"You Think These Are Children?"

“You Think These Are Children?”
March 26, 2002

[The following is an update I prepared for CPT’s news service following an especially intense morning.]

Tuesday, March 26, 2002. Curfew
At 6:45am, CPTers Le Anne Clausen and Christine Caton accompanied the principal of Ibrahimi school to the concrete barrier in front of his school to ask soldiers if the school would be open. The patrol of four soldiers arrived and refused to reply to either the CPTers or the principal, walking around them as if they were not there. After several attempts in Hebrew, the officer finally told the principal the school was closed. The principal went on to Tarik ibn Ziyyad school and the CPTers to Khalil and Khadijeh schools. (Six schools are clustered together in a large block south of the Ibrahimi mosque in H2). They stationed themselves at the intersection between the entrances to the schools and the soldier checkpoint. Several dozen young students were entering the schools without incident. The CPTers observed two soldiers stationed at the checkpoint aiming at individual children and making firing gestures. In the meantime, the soldiers were using the loudspeaker system of their jeep to shout sexual slurs in Arabic at a junior high aged girl who had to pass by the checkpoint in order to get to school. She put her head down and walked quickly into the school.
During this time, border police jeeps were racing up and down the roads around the schools. The CPTers calmly stood in the street, and the jeeps did not attempt to pass. Twice during this time, the checkpoint soldiers advanced with their machine guns poised as if to enter the street full of children. When the CPTers remained in their places, the soldiers retreated. At no time during the CPTers’ presence in the street was any provocation made by the students.
At this time, at least one of the jeeps in the area turned around and went down the next street to the Tarik ibn Ziyyad school. At approximately 7:30, as classes began, they heard shots, explosions, and screams from the direction of the school. The principal returned to the CPTers soon after that and told them to come quickly. The teachers at Khalil and Khadijeh discussed whether to let the CPTers leave their present position, but felt the situation was worse at Tarik ibn Ziyyad. As soon as the CPTers left the area, soldiers threw a percussion grenade into the street at the entrance of the schools.
When the CPTers arrived at the Tarik ibn Ziyyad school entrance, they observed the same patrol of four soldiers blocking students’ and teachers’ access to the school. A female soldier was firing at children about a block away, who were not throwing stones at the time. Immediately after her fire, some of the children threw stones in the soldiers’ direction. When Clausen tried to speak with the soldiers, they spoke aggressively with her in Hebrew and Russian. However, as Clausen continued to confront the soldiers, she realized that the soldiers understood English and were refusing to speak with her. Clausen asked one of the female soldiers, (who was an officer), why they were firing at the children. She replied, “It’s curfew.” When Clausen asked why the female soldier who was being most aggressive felt the need to fire at children, she shrieked back, “You think these are children?” She was pointing to a ten or twelve year old boy on a roof across the street. Clausen pointed out the age of the child she was pointing at, and received no response. As the soldiers were firing at the children, the soldiers each had expressions of enjoyment on their faces.
Diagonally across from the school, the two male soldiers ran suddenly up a street and threw both a tear gas grenade and a percussion grenade up the street. Several dozen female teachers and students were still lined up nearby. Caton was overcome by the gas and was briefly treated inside the school.
Clausen escorted several elementary school-aged children back to their homes. The children were terrified by the situation and had to be coaxed away from the school gate.Once most of the students had been evacuated from the area, the CPTers waited inside the school for the street to quiet down. While inside, they heard live shots fired from the soldiers’ M-16s. The CPTers were then asked by the principal to stand near the boys’ and girls’ school to protect the children and teachers who were being released to go home. Caton and Clausen stationed themselves near the doorway of the boys’ school. The two soldiers up the street were watching them as this happened. The CPTers then moved up to the girls’ school next door as the girls and teachers quickly moved out of the school and down the street.
At the same time some boys down the street had set two piles of garbage on fire, but were not throwing stones. This caused the two soldiers to come down the street with their guns pointed at the children, which included not only the boys but also approximately 150 girls and female teachers. When the CPTers saw the soldiers they moved into the street in a deliberate manner with their arms stretched out to get in the way between the children leaving school and the soldiers with their pointed and aimed guns. The soldiers gestured to them that they wanted to shoot and that we should get out of the way. When we did not move the soldiers stopped and put down their guns, and moved away. The soldiers repeated this three times. Caton and Clausen stayed in the street until the children and teachers were safely out of the soliders’ range.
After all the children and teachers had been evacuated, Caton and Clausen returned home to the CPT apartment.