In a sun-filled classroom for elementary-aged students, decorations and posters showing the Arabic alphabet have been ripped from the walls, chairs toppled, papers and documents from a filing cabinet crumpled and strewn across the floor. The door to the classroom is tied with rope; its handle lies nearby, bashed and warped after the door was kicked in a day earlier.
A group of extremist Israeli settlers stormed the small primary school last month while it was in session.
In a video filmed that September day by an Israeli human rights activist, the settlers are seen wielding wooden bats and charging through the schoolyard. They beat a young teacher, attack the activist who’s filming and try to break into locked classrooms where students were sheltering.
“The teacher told us all to come and hold the door shut so they can’t break in,” remembers nine-year-old Obeida Mleihat. He peeks into the classroom he was sheltering in, and points to a fan in the corner.
“I was standing over there,” he says. “I was scared.”