6 palestine NEWS REPORTSSpring 2012Playgrounds and car parksBy Kat HobbsThe bulldozers arrived before sunriseto demolish the only children’splayground in Silwan, East Jerusalem,and a cultural centre that was aprecious community facility for the people inthe area.After the machines, made by the iconicBritish firm JCB, had done their work inFebruary, Jawad Siyam, director of theMadaa Creative Centre which owned theplayground and demolished buildings,said: “This was the only place in the areato meet, to sit together. It was the onlyplace for children in Silwan. The childrenwere very upset to see their treasured placedestroyed.”The playground had been recentlyimproved with funding from internationalNGOs including the American MiddleEast Children’s Alliance, Playgrounds for<strong>Palestine</strong> and War Child International. Thecentre attempted to get a permit to build onthis piece of privately-owned land but theIsraeli-controlled Jerusalem municipalityrefused.Siyam said that Palestinians in Silwanhave received fewer than 40 permits forbuilding since East Jerusalem was occupiedand then illegally annexed by Israel in 1967,leaving them with no choice but to carry onconstruction projects without permits. TheJerusalem municipality and the NationalParks Authority carried out the demolitionwith Israeli police officers closing off thestreet.Silwan, situated just outside the Old Citywalls, was already under enormous pressurewith several of Israel’s most influentialsettlement organisations acquiring propertyin the area. It sits on the supposed siteof the biblical City of David and there areplans to turn it into a National Park andtourist hotspot – the children’s playground isearmarked for a car park.The Al-Bustan district faces totaldestruction as 88 homes are scheduledfor demolition, threatening over 1,000Children march through Silwan.people with homelessness. Children carrytheir favourite toys to school for fear theirhomes will be rubble by the time theyreturn.The children’s sports field at the Madaacentre was used for football, basketball andthe popular children’s “summer games”events. Madaa provides a range of activitiesfrom music, sports and dancing lessons tocookery and language classes.Last year the summer games, in theirfifth consecutive year, culminated in aclosing ceremony and a massive marchthrough Silwan under the banner of “I LoveYou Silwan.” Children called for the rightto live in dignity alongside all other youthand for freedom from Israeli persecutionand kidnapping and they released balloonsinscribed with their hopes and aspirations.The demolition of the Madaa Centre is aserious blow to the community. Like mostof East Jerusalem, Silwan suffers seriousovercrowding and high rates of poverty butit also faces particular problems; over half ofits residents are under 18, and, after yearsof chronic under-investment in the area,there are few schools and even fewer safeplaces for children to play.Most children have tobus out of the district toattend classes and theschool drop out rate is50%. With so many youngpeople and nowhere forthem to go, children areoften forced to play on thestreets. But with around350 settlers living in theheart of Silwan in heavilyguarded compounds, thestreets are a dangerousplace.As a result of thesettlers takeover, about aquarter of all of the publicareas are now closed to the local residentsand have been transformed into privatetourist sites. Entry into them now requires afee and a security check, so Palestinians areeffectively barred. Schools and communityspaces are constantly invaded by the Israeliarmy.The month following the playgrounddemolition was a difficult one for childrenin Silwan. The Israeli military frequentlyarrest minors and in the two weeks after thedemolition 16 children were arrested. Manywere held for several days and released onlywhen their parents paid hundreds of shekelsin bail.In addition to the arrests, school childrenin Silwan found themselves the target ofharassment by the Israeli Border Police. InMarch a mobile checkpoint was erectedby Border Police in Batn Al Hawa area andapproximately 20 children were stopped ontheir way home from school.Shari Kassahun from the Madaa Centresaid: “The children were asked to open theirschool bags which were searched and someof their notebooks were torn apart by theBorder Police before they were allowed tocontinue their way home.”And it isn’t just school children who faceintimidation. On 12 March, Israeli forcesentered a Silwan school and arrested theteacher, Mr Salah Mahaisen, in front ofthe children. A request by the school thatthe teacher be allowed to leave the schoolgrounds before being arrested to avoidcausing distress and alarm to the studentswas ignored. The incident is significant asit marks the first time that the Israeli armedforces have arrested a teacher inside aschool run by the Jerusalem municipality.• Kat Hobbs works for War on Want’s SaveSilwan campaign:http://tinyurl.com/c37sb72savesilwan@waronwant.org.
