Dear German Authorities in charge. Do Keep in Mind: Schmidt’s Schule (Schmidt’s Girls’ College) is the face of Palestinian Women.

Dear German Authorities in charge. Do Keep in Mind: Schmidt’s Schule (Schmidt’s Girls’ College) is the face of Palestinian Women.

I cannot relate to the school’s name as such a school. It is the Schmidt’s Girls’ College. A major landmark of Jerusalem. 

Jerusalem the City. 

Jerusalem the People. 

Jerusalem the Culture. 

Jerusalem the Heritage. 

I have to say I felt bombarded with the unprecedented news on what happened at school. This is not the first time Schmidt’s take such frontline, the Hijab affair some years ago, the Violation and give-away to our heritage(the nature museum belongings that were given to the Tel Aviv university museum by the school), and here and there incidents that I always gave the benefit of the doubt to the administration, thinking, they are new, they are trying to understand.

I have never suspected the good intentions. After all we are all working to give the city and its people the best that we can. I never regarded the school’s administration as an outsider, even though, I fully realize the changes that were undergoing. 

What happened in the last week is beyond calling it an incident. It seems like an organized political coup against Palestinian people. 

I am serious!!! 

Thinking of the latest position of the German government represented by its Minister of Foreign Affairs in fully supporting Israel in its aggression against Gaza (there is no place for being politically correct here. This is exactly what we saw), and then this German teacher at school comes and pours her racist, undermining, disrespectful, discriminatory attitude towards students only puts us all in awe.

What was she thinking? 

Doesn’t she walk every day in the very same street that these students walk from? 

She does not see the hostility, the aggression, intimidation, the violence of the Israeli forces right in front of the school gate when she looks towards Damascus Gate? 

She does not drive through Sheikh Jarrah on her way to school every day. 

She did not hear about the 290 victims who were killed just days before in Gaza. 

She did not hear about the grievances, injuries, beatings, arrests, that occur daily in Jerusalem just across the street of the school from wall to wall. 

Didn’t she watch the News? Didn’t she ask herself about the demonstrations around the world? 

Let’s say this is a conflict. 

Let’s say this teacher is a Jewish sympathizer that holds the victimhood guilt of the Nazis against the Jews on her shoulders. 

Let’s say this teacher sees the future through Israel not Palestine. 

Let’s say she sees the world through the eyes of Jewish victimhood and German guilt.

What is she doing in a school with Palestinian girls? 

It is striking to witness such a state of encroachment to the basics of humanity. This is an attitude that surpasses our regular human emotions. This is Aemotional.

According to the circulation and witnesses from school, the teacher expressed her deep disappointment to her lost years “investing” in changing the minds of these girls. 

Can anyone really believe that a teacher finds her role in brainwashing girls into a more “Israeli loving” mode? Not only that, but the woman also has this mediocre attitude towards Palestinians. It’s this racist, white, superior exalted attitude towards an inferior colored, eastern, ignorant waiting to be washed and educated creatures- so happened to be Palestinians. 

What is Schmidt’s for Jerusalem?

What is Schmidt’s for its’ graduates and those who aspire to become like them? 

This school has built its reputation from the inspiring models of girls that became leading figures, great mothers, grandmothers, daughters who reflect the hopeful shining face of Palestine. 

You only need to say the word “Schmidt’s” to establish a style.

Schmidt’s girls know each other by a move, by a look, by a word. 

This is something that was built from one generation of students to the other…. 

Sadly speaking, and unfortunately, they are trying to take this away from us now. 

If the Germans want to make it another school, that reflects the Zionist notions, and the German guilt, then it will not be made under our names. Not under our history. Not under the notion of our school. 

Schools are never but a natural part of the existing society. Schmidt’s stand in a location that makes it like Bab al Amud, a pulsing organ that promotes breathing to the body… the city… the people. 

In this school we learnt, we grew, we became women, we became mothers, we became leaders. We became change agents to the well-being of this society. 

In this school we learnt how to represent Palestine. 

In this school our national identity was shaped. 

In this school we learnt how to love our nation. 

In this school we learnt how to contribute to our society. 

In this school we drew the map of Palestine. 

In this school we gathered, we chanted, we demonstrated. 

In this school we synergized in resistance, resilience against oppression, against occupation, against injustice. 

If the Germans think that they can take away this from us, then they are in the wrong place. 

Schmidt’s school is a Palestinian entity. 

Entities are not buildings when we are thinking of as schools. 

Entities that schools produce are people. 

Schmidt’s School is about girls that grow to become the future Palestinian women. 

Don’t expect a Palestinian girl to stand still in front of suppression still. 

Don’t ever expect a Schmidt’s girl to bow down her head in submission to injustice. 

And above all…. 

Liberal, democratic teaching should never, and can never be in suppressing students and taking away from them their Right of Expression. Right of Education.

Germans… out of all people should know better… the oppression breeds horror. Horror fosters eventually nuisance. 

We are not in the twentieth century. 

We are not going to take racism-based oppression as a go to a school. 

The school administration and the German government should educate themselves on how to respect people before they come and claim serving their people. 

Closing school is a violation to Human Rights Charters. 

Taking the Right of Education from students is a crime, the school should be hold responsible for. 

Forbidding students from self-expression and speaking their opinion is a striking human rights violation. 

Threatening parents and mobilizing the occupation authority is a call for intimidation, risk, and endangering people’s lives and safety.