town of about 3,000 people north-east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, is under a siege by Israeli settlers. Armed settlers regularly raid the village, assaulting residents, attacking homes and seizing livestock. Israeli soldiers set up checkpoints that prevent people from entering or leaving for hours at a time.

The school is isolated on the very edge of the village, close to its entrance. Settlers stage their raids around the school, attacking under the watchful eye of the Israeli military.

A single Israeli soldier stands at the entrance of the village, his rifle slung over his shoulder as he paces back and forth idly. It is he who decides who can come and go in the village. The excited shouting of schoolchildren playing can be heard from where he stands; the children’s voices echo across the otherwise quiet village, most shops shuttered despite it being a weekday.

Residents say the violence is part of a wider project to displace Palestinians from their land, one that has already driven smaller communities from their homes. Now, they fear the same tactics are being turned against an entire village in an attempt to make life so intolerable that residents leave.

“When the settlers began their attacks, they began in the Jordan valley area, displacing communities of farmers consisting of 10, 20 people. Now, they are trying to displace entire villages. What’s happening in al-Mughayyir is the beginning of this project,” said Ameen Abu Alia, the 54-year-old mayor of the town... READ MORE   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/nov/03/our-aim-is-that-children-are-protected-besieged-west-bank-school-fortifies-its-defences-against-settler-violence

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Gaza students return to makeshift schools after three years of genocide. Hundreds of thousands of children attend classes in tents as destroyed schools, overcrowding and shortages continue to disrupt education across the strip

Palestinian children walk to school amid the rubble of destroyed buildings as the academic year begins, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, on 19 September 2026 (Bashar Taleb/AFP)

Nada Nabil in Gaza City, occupied Palestine

Published date: 23 September 2026

After three years of Israeli genocide deprived him of a formal education, 13-year-old Akram Helles is finally back in the classroom.

The Palestinian boy sits on a thin mattress alongside his seventh-grade classmates inside a white makeshift tent on their first day of the 2026 school year.

A large whiteboard stands at the front of the tent. Beside it is a single chair for their teacher at Gaza Municipality Preparatory School, set up in the Katiba area of the southern Rimal neighbourhood in western Gaza City.

The heat inside the tent is intense. The students sit on the bare ground. Yet Helles is excited to be back. 

“We still cannot believe that Akram has finally been able to join a real school after everything we have been through,” his father, 38-year-old Mohammad Helles, told Middle East Eye.

“During the war, Akram and his siblings were out of education for long periods. It was not easy for them to keep up with online learning or enrol in private schools,” he added.
 
According to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef), around 700,000 students have missed out on formal education since the genocide began in 2023.

On Sunday, around 500,000 students returned to education across Gaza for the first time since then - 350,000 in public schools and 150,000 in schools run by Unrwa, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.

But the schools they return to bear little resemblance to those they knew before the war.

Around 98 percent of schools in the Gaza Strip have been damaged by the Israeli army, including around 80 percent directly hit, according to Unicef. Many of the remaining buildings have been turned into shelters for displaced Palestinians, making regular schooling impossible.

Working with partners including Unicef and Unrwa, the Ministry of Education has set up a limited number of classrooms in shelters and plastic-sheet tents, many of which lack desks, chairs and basic services.

Tent classrooms lack desks, chairs and basic services across the Gaza Strip (Hani Abu Rezeq/MEE)

Even under these makeshift conditions, not every student has been able to enrol.

“We went through a lot before we were finally able to enrol Akram and his siblings at an educational point near the camp where we live,” Helles said.

“We tried to enrol our children somewhere close because we are afraid of sudden bombardments and want to be near them. They also cannot travel to distant areas because transport is unavailable or too expensive.”

For Helles, finding a suitable school was only one of the obstacles.

He has also struggled to provide his three children with basic supplies, including clothes, school bags and stationery.

“Prices in the markets are extremely high, and I lost my job because of the war. I now work helping my brother at a small street stall, so I cannot afford everything my children need, especially since there is no uniform and they need several sets of clothes,” Helles said.

“Unlike in the years before the war, I only bought the bare essentials.”

Thousands of students left out

These are not the only differences between education before the war and today.

Instead of attending school every day, students now follow a rotational system introduced by Gaza’s Ministry of Education. Boys attend on Saturdays, Mondays and Wednesdays, while girls attend on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each day is divided into three shifts to accommodate as many students as possible.

While the Helles family is relieved to have enrolled their three children in free public schools, hundreds of families are still unable to find places for their children in state-run education.