Spring 2012 REPORTSpalestine NEWS 7Healing traumatised childrenThousands of Palestinian children struggle with mental health problems and reintegration intosociety after they are detained by Israel, a new report on child detention says.According to the study released by Save the Children Sweden and YMCA-East Jerusalem, Impactof Child Detention: Occupied Palestinian Territory, 90.6 per cent of detained children suffer posttraumatic stress disorder after release.Around 700 children are detained every year. Released minors often are unable to return toschool, experience bed-wetting, anxiety attacks and nightmares, the report says. Families andcommunities suffer from stigmatisation and become increasingly conservative as fear grows offurther detentions.Nader Abu Amsha is the director of the Beit Sahour branch of the East Jerusalem YMCArehabilitation programme which provides counselling to Palestinian children released from Israelidetention facilities. He was interviewed for the DCI-<strong>Palestine</strong> report, Bound, Blindfolded andConvicted.carrot’ method to get information out ofthem.Many children often say the Israelis triedto recruit them, but they never say theyaccepted, although in some cases theymight have due to fear and the desire toend the ill-treatment and to get out of thesituation.It is very hard to deal with these cases,because they are related to many otherissues, such as the security of the child,community values, the fear it generates inthe child and the need for protection.Q. Can you tellme about theprogramme?Nader: It startedthree years ago.We are treatingon average 350children peryear through 11counselling teamsthat work all acrossthe West Bank, including East Jerusalem.Our work starts from the moment thechild is arrested. Our counsellors startworking with the family to help them copewith the situation and advise them on howto deal with the child when he or she isreleased from prison.The parents tend to think that when theirchild is released, that is the end of the story.We always tell them it is only the beginning.The family needs to understand that theexperience of arrest and imprisonmentmight have changed the child and affectedhis development.Q. In what ways does prison change achild?Nader: When children come out of prisonthey feel old and mature and they think theyknow it all. For the parents though, he isstill the same child who left three, four orfive months ago, so they tend to becomeover-protective. This causes problems anddisputes within the family. Through ourprogramme, we try to help both the child andthe family so that the home remains a placewhere the child feels comfortable and safe.The children want to talk about whathappened to them; they want to narrate thesequence of events from the moment ofarrest as if it was a movie. They do not talkmuch about their feelings.But when we start digging and askingspecific questions, the children start talkingabout their feelings. They get very emotionaland start sharing their frustration, theiranger, perhaps their desire for revenge etc.Q. What are some of the other things younotice?Nader: We have noticed that one of themost traumatising experiences for thechildren is being arrested in the middle ofthe night in big raids, finding the soldiers intheir rooms pointing their weapons at them,the shouting, and the breaking of things inmany cases.This makes the detention very traumaticfrom the first minute. Also, the handcuffing,the blindfolding, being transferred inthe floor of the military jeeps, beingbeaten, threatened and humiliated duringinterrogation. Being alone during all thisprocess is a terrifying experience for thechildren.The child feels that the whole Israelimilitary system is against him, and hehas no one to protect or accompany him.Then, being imprisoned for months far fromthe family, with people he doesn’t know,sometimes even with adults, not being ableto talk about his feelings and having todeal with the conflict between the differentpolitical affiliations of other prisoners, it’s alla very difficult experience for the child.Q. What are the methods you use to helpthe children?Nader: Our counsellors and social workersare trained to help the children discloseall their feelings, because once they starttalking, that’s when the therapy reallybegins. This is how the children release allthe stress and reduce their anxiety. Thetherapy helps them organise their thoughtsand channel their feelings in a positivedirection.Q. Does this always work?Nader: In some cases the children are tootraumatised by the experience, by the illtreatment, and they refuse to open up.Being tortured might lead the children not totrust anyone.Many times our counsellors have tomake a big effort to earn the child’s trust. Incases where despite all our efforts the childrefuses to open up, we still help him returnto school or with vocational rehabilitationand re-integration into the community.We have also noticed that one of themost difficult issues for the children to dealwith – and this is very sensitive – is Israel’sattempt to recruit them as informants orcollaborators, and the use of the ‘stick andQ. What are the biggest challenges youencounter?Nader: The issue of returning to schoolis one of the most difficult because thesechildren tend to look for all kinds of excusesnot to go back to school. Most of themcome from poor families, so they say theywant to start working to help the household.We challenge their arguments and makethem see the advantages of completingtheir education, as well as the difficulties infinding a good job without the necessaryqualifications. However, if the child decidesnot to go back to school, we have to respecthis decision so we help with vocationaltraining.We use a very effective system forvocational assessment, and have signedagreements with a number of companies,workshops etc. where the children canhave training in different areas, such ascarpentry, mechanics, etc. It is importantthat the children undergo this training withina system, because this is pivotal for thesuccess of the counselling process. Thesechildren should not be left alone.Q. How would you rate the success of theprogramme?Nader: In general the programme is verysuccessful. Most children recover fromthe trauma and re-integrate well into thecommunity, but of course they never forgetwhat happened to them. They will haveflashbacks all their lives, but they learnhow to cope with these memories. In somecases the children get re-arrested, and assoon as they are released they immediatelycome back to our programme.• For the full Save the Children/YMCAreport, see: http://tinyurl.com/d9mqu5t
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