Palestinian children gather in the yard of their divided school in ‘Anata, a northeastern suburb of Jerusalem that falls just outside the Israeli municipal boundaries but within the Palestinian governorate of Jerusalem. The school grounds were divided by a section of Israel’s Separation Wall, which snakes through Palestinian East Jerusalem, splitting several neighborhoods (see The Separation Wall). The photo captures a pivotal moment in time, when the wall was just being installed, and shows how even schoolyards were split by it, in this case greatly reducing rare space for sport for the students and leaving them feeling as if they study in a horizonless cement ghetto.
Since 1967, ‘Anata has been progressively fragmented and asphyxiated by Israeli land confiscations for settlements, military zones, and the illegal Separation Wall that cuts through its territory. Following the Oslo Accords, most of ‘Anata’s land was designated Areas B and C, with Area C under full Israeli control, enabling the expansion of settlements and the routing of the wall that divides communities and community spaces such as this school1 (see Israel Is Besieging Palestinian Towns and Villages outside Jerusalem, to the Northwest and Northeast).