Osama Ayta, 43, has struggled to enrol his two children, Maria and Thaer, because there is no free school near their home.
 
“The problem is that I cannot send my children, who are eight and 11 years old, to schools far away,” Ayta told MEE.

In Gaza, children are learning the alphabet through grief and hunger

Read More »

“It’s dangerous; the roads are unsafe and social conditions are unstable. I am afraid something could happen to them away from our area.”  

Private schools are also out of reach. Ayta has no source of income and cannot afford their fees. 

Dozens of private schools have opened across the Gaza Strip since the January 2025 ceasefire, but high tuition fees mean only a limited number of families can afford to enrol their children.

“I managed to place them in a nearby free educational centre, but the conditions there are extremely poor, and there are no facilities. At the same time, I am still looking for a better option for them,” Ayta said.
 
Struggles of families like Ayta’s expose the scale of the education crisis facing Gaza as the strip enters its first formal school year since 2023.

Schools pushed beyond capacity

Wafa Maqat, 57, the principal of Gaza Municipality Preparatory School, said that demand for school places has been overwhelming, while the challenges of running classes remain immense.... READ MORE  https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/gaza-students-return-makeshift-schools-after-three-years-genocide

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An Israeli professor lost a prestigious US job offer after speaking out on Gaza. Now the university is paying him $250,000... The University of Minnesota withdrew an offer for Raz Segal to lead its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies after an organized campaign against his hiring

A few hundred people gather to call for a ceasefire in Gaza before setting up an encampment on the lawn of the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis on 29 April 2024. Photograph: Star Tribune/Getty Images

 Alice Speri

Thu 6 Aug 2026 08.00 EDT

When the University of Minnesota (UMN) extended an offer to historian Raz Segal to lead its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in June 2024, it did so upon the near-unanimous recommendation of a committee of academics after a rigorous search process. The scholars had enthusiastically praised Segal, with one committee member describing a presentation he gave as “breathtaking”.

But five days after making the offer, the university abruptly withdrew it, citing “perspective” it had received from members of the community. The reversal followed backlash over Segal’s criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, which he called “a textbook case of genocide” in an October 2023 op-ed published in Jewish Currents. Segal’s critics condemned the piece, published just days after the 7 October attacks in Israel, accusing him of justifying Hamas crimes – an assertion that Segal rejected and the article does not sustain.

Last week, more than two years since the offer was rescinded, Segal reached a $250,000 settlement with the university. As is standard with such settlements, the terms of the deal stipulate the payout is not an admission of wrongdoing on UMN’s part. The university did not respond to a request for comment.

Segal said the significant sum should encourage the dozens of scholars who have been punished for criticizing Israel with firings, suspensions and investigations to “fight back”.

The settlement came after Segal obtained dozens of emails through a public records request, revealing a pressure campaign on university officials by donors, legislators and pro-Israel activists. The documents shared exclusively with the Guardian, reveal how the university shifted from defending Segal to eventually walking back their decision to hire him... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/aug/06/professor-israel-gaza-university-of-minnesota

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Stanford students walk out of Sundar Pichai’s commencement speech... "According to Al Jazeera, the $1.2 billion Project Nimbus was signed between Google, Amazon and Israel in 2021. It aims to provide cloud computing infrastructure, A.I. and other technological services to the Israeli government and military.​"

MSN story by Owen Scott

6/15/2026 

Around 200 students walked out of the CEO of Google’s commencement speech at Stanford University, according to reports. ​

Other attendees could be seen blowing whistles and waving Palestinian flags, amid Project Nimbus, a scheme under which Google and Amazon provide the Israeli government with technological services. 

In footage obtained by an SFGATE reporter, students can be heard chanting “free, free Palestine,” as they left CEO Sundar Pichai’s speech.

“I must warn you all, this is only the second commencement speech I have ever given,” Pichai says in the video. “The first was literally in my backyard.”

​According to that same reporter, Pichai did not mention artificial intelligence in his speech. The topic had been mentioned in several commencement speeches by speakers throughout the year, leading to viral moments in which they were booed by the crowd... READ MORE  

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/general/stanford-students-walk-out-of-sundar-pichai-s-commencement-speech/ar-AA25G2aN

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Students who walked out of Pichai’s speech held their own “People’s Commencement,” featuring activist Mahmoud Khalil as the keynote speaker, according to SFGATE. 

Khalil had been detained for more than 100 days by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over his pro-Palestinian activism on Columbia University’s campus in 2024. ​

According to Al Jazeera, the $1.2 billion Project Nimbus was signed between Google, Amazon and Israel in 2021. It aims to provide cloud computing infrastructure, A.I. and other technological services to the Israeli government and military.​

A tenured art therapy professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) was suspended from teaching and placed under investigation following a student’s complaint about an assigned case study that mentioned violence against Palestinians.

