The “Tires School” in Khan al-Ahmar, a symbol of resilience, hope and redemption of a marginalized community

Abstract

Near the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar, on the border between Israel and the West Bank, stands the so-called "Tire School", designed by Studio Arcò of Milan and built in 2009 by the Italian NGO Vento di Terra with the contribution of the Italian Cooperation and of European Union. The village is in Area C of Palestine, assigned, since the Oslo Accords, to the Israeli civil and military administration which prohibits any construction activity in these territories. For this reason, all structures built in the Khan al-Ahmar settlement are considered illegal. To overcome the limitations imposed by the Israeli government, the school was conceived as a temporary structure, without foundations and built with waste materials and raw earth but with characteristics that make it an interesting example of bioclimatic architecture capable of guaranteeing an adequate level of indoor comfort in an area characterized by extreme climatic conditions. The school offered the children of the Bedouin communities present in the area the possibility of accessing primary education, which was strongly compromised by the limitations imposed by the Israeli authorities and by the isolation of the villages. Like the Khan al-Ahmar settlement, the school was also the subject of a sequence of clearance and demolition orders for years, which were never carried out thanks to the support of international diplomacy and for this reason it has become over the years a symbol of resilience in defense of the right to education and the rights of the Bedouin communities residing in the area. But the violent military operation launched by Israel against the Palestinian civilian population, following the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023, risks putting a definitive end to the troubled history of the school, its students, and the surrounding communities. The contribution analyzes the environmental, social, and legal aspects linked to the construction of the school, its feared destruction and the implications connected to it.