Location: Aida refugee camp, West Bank Photo: zehra imam

Students Struggle to Find Rest in East Jerusalem

Contributed by: School Principal

Date of Testimony: November 20, 2023

Location: East Jerusalem

April 23, 2024: zehra imam reading sleep testimony at MIT’s Scientists Against Genocide Encampment

 

Everything around us impacts our sleep. Normal people must sleep for 8 hours. We, as Palestinains, because of all of these tests and panic we have because of the situation, for sure it affects our sleep, especially our kids. They have nightmares, they have many stressors. So they can’t sleep early. After isha prayers, they can’t sleep. And on the other side, we must wake up so early, sometimes 4:30 am to go to school. All the Palestinian students must wake up at 4:30 or 5:00 am because there are many checkpoints. All of these checkpoints are making our life too difficult, too hard to pass… because sometimes we waste about one and a half hours waiting at the checkpoints.