Description

Graffiti sprayed on Jerusalem’s bilingual school reads: “There is no coexistence with a cancer.” (photo: Jerusalem Firefighters)

Graffiti sprayed on Jerusalem’s bilingual school reads: “Kahane was right.” (photo: Jerusalem Firefighters)

First-graders at Jerusalem’s bilingual school. Photo by Emil Salman

Firefighters in a classroom that was set on fire in the bilingual Hand In Hand school in Jerusalem, November 29, 2014. (Photo by Tali Mayer/Activestills.org)

A burned first-grade classroom at Jerusalem’s bilingual school after it was the target of an arson attack, November 30, 2014. (Photo by Activestills.org)

Banners hung outside Jeruslem’s “Hand in Hand” bilingual school reading, roughly translated as “moving forward together,” November 30, 2014. (Photo by Activestills.org)

Supporters from anti-racism organization “Tag Meir” arrive to show support at the Jerusalem bilingual school that was the target of an arson attack the night before, November 30, 2014. (Photo by Activestills.org)

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat (center) arrives at the bilingual school in Jerusalem the morning after it was the target of an arson attack, November 30, 2014. (Photo by Activestills.org)

Police with the three arson suspects. Photo by Ido Erez,Ynet Dec 11, 2014

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UPDATE Dec 11, 2014

Shin Bet: Anti-Arab activists admit to J'lem school arson
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By Orly Noy for 972Mag
Published November 30, 2014

The mixed Jewish-Arab school has been the target of racist attacks in the past, but for the parents, students and teachers of the ‘Hand in Hand’ school, this feels different. ‘This time, the fire was ignited inside our home.’

The timing couldn’t have been more “perfect”: while I was still at a demonstration against the “Jewish Nation-State Law” outside the Prime Minister’s Office, I got a message saying that the bilingual school was set on fire. Here we were demonstrating against political arson, and not too far away someone is already doing it with gasoline and matches. This time, the fire was ignited inside our home.

The smell of fire is still very strong in the parking lot across from the school. Slowly slowly, parents, teachers, students and recent graduates begin to arrive. Nobody is in a hurry to go inside, as if we fear actually seeing what we expect there, all while we’re still trying to figure out exactly what happened and the extent of the damage. “A first grade classroom was completely burned,” somebody says, “and the other first-grade classroom sustained serious damage, too.” The blood drains from our faces. They burned the first-grade classrooms? The classrooms in which children for the first time in their lives scribbled letters into words: “love, friendship, respect?”

We later learn that the arsonists threw all of the books that they found in the classrooms into a pile and burned them. The image is too difficult to even fathom, and a part of me is relieved that firefighters and police have cordoned off the burned classrooms and aren’t letting anyone in. Who can rid such an image from their head — a burned first-grade classroom?

Within an hour the school is bustling with people. Among the police officers, firefighters, people from the Jerusalem education bureau and other officials, are the rest of us: teachers, students and school staff. You can see the shock on our faces. I recognize a student who graduated last year and who lives on the other side of the city; I ask her what she’s doing here. “Since the Gaza war and everything that’s been happening in Jerusalem recently, I feel like I’m losing hope. I felt like everything that we built here over the past 12 years has been destroyed in two months. But anyway, the moment I heard that the school had been burned, I ran to come here. That’s something that never changes, it seems. This is home. I grew up here. They’re destroying my home. We fight over the land but this is my land. This school is my land.”

An outsider wouldn’t understand it, the deep feeling of belonging. That’s how it always works here: when it gets tough, we want to be together. Jut like during the war when we marched along the light rail tracks every week, and when it was important to make sure that the sane voice of Jerusalem was heard, but also when we just wanted to be together. And also now, as we shake off the feelings of helplessness and get ready for action: preparing alternate classrooms for those that were burned, making colorful banners for the first graders to see when they arrive in the morning, hanging signs in the hallways, cleaning, organizing. Home.As we get to work, we are reminded of other episodes in our history in which the school faced harassment: that time that they went into the lower classes and covered with glue all of the desks that bore names of Arab children; or in the school’s previous building when they slid burning pieces of paper under the doors in a more symbolic act of arson. All of the hateful and garbled graffiti sprayed on our walls over the years. And despite all that, we understand that this time it’s different. The children wander around with their parents looking especially worried. “Nadia, will there be school tomorrow?” a young student asks one of the school’s co-directors. “Of course there will be,” Nadia answers confidently with a big smile. “Not only will there be school but you need to finish your homework!”

Meanwhile, statements of condemnation and support start to come in, and people begin organizing various rallies in solidarity and support for the next day. We go home knowing that we will meet here again in just a few hours.

This morning, we knew we better arrive early ahead of the tumult that would certainly await us at the entrance of the school. Indeed, hordes of reporters and photographers assembled at the entrance. A burned school is a big story, it seems. We manage to usher the children into the school and then wait outside for the supporters who were supposed to arrive. Somebody mentions that it feels like a shiva (a Jewish mourning ritual) — receiving mourners, awaiting consolation calls.
I appreciate that Mayor Barkat came to visit the school — and I say that without any cynicism. It was the right thing to do and it was necessary. Once upon a time, during the weekly protests in Sheikh Jarrah, we used to say, “there’s nothing holy in an occupied city.” Today I want to tell Barkat: there isn’t anything routine in an occupied city. A routine of occupation and violence is a routine of iniquity. You can condemn the torching of a school as much as you want, but when 40 percent of the city’s residents under your jurisdiction live a daily war zone, there’s nothing routine about that. When the daily routine of over 350,000 people in the city you run is a routine of daylight robbery, of violent police raids, of sponge-tipped bullets and arrests, of “skunk” trucks that spray putrid water on homes and schools, that’s not a routine we want to adopt. When the students in our school must leave their homes two hours before school in order to travel a distance that should take only 20 minutes because their neighborhood is barricaded and blocked with concrete blocks, when our students breath in tear gas in their homes each week and come to school from a daily war zone, we won’t join your calls to restore routine.

