School Discipline, Palestinian Style
Meet the palestinian student voted Most Likely to Be Struck With A Rod Or Thrown Out of a Window.
A tenth-grade Palestinian student was left “clinically dead” following his fall from a third-story classroom window on Tuesday, sparking bitter accusations that the incident was a result of an ongoing teachers’ union strike.
The injury occurred when a newly-appointed teacher at Ash-Shafi’i school in Gaza City allegedly threw a student from a classroom window. The teacher had been brought in as a replacement due to the ongoing strike in Gaza’s public schools.
The secretary general of the striking teacher’s union, Jamil Shahada, told Ma’an in a telephone call that the student was announced “clinically dead” on Tuesday. Arafa As-Sawwaf was taken to Ash-Shifa Hospital where medical workers announced his condition.
“One of the de facto government’s teachers threw Arafa from the third floor,” Shahada said.
But the de facto government’s education ministry disputed the claim, saying the incident was almost certainly “accidental.” Spokesperson Khalid Radi told Ma’an that his ministry had appointed a committee to follow up on the incident, saying the outcome would be published “in full.”
The father of the boy, Raafat As-Sawwaf, told Ma’an that his son was admitted to the intensive care unit at the Gaza City hospital on Tuesday. He appealed to Palestinian officials to help him get a permit to take his son to a hospital outside Gaza, as “his skull was ruptured and there is internal bleeding.”
He also told Ma’an that the boy had not been “thrown” from the window, but that the incident was not an accident, either. As-Sawwaf explained that the teacher had been chasing his son on the third floor, where he attempted to climb a pipe from the window. From there, the teacher reportedly struck the boy with a rod, causing the fall.
Now that’s a teacher’s strike.
Notice the almost throwaway line “He appealed to Palestinian officials to help him get a permit to take his son to a hospital outside Gaza..” I’m willing to bet “hospital outside Gaza” means “hospital in Israel.”
About the Author
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.Filed Under: General
Enter text right here!Was this the class in terrorism?__Something hard for westerners to accept. Norms are different there.____ps Your comment option does take a long time to load.
Here's the update from the link: Palestinian Minister of Health Fathi Abu Mughli told Ma'an via telephone that his ministry immediately began arrangements to transfer the boy to Israeli Ehilov hospital this evening or early Wednesday morning. He explained that the injured student is in a coma, having sustained injuries to the skull and pelvis.
Child suffers severe head injury – yeah that's funny. Oh, it's just a Palestinian. Now I get it.
Child suffers severe head injury? More like child is deliberately pushed out window/struck with instrument and falls. And no-one is laughing at the child's predicament. Excuse me for using humor to show the absurd goings on in the palestinian-controlled territories. But keep up the witty comments, Mikey. I see your blog is a real hit. You've been getting quite a few comments, all of which pretty much compare you to a body part.
"Child suffers severe head injury?" Yeah. You must have been too busy laughing to notice this minor detail.
Are you really that dense? You seem to have omitted the important fact that the child did not just suffer this injury on his own. It was inflicted on him. You are not fooling anyone, Mikey.
[...] course, the students don’t have it so good either. Spread the [...]