Separation wall inside Jaffa.

The Weizman and Zahara primary schools in the center of Jaffa share their playground. Weizman is a Hebrew language, predominantly Jewish, school with about 25% Palestinian students. Zahara is an Arabic language, Palestinian only school. As they are next door to each other and share the same playground, it was only natural the schools should try cooperative projects. After all, the parents and children are neighbours.

But Zahara is one of Jaffa's worst schools and Weizman's slowly doing much better. Many of the children at "Zahara" are sons and daughters of collaborators who came from the Gaza strip, children of impoverished parents. Children of families encountering major social difficulties and poverty.

The center of Jaffa is not a very strong area.

The (Palestinian) principal of the Zahara school has agreed to the construction of a separation fence between the two schools. A fence that will keep the kids from the two schools apart.

It's not entirely clear to me where the actual idea came from.

Some claim the idea came from the parents of the Weitzman children "who tired of the violence". I do not really know. But i do know one thing: education is NOT about walls and fences. Education is about working with children, dealing with prejudices and hate by means of discourse and talking. By means of playing together, by learning about each other's language, culture, habits etc. Not about constructing walls and obstructions.