Savneet Talwar. Photograph: Salome Chasnoff

 

We call it the P-word’: Chicago professor suspended after assignment mentions Palestinians

School of the Art Institute of Chicago professor put under investigation after a student complained about a case study

A tenured art therapy professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) was suspended from teaching and placed under investigation following a student’s complaint about an assigned case study that mentioned violence against Palestinians.

Savneet Talwar, a faculty member with the school’s art therapy and counseling program, assigned the case study in April to a class on the cultural dimensions of therapy. The assignment asked students to develop an ethical treatment plan for a hypothetical queer, Muslim woman living in the US.

The language of the assignment read: “While she was not particularly politically active in her home country, protests in support of Palestine resonated with her on a personal level. She felt deeply affected by the violence against Palestinian civilians and was critical of the home government’s limited response.”

The two-page assignment, which was reviewed by the Guardian, mostly focused on other elements of the client’s case, including her family history, relationships and status as an immigrant. It made no additional references to Palestine or Palestinians, and no mention of Israel. But Talwar’s department had already been mired in multiple complaints and investigations about alleged antisemitism involving the same student, and faculty had been required to take anti-bias training as the school sought to address the “climate” in the department.

The school was also sued in late 2023 by an Israeli student in the same program over alleged antisemitism, including an assignment for which students were asked to review images drawn by children depicting violence by Israeli soldiers against Palestinian civilians.

After Talwar’s student received the case study, the professor got a call from a dean asking whether she had assigned “anything with Palestine in it”. She was then called into an “urgent” meeting with the school’s provost, and her class for the following day was canceled. The following day, on 17 April, the school formally notified Talwar that she was being put on paid leave, and forbade her from speaking about the matter with students and colleagues... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/05/professor-suspended-assignment-mentions-palestinians

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Meet Arwa Elrayess—the first Palestinian elected president of the Oxford Union in its 202-year history.

Husam Zomlot & Arwa Elrayess

Husam Zomlot

Ambassador of the State of Palestine to the UK. Former Ambassdor to the United States. 

@hzomlot

 

Meet Arwa Elrayess—the first Palestinian elected president of the Oxford Union in its 202-year history. 

 

I’ve known Arwa and her family since she was a teenager. 

 

She is from #Gaza, and now she’s making history at #Oxford, championing open debate on human rights, justice, and equality. 

 

Despite silencing campaigns against her, her election shows the power of young Palestinian talent and a growing global movement for justice. 

 

From Zohran Mamdani in New York to Arwa Elrayess at Oxford—it’s the same movement, the same demand. And it is unstoppable. 

 

 #ArwaElrayess #OxfordUnion #Palestine #FreePalestine #Justice #StudentMovement #PalestinianVoices.

 https://x.com/hzomlot/status/1997694456691122591

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‘The loss of education is the loss of the future itself’: Gaza’s children and teachers on two years without school With 97% of schools destroyed or damaged, 600,000 children have just begun their third year out of formal education. Three students and a teacher share their stories – and their hopes

‘I miss feeling normal’

Sarah al-Sharif, nine, Gaza City- Sarah's home and school were destroyed in the war

"I was seven when the war began. That morning on 7 October, I was sitting in my classroom, learning maths. I remember holding my pencil tightly when the first explosion shook the school. My heart felt like it stopped.

Soon after, my father came to take me home. I never saw that classroom again. My school is gone for ever. The Israeli army surrounded it, attacked the people sheltering inside and destroyed it completely. My home was also bombed – all these places are nothing but ashes now."

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/oct/19/education-gaza-children-teachers-two-years-without-school

Thaslima Begum

Sun 19 Oct 2025 

‘We don’t want pity, we want action’

Juwayriya Adwan, 12, al-Mawasi, Khan Younis

It has been two years since I was last inside a real classroom. Two years since I heard the morning bell at Khawla Bint al-Azwar school, sat at my desk and raised my hand during my favourite class. Sometimes I still vividly remember the sounds and smells: chalk dust, pencil shavings, laughter echoing down the halls. But my school no longer exists; it was bombed by the Israelis soon after the war began. My books were burned, and some of my friends killed.

I was in fifth grade on 7 October: the last day I went to school. That morning, air raid sirens screamed through the corridors. Some children cried, others held hands tightly. Our teacher tried to calm us, but even her voice trembled. I remember wishing for a normal day; lessons, recess, a poem recital. Instead, that day became the last page of my old life.

