An Angus stonemason has told how he helped protect schoolchildren from the threat of attack in occupied Bethlehem.
Alex Holmes, 59, from Inverkeilor, is working for three months as a human rights monitor with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).
The trip has a personal resonance for Mr Holmes whose father was a young officer with the British Army who was based in Palestine during the Arab Revolt from 1936-39.
Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs) provide a protective presence to vulnerable Palestinian communities in the West Bank.
Incidents involving schoolchildren and schools almost tripled in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from 2013 to 2014, affecting nearly 25,000 Palestinian children in 2014.
Affected children grow up exposed to violence from an early age and many suffer from emotional and psychological distress, including experiencing recurrent nightmares and bedwetting.
Since April 2012, EAPPI, in cooperation with Unicef, has monitored access to education for children in the West Bank.
The presence of EAs deters soldiers and settlers from harassing children on their way to and from school.
Mr Holmes said: “We were offering protective presence to schoolchildren as they arrived to start the school day in Tuqu’, a few kilometres south of Bethlehem.
“Hundreds of children as young as five faced two Israeli armoured vehicles waiting at the school gate and six Israeli soldiers holding their automatic weapons at the ready a truly horrific sight.
“It was good to just stand near the school gates and offer a smile and hello to the children arriving.”
In Palestine, the obstacles to receiving an education are numerous.
Large numbers of Palestinian school-age children living in the West Bank experience serious harassment and hurdles on their way to and from school due to Israel’s occupation policies.
Students and teachers persevere with their daily struggle.
Mr Holmes added: “The days fly by.
“It’s already a month since I arrived.
“Right now I’m spending three nights with the EAPPI team in Bethlehem, based in their house which is just 100 metres from the separation wall.
“The occupation here is all pervasive: the eight-metre-high wall topped with razor wire, watch towers and army patrols.”
Mr Holmes downed tools to fly out on the mercy mission after hearing about the EAPPI during a talk in Glasgow.