The routine in your city is one of iniquity, Mr. Barkat. Our school’s community is strong and vibrant. We demand, of course, that you and your leadership provide our students with protection from the increasing violence. But like always, we will be doing the repairs and rehabilitation by ourselves, with the strength we draw from our moral high ground and the civil and social solidarity we’ve built. We will overcome. You, Mr. Barkat, go see to the well being of the city you have been entrusted with managing. And if you need inspiration — moral, ethical or from the community — you are always welcome to come visit the bilingual school. We will keep going it alone here, free from fear and hatred.

And they came. Throngs of them came. The wonderful people from anti-racism group Tag Meir arrived, students and representatives of some other schools in the city also came, people from wider social circles, and other women and men who chose to spend their morning with us, in solidarity. An especially touching moment was when we saw a large group of youths chanting as they approached, and after our initial instincts — based on experience — made us shrink into a moment of fear, they got closer and we heard what they were chanting: “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies.” It turned out that the neighboring “Rainbow School” canceled its classes so its students could come and support us. It’s hard to describe just how touching it was.

And the politicians came too, of course: MKs Nahman Shai and Erel Margalit, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, who condemned the crime and called to restore routine to the city.

This article was first published on +972′s Hebrew-language sister site, Local Call. Read it in Hebrew here.
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By Mairav Zonszein for 972Mag | Nov 29, 2014

The largest Arab-Jewish educational institution in Israel has been targeted several times in the past.

Jerusalem’s bilingual Arab-Jewish school was set on fire Saturday night, and hate speech was sprayed on its walls with the messages: “Kahane was right” and “There is no coexistence with cancer.” One classroom was totally consumed while another was partially burned, as well as a stack of books.

Most schools in Israel serve Jews or Arabs separately, in addition to separation between secular and religious students. Mixed schools are the exception and there are only a small number of them, most of which are private.

The Max Rayne Hand in Hand school, which serves 624 Palestinian and Jewish students from East and West Jerusalem, pre-kindergarten to 12th grade, is the largest Arab-Jewish cultural institution in Israel. It has been the target of several hate crimes in recent months, including during the summer’s Gaza War. Students responded at the time by writing “Partnership; Love; Fraternity” on their walls.

Parents of students at the school gathered there Saturday night to set up alternative spaces for the classrooms damaged and hung up signs like, “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies,” which will greet the kids when they arrive at school tomorrow morning. A rally in support of the kids and the staff will be held at 8 a.m. at the entrance to the school.

Shuli Dichter, director of Hand in Hand, which operates five such bilingual schools in Israel, said in a statement:

This is not the first act of aggression against the school and our commitment to civil partnership. Even if it succeed in dirtying our walls, it cannot destroy our enterprise. In addition to sharply condemning the act and showing support, we invite the public in Israel to join us in building civil partnership between Arabs and Jews in Israel.

Education Minister Shay Piron issued a statement condemning the attack:

This is a violent, heinous, criminal act aimed at damaging the foundations of Israeli democracy. The fact that this was an arson attack on an educational institution that raises the banner of coexistence constitutes a severe blow to the relationship between Arabs and Jews. It is especially grave considering they chose to hurt the underbelly of Israeli society: A nursery school where young, innocent kids study. I call on the Israel Police to act immediately to bring these criminals to justice.
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Assailants spray 'There's no coexisting with cancer' on wall of the country's largest bilingual school; Mayor Barkat: We will not allow pyromaniacs to disrupt our lives.

By Nir Hasson for Haaretz

A fire caused damage to Jerusalem's Hebrew-Arab bilingual school on Saturday evening. Police suspect arson as hateful phrases were also sprayed on the building, reading "Kahane was right" and "There's no coexisting with cancer."

The fire broke out at the playground in the school, and was extinguished by emergency crews.

The Max Rayne Hand in Hand Jerusalem School is the country's largest Jewish-Arab institution. It has been co-run by a Jewish and an Arab principal since its founding in 1998 by the Hand in Hand non-governmental organization.

Over the past few months the school was repeatedly targeted by right-wing vandals, who have repeatedly sprayed racist graffiti against Arabs on its walls.

"Even if they manage to dirty the school's walls, they will not manage to bring down our enterprise [of civil cooperation]," Hand in Hand Executive Director Shuli Dichter said in a statement. "In addition to denouncing [these actions] expressing support, we invite the entire Israeli public to join us in the building of Jewish-Arab civil partnership in Israel. We will continue to develop our educational and social project, where every day 1,200 students come to study, some 200 teachers come to teach, and in which thousands of family members are involved."

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat condemned the incident: "We will not allow pyromaniacs and criminals who take the law into their own hands to disrupt our daily lives," he said. Barkat added: "We will continue to denounce the extremists and do whatever it takes to restore the quiet to Jerusalem." He said he has spoken to the Jerusalem Police chief "whose top priority is the investigation and the security of Jerusalem's children."