Pictures Of Violence Teacher Uses Drawing As Therapy To Help Palestinian Students Deal With Reality

In this Palestinian town, Israel’s closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip could be seen Saturday through children’s eyes - sometimes with prompting from their elders.

Abdulla Khalil Amer, 12, and 45 other sixth-graders from the Mughtarbin school presented tough images: roadblocks, stone-throwing attacks on the Israeli army, dead bodies, closed shops and bus explosions.

One drawing by Amer showed two Palestinians facing a wall, their hands risen, as a soldier is thoroughly frisking the pair and another points his gun at them.

“What do you want me to do, draw a bird or a tree?” said Amer.

Israel sealed off the West Bank and Gaza on Feb. 25 after a series of suicide bombings in Israel claimed dozens of victims. The closure barred some 2 million Palestinians from entering Israel or traveling to nearby towns and villages.

Behind the pictures is art instructor Maha Aghwani, a Tunisian university graduate who arrived last year with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s troops and now teaches at several Ramallah schools.

The 1987-1993 uprising against the Israeli rule traumatized young Palestinians. Schools were closed, leaving more than 600,000 students with little to do. Some fought Israeli troops.

With Israel closing the border in response to continued militant attacks - despite a peace agreement with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat - students are still affected.

Aghwani said the idea is to use drawing as therapy to help the students deal with the violence they have lived through.

“Portray your feelings freely and honestly. Don’t copy other students,” Aghwani told the boys sitting at the wooden desks.

At Ramallah’s preparatory school, the school’s principal, Akram Abu Najem, wanted something more political than landscapes drawn by some students. “Draw bus bombings,” he said.

At least 12 children sketched buses on fire. Some added bodies littering the ground.

But Jawad Alaadin’s drawing, instead of a horrifying bus attack, showed the Palestinian flag, two ducks swimming in a lake and three boys contemplating.

“I don’t like violence,” Alaadin said. “I like peace.”