Since the intifadeh began 19 months ago, 572 Palestinians and 36 Israelis have died. But they are not the only casualties: thousands of young people in the Israeli-occupied West Bank have suffered a kind of intellectual starvation as a result of shutdowns of the area's schools. Israeli authorities, charging that the schools had become hotbeds of political unrest, not only barred some 330,000 elementary and secondary school children and 17,000 university students from attending courses but even outlawed private classes and kindergarten. Says Elham, a West Bank English teacher: "My children do nothing except watch TV or play cards."
This banishment...
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