Al Aqabah Kindergarten and their Village
130 children attending.
Israel's High Court unlikely to overturn demolition orders against the village.
Best hope is a face-saving compromise:
Village to submit comprehensive land-use plan
and Civil Administration to issue permits retroactively.
PLEASE CALL CONGRESS AND ASK THEIR HELP NOW!
The children of Al Aqabah, a Palestinian village in the Jordan River Valley, are facing the demolition of their kindergarten and their whole village. Israeli Civil Administration, which has authority over all zoning and building in “Area C,” has ordered the demolition of the whole village: the mosque, medical center, the roads, all the homes, and a kindergarten serving more than 130 children, for "lack of a building permit." This, however, is making a mockery of law and justice since building permits are rarely, if ever, issued in Area C. A recent report by The Guardian indicates that the Israeli Civil Administration granted Palestinians only 91 of 1517 building applications, while during the same period 18,472 housing units were sanctioned and built in Jewish-only settlements.
Al Aqabah is located in the Jordan River Valley, far away from settlements and Israeli borders, and it has never posed any security concerns. The Rebuilding Alliance, an American nonprofit organization, helped the village rebuild its kindergarten, while the Japanese and Belgian embassies and the Norwegian People expanded the school to two floors. 130 children attend the kindergarten today and it is the only such school in the region. Just as construction of the kindergarten got underway in 2004, the Israeli Civil Administration issued demolition orders against the whole village. The village, with the help of the Rebuilding Alliance, hired Israeli attorney Elia Tusya Cohen to petition for a lifting of the demolition orders, and after 4 years of negotiations and waiting, on April 17th the Israeli High Court heard their petition and urged the attorney to either accept the Civil Administration’s proposal that would leave the public buildings standing but demolish most of the homes in the village – or face the loss of the village in entirety.
A face-saving compromise may yet be possible and that is where we ask your help. The Civil Administration argued that they cannot issue a building permit because the village does not have a comprehensive village plan on file. The village commissioned a comprehensive land-use plan two years ago and offers to have the plan reviewed by BIMKOM – Israeli Planners for Planning Rights -- to be sure it conforms to Israeli standards. Furthermore, the Rand Corporation is considering a proposal to independently review the plan. We ask your help to urge the Civil Administration to accept the Village plan and issue permits retroactively. This would save the village, along with the Kindergarten, and meet all Israeli regulations.
The Israeli High Court will soon issue its verdict -- or allow time for the village to submit its land-use plan. This is the time to push our respective governments to speak up on behalf of this Palestinian kindergarten and the village of Al Aqabah.
We need your help!
Please:
1) Call your congressional representatives and ask to speak to their senior staffer for foreign policy ( here's an up-to-date Powerpoint Script!). Ask that person to call the Israeli Embassy and the U.S. State Department on your behalf and to call you back with the reply. Use this NEW template for your folow-up email.
2) Donate Now! Help us raise the $17,000 we need to include all 35 village buildings and homes in jeopardy in the petition before the High Court (the existing ones we represent plus the new ones that need representation) and to spread the word and save this village! Please, give what you can. Every gift makes a difference.
3) Reach Out! Volunteer support and outreach is essential to save the Al Aqabah Kindergarten and every hand counts. Particularly if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, call us to help make calls, mentor, network on Facebook and Myspace, and respond to emails: 650 325-4663.
Hundreds of Americans and people around the world helped build this kindergarten through the Rebuilding Alliance.. 130 kindergarteners and 70 elementary school students attend school there. Israel’s allies have invested heavily in this village: USAID helped build the road, the British government built the medical clinic, the Japanese Embassy provided funds for a water tank and helped add a second story on the kindergarten, as did the Belgian Embassy and the People of Norway. The UN Development Programme, CARE International, the Danish Embassy, and the Dutch have all helped too, and the Palestinian Authority installed phones and electricity.
To keep their spirits up, the teachers and children at the Al Aqabah Kindergarten are making "Pinwheels for Peace" A school in Nevada City California is making pinwheels for peace for them too, and a girl scout troup in Woodside, CA joined in as well. Will you invite the children you know and join them? The instructions are simple -- and there’s even a Quicktime movie that shows you how:
“Write your thoughts about war and peace, tolerance, living in harmony with others on one side of the pinwheel. and on the other side, paint, collage or draw to visually express your feelings.”
