Palestinian Project By Ana Ronyak

Summary Maryam is 11 and lives in Bethany by Jerusalem. Her mom is dead and her grandma lives in Jerusalem. She can not get to her grandma’s house because she needs special papers. Her aunt who is 18 can’t go there either because she doesn’t have the papers, but her and Maryam sneak through desert hills avoiding soldiers. The soldiers make them have a curfew. Sometimes the teachers can not come to the school because of the curfew and some of the kids can’t come. Sometimes the teachers get stuck at school and they get mad. She lives at school with some other girls because her mom is dead. They get up at 7 to do chores, and then they eat, then they go to class. She wants to become a doctor,and be like her aunt.

Questions Why do they need papers to go to Jerusalem? Why do they have curfews? Why are the soldiers there? Why do the other kids not go to school all the time like her? Why do the teachers get mad?

Answers The Israelis and the Palestinians have been at war against each other a lot,and the Israelis always won so they have control over the country. There are suicide bombers that will try and kill many people so they have to stay inside. They are always in war so the soldiers are needed. They don’t go because of the curfews. They get stuck at the school and they'd rather be at home doing stuff. I found the answers by listening in class, and from the story.

Reaction I didn’t like how there were soldiers every where she went,and I didn’t think it was right. They should be a free country just like us. I wanted to know why they needed those papers to go to Jerusalem.

Point of view I agree with Maryam because they should not have soldiers everywhere. They should be free like us. She should also live with her grandma instead of living in her school. They should not need papers to go to Jerusalem.

Pictures Israeli soldiers Palestinian kids pushing Israeli soldiers A checkpoint in Israel

Solution A solution could be to stop the soldiers by having a war, but wars are not good. It’s really the only thing I can think of to get rid of the soldiers. Since she can’t start a war maybe she could get the town to not listen to the soldiers then they would have no power over them, but then every single person would have to do that for it to work.