Democratic Palestine : 18 (ص 17)
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- Democratic Palestine : 18 (ص 17)
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bidden to live. Cultural and recrea-
tional opportunities are limited, except
for what the people create themselves.
Apartheid laws forbid Blacks from set-
ting up establishments that provide
more than basic necessities, ruling out
any substantial economic sector in
Soweto.
BANTU EDUCATION
School children made Soweto
famous with their 1976 uprising and
school boycott that lasted for months.
They were protesting having Afrikaans
(the Boer settlers’ language) imposed as
the main language for instruction ins-
tead of English. The students correctly
saw this change as part of the whole
system of Bantu education designed to
keep them in ignorance, fit only for
menial jobs, rather than being educated
citizens, equiped to fight for their
rights. They were protesting financial
starvation of their schools, makeshift
classrooms with an average of sixty
students per teacher, inferior academic
and sports facilities. They were protes-
ting that their parents had to pay for
their schooling, while education for
white South Africans is free. They were
protesting the blatant lies told in the
schools, like that their own ancestors
migrated to South Africa in 1652, the
same time the first white colonialists
arrived in the Cape from Europe.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli policy is
similarly to make the Palestinians
ignorant. This is enforced via the cur-
riculum which, with the 1967 occupa-
tion, was purged of all mention of
Palestinian history, and has moreover
not been updated to meet modern
standards. The Israeli policy is also
enacted materially. There are simply
not enough classrooms and teachers.
Instead of new schools being built for a
growing population, some have
actually been closed after 1967. In the
UNRWA schools, there is an average of
50 children per class. In 1984, the
Israeli authorities refused to allow
UNRWA to build new classrooms to
alleviate overcrowding. There are no
secondary schools in the refugee camps,
so children must walk or bicycle for
miles, past Zionist checkpoints where
they are frequently harassed.
As a result of the hardships of occu-
pation, fewer students are finishing
secondary school than before 1967.
Many drop out to work to help provide
for their families. Other contributing
factors are the limited access to higher
education and the lack of job opportu-
nities for those who do continue their
education. The only university in the
Strip is the Islamic University, opened
in 1978 after Egypt closed its universi-
ties to Gaza students in line with the
Camp David policy. This university is
only three years and thus cannot grant
degrees, and the Zionist authorities
have so far refused requests for a
license for the fourth year.
SHARED DESTITUTION
In 1948, UNRWA considered 600
families in the Gaza Strip destitute.
Palestinians who work in the Israeli
economy receive 40% less than the
average Israeli wage, and those wor-
king in the local economy may earn
even less. Yet substandard wages are
only the latest symptom, not the ori-
ginal cause of Gazan poverty. The basic
reason is the Zionist occupation’s
systematic destruction of the local
economy. Citrus fruit production, a
major source of income, has been
almost halved in the last decade, due to
Israeli restrictions on marketing. The
fishing industry, from which almost
30,000 Gazans draw sustenance, has
Text of a protest leaflet during the 1976 Soweto school boycott: «Parents, you should rejoice for having
given birth to this type of child... a child who prefers to die from a bullet rather than to swallow a poisonous
education which relegates him and his parents to a position of perpetual subordination.»
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