Children Denied Passage Through Wall Gate After Refusing Electronic Body Scan

Friday March 18, 2011 13:23 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

On Wednesday and Thursday, Israeli soldiers stationed at a gate in the Annexation Wall near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, have been demanding that the students undergo electronic scans before they are allowed to walk to school. The children refused and were ordered back home.

Thaher Al Maleh Village Isolated by the Wall

The incidents took place on both days as school students of Daher al-Maleh village, west of Jenin, were told by soldiers, manning a gate of the Annexation Wall, that they must be thoroughly searched with an electronic scanner before they are allowed to pass.

The gate is the only passage the villagers have after the Annexation Wall had completely surrounded their village.

The children refused the soldiers’ demands and were forced back home before while the army closed the gate.

Local sources said that dozens of children were denied their right to education after the army sealed the gate, and that the residents are always electronically scanned by the soldiers every time they want to pass through the gate while leaving the village or entering it.

The villagers live under constant siege and blockade since many years now as the Annexation Wall and the surrounding Jewish settlements have fully encircled their village and isolated it from the rest of the occupied territories.

jenin | the wall | news report saed at imemc dot org