Now I live with my parents, two brothers and sister in a crowded shelter in al-Mawasi, Khan Younis. The tent walls flap in the wind, keeping neither cold nor heat away. We queue for water and food. Electricity is a dream and privacy doesn’t exist. Hope feels fragile.

At night, I look up at the stars through the holes of my tent and wonder if my friends see the same sky. Some message me when they can, saying they miss school and have kept their old notebooks; like treasures from a lost world. I feel guilty because I’ve lost all of mine.

I once dreamed of becoming a teacher to help Gaza’s children learn, even when life was hard. Now I dream of being a journalist – to write, to speak and to show the world what it means to be a child in Gaza. I want to tell our stories of fear and hunger, but also courage. Because even here, amid death and ruins, our voices refuse to be silent. 

When there’s some ... READ MORE   https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/oct/19/education-gaza-children-teachers-two-years-without-school

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1946, Jerusalem, Palestine: Janette Mikhael with teachers and students of the Girl Scout Leaders at Horsh al-Qubaybeh located west of Jerusalem.

1946, Jerusalem, Palestine: Janette Mikhael with teachers and students of the Girl Scout Leaders at Horsh al-Qubaybeh located west of Jerusalem.  @palsofnations

Girl Scout Promise

On my honor, I will try:
To serve God* and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law.

^{*Members may substitute for the word God
in accordance with their own spiritual beliefs.}

Girl Scout Law

I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong,
and responsible for what I say and do,
and to respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place,
and be a sister to every Girl Scout.   

 https://www.girlscouts.org/en/discover/about-us/what-girl-scouts-do/promise-and-law.html

https://www.wagggs.org/en/about-us/our-history/original-promise-and-law/

Chris Hedges Confronts the N.J. State Assembly on Dangerous Antisemitism Bill: The bill would accept the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which conflates criticism of the state of Israel and Zionism with antisemitism.

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https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/copy-confronts-the-nj-state-assembly?publication_id=778851&post_id=169193100&isFreemail=true&r=34riug&triedRedirect=true

Chris Hedges

Jul 24, 2025

 

VIDEO- ZIONISTS ATTACK FREE SPEECH 

https://youtu.be/ky5811p43-I

Text of Speech:

I am the former Pulitzer-prize winning Middle East Bureau Chief for The New York Times. I spent seven year covering the Middle East, including in Gaza and the West Bank. I am an Arabic speaker. During my time in the Middle East, I was based in Jerusalem and Cairo. I am also the author of 16 books and have taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University and Rutgers University. I live in Princeton.

I strongly oppose A3558, which expands antisemitism’s definition to include most anti-Zionst expression for the purpose of civil rights law. This is a dangerous assault on free speech by seeking to criminalize legitimate criticism of Israeli policies.

The Trump administration’s campaign to ostensibly root out antisemitism on college campuses is clearly a trope to shut down free speech and deport non-citizens, even if they are here legally. This bill falsely collapses ethnicity with a political state. And let’s be clear, the brunt repression on college campuses was directed against students and faculty who opposed the genocide in Gaza, 3,000 of whom were arrested and hundreds of whom were censored, suspended, or expelled. Many of these students are Jewish. What about their rights? What about their constitutional protections?

I have had numerous relationships with Israeli journalists and political leaders. I knew, for example, former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who negotiated the Oslo peace agreement. Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995 by an Israeli ultranationalist who opposed the peace accord, stated bluntly that the occupation was not beneficial to Israel. Israeli colleagues frequently criticize Israeli policies in the Israeli press in language that would be defined as antisemitic by A3558.

For example, the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, who served in the Israeli army and writes for the newspaper Haaretz, has called for sanctions to be imposed on Israel to stop the slaughter in Gaza, saying “Do to Israel what you did to South Africa.” 

Omer Bartov, who served as an Israeli company commander in the 1973 war, is Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University. He stated in an article on July 15 in The New York Times that his “inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.”

These kinds of statements, and many more I can quote from Israeli colleagues and friends, would see them under this bill criminalized as antisemites.

As someone who speaks and writes frequently about the conflict, I fear that any criticism I make of the Israeli government, although grounded in my long experience in the region, will make me a target if this measure is adopted.

It is imperative, especially with the press under attack from the Trump administration, that we do not erode our constitutionally protected speech and political expression.

---

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https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/copy-confronts-the-nj-state-assembly?publication_id=778851&post_id=169193100&isFreemail=true&r=34riug&triedRedirect=true