Taking time to write down his thoughts about war and peace and tolerance and living in harmony
Please -- take a deep breath, cut out a pinwheel, write your hopes for peace on one side and draw your feelings on the other. Then call your congressperson and your senators in Washington DC and speak with their senior staffer for foreign policy. Finally, email them a letter requesting their help, then donate now to support this important project.
Project History
After 36 years as a "Closed Military Area", the tiny village of Al Aqabah (in the West Bank near Tubas) won its right to exist. On September 20, 2000, the Israeli High Court ordered the removal of an Israeli military camp that had conducted live training exercises inside the village. In August, 2003, when a family foundation called the Oxford Foundation asked The Rebuilding Alliance to rebuild a school that would not be at risk of demolition, Donna Baranski–Walker, Director of The Rebuilding Alliance, met Mrs. Abla Mahroum, the Director of the Jenin Early Childhood Education Center, who introduced us to the Governor of the Jenin Directorate. The Governor recommended Al Aqabah because the Israeli military had complied with the High Court’s order and their kindergarten needed a new roof.
The Israeli military camp that had conducted live training exercises in the village was removed in June 2003 — in the worst days live training exercises conducted by the camp, within the village, injured 50 villagers and killed 8. The Israeli military had also expropriated privately registered land, and demolished all new buildings. Haj Sami Sadeq, Head of Al Aqabah Village Council, was himself a victim of those attacks and will be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Yet he welcomes all who want to help. “I believe in God and I believe that all people, no matter who they are, deserve respect,” he said.
The Village of Al Aqabah built a kindergarten many years ago – but the Israeli Army refused to allow it to build a permanent structure. The kindergarten was constructed with temporary walls and a corrugated metal roof – hot in the summer, very cold in the winter, with birds and scorpions finding their way inside. Now that the military camp had been removed from the entrance to the village, they were ready to put a roof on the kindergarten, and invite villagers home.
In August, Haj Sami Sadeq welcomed our team to Al Aqabah, to hear their story and visit the existing kindergarten. Haj Sami hoped that a good kindergarten would be a strong invitation to some 800 villagers that they could safely come back home now. We hoped our small grant would just cover the cost of the roof — Haj Sami was to work with Leila Sbeih, an engineer with the Jenin directorate and Mrs. Abla Mahroum to prepare estimates. They quickly realized the walls were not strong enough to hold a permanent roof. With confidence that we would find others who were willing to help, they set–out to plan a kindergarten of the best possible design for the 60 students enrolled. They planned an eight–room building with work⁄play stations, kitchen, and bathrooms, for a total project cost of $35,000 for 200 sq. meters.
Construction was already underway on September 24th, 2003 when Craig and Cindy Corrie, the parents of Rachel Corrie, visited the school along with Fred Sholmka from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Huwaida Arraf of the International Solidarity Movement, and Donna Baranski-Walker and Elizabeth Jadon of The Rebuilding Alliance.
Our seed grant attracted amazing matching funds: the Jenin Early Childhood Education Center provided the furnishings and teacher training for the center. Hundreds of people donated funds to complete the $35,000 grant needed to build the Kindergarten construction project. Fred Shlomka brought Israeli volunteers to help finish the kindergarten and plant a garden.
We thought that the Al Aqabah kindergarten was a safe and easy project because the village won its right to exist in Israeli court. However, most of the village was given demolition orders in October, 2003. At the end of December, two houses were demolished. The American Consulate expressed concern, and further demolitions were frozen at the time. The Rebuilding Alliance engaged Israeli Attorney Elia Tusya Cohen to represent the village and petition the Israeli High Court to remove the demolition orders. The court responded to the petition by ordering negotiations between the military and the village. Negotiations failed, however, and the Israeli Civil Administration issued more and more demolition orders against the buildings and infrastructure in the village of Al Aqabah. Now we call on our friends around the world to raise this to the highest diplomatic levels to save this town and our kindergarten
