Ramallah Friends Schools and Friends Meeting

Bruce Hawkins

March 4-22, 1999

I visited the Schools twice, and attended Meeting for Worship at the Girls School twice. Although they are still known as the Friends Boys School and the Friends Girls School for consistency with local custom and familiarity, since 1989 they have been co-educational, with the lower school at the site of the Girls School and the upper school at the site of the Boys school.

The land for the Boys School was bought in 1901, but is actually in a Moslem community then outside of Ramallah (it is only 5 minutes walk from the center) which objected to Christians building. So the building was only built in 1914 as a result of Turkish intervention on behalf of the school, but it was promptly taken over as a hospital until the end of the war.

Jim Fine, the director, was busy because a group was visiting from George School (a quaker school in Pennsylvania), so Peter, the deputy principal, showed me around, including the new science building built with USAID money. USAID has a program for American Schools abroad and this is the only building actually built by the program so far. It may have been spurred by a desire to support the Oslo agreement.

The George school visitors are helping clean up debris to clear a construction site, and setting a good example for the Palestinian students, who consider themselves too middle class to do such things. I met a Canadian couple travelling with the group because their daughter teaches at George School. The daughter has a Palestinian husband who wants to set up a radio station but is having to wait for a license.

I went in to Ramallah for Worship at the Friends Girls School. I was 15 minutes early, and sat in the courtyard hearing church bells. There were eight people there including myself, almost all connected to the school, with one Palestinian woman, Jean Zaru, who is the clerk. She is leaving tomorrow for Sweden, where she will speak as a representative of an oppressed people, at a sociology conference, and the US where she has family. She spends half the year away on speaking tours as a spokesperson for Palestinians. She is a former member of the council of the World Council of Churches. They sang one hymn, and two people spoke.

Afterwards the Muslim call to prayer was ringing through the city. They use loudspeakers nowadays.

The second Sunday I was there, a man from Australia named John was at meeting. He is a librarian and is volunteering in the library at Birzeit for the semester and taking a course. He says they are really strapped; they are purchasing the first books they have bought in ten years. I gather they have at least received donated books over that period.

After meeting we heard automatic weapons fire, so Jim didn't think it was safe to be walking around Ramallah and took us in his car to the taxi stand. He said a gun dealer was murdered not far from the school last night. However, we think it was probably shooting in the air at a wedding, since we also heard horns and a bunch of cars went by.