February 17, 2022

Before the Israeli occupation, the displaced Palestinian village of Tantura had two schools, one for boys and another for girls. After the occupation, the boys’ elementary school was converted into an Israeli research institute affiliated with the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture. For decades, however, the school had served as an important educational and cultural center for the villages along the southern Carmel coast.

The school, which was transformed into an Israeli research institute, is still standing in Tantura today, retaining its old architectural style of stonework and arches. Journalist and activist Sami al-Ali recounted some of the school’s historical details and its educational environment, based on documentation he has gathered over the years. The details of the site, he says, continue to attest to its Palestinian identity even after it was transformed into an Israeli institution.

Al-Ali said that before the Nakba, Tantura had two schools: one for boys located near the beach and another for girls in the heart of the village. He noted that after occupying the village, Israel converted the boys’ school into a kibbutz, and it was later transformed into an Israeli research institute.

He explained in an interview with Al Jarmaq that the school is now an institute affiliated with the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture. It focuses on animal-related research and conducts studies in marine fishing and fisheries. He noted that the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture established a number of research institutes, with this center being one of them.

He added that the school attracted students from outside Tantura as well. Students attended from the villages of Ijzim, Sarafand, Kafr Lam, and al-Fureidis, while some other students from the surrounding area went to Caesarea, which also had schools.

“Those who felt they had the means to send their children to school would send them to receive an education,” Al-Ali told Al Jarmaq. “The students were divided between Caesarea and Tantura.”

He noted that the school had 12 rooms, meaning it contained 12 classrooms, with two classes for each age group. It was an elementary school where students studied through approximately the seventh or eighth grade.

One account claims that the Palestinian singer and poet Abu Arab studied at the displaced Tantura school. However, Al-Ali said that no one has been able to verify this information, as Abu Arab’s original village was al-Shajara, and accounts of his life indicate that he moved to Kafr Kanna to pursue his education.

Al-Ali wrote on his Facebook account that after the village was occupied through the massacre in which “Israel destroyed the homes, landmarks, and institutions,” only a few landmarks survived, bearing witness to the identity of the place and its inhabitants. These included the al-Yahya family home, the building that still stands on the beach today; the shrine of Sheikh Abd al-Rahman al-Bujairimi, located within the fence of the tourist resort; and the modern Tantura school.

In this context, Palestinian Kamal Masri, whose father and grandfather both graduated from Tantura School, said they had told him that the quality of education at the school was excellent. Students reportedly received their education there from the third through the seventh grade of elementary school.

Masri told Al Jarmaq that not all of the school’s teachers were from Tantura. Some came from Tulkarm and Jaljulia. The religious studies teacher, he said, was a scholar from Jaljulia, while another teacher came from the neighboring village of al-Fureidis.

He explained that the school brought together students from the surrounding villages of al-Fureidis, Ayn Ghazal, Ijzim, Jaba’, Kafr Lam, and Sarafand. Students studied Arabic, mathematics, and religious studies there.

One distinctive feature of Tantura School, Masri noted, was that its teachers also taught students agriculture. One of the school’s basic lessons was learning how to plant seedlings, care for them, and water them until they grew.

Masri told Al Jarmaq that the school was built a relatively short time before the occupation—approximately 20 years before the Nakba, during the 1920s.

Source: Al Jarmaq