Seam Zones A Seam Zone is an area located between Israel’s Annexation and Segregation Wall and the 1949 Armistice Line. The term “Seam Zone” has been criticized, as it is not a neutral term, but instead conceals the fact that the areas are part of the West Bank.201 Approximately 11,000 people live in the Seam Zones and have been isolated from the rest of the West Bank and it is estimated that, once the wall is completed, around 35,000 Palestinians will be living in the Seam Zones.202 Teachers must also acquire education worker permits to enter schools located in the Seam Zones. Like all other permits to enter a Seam Zone, these permits are difficult to obtain, despite of the fact that they are necessary in order to ensure that students living in the Seam Zone can receive the education they are entitled to. The education worker permits also cannot be renewed, which means that teachers are required to apply for new permits every time their permits expire.203 Palestinian children who attend schools on the “other” side of the wall experience severe restrictions on their access to education, as they require permits.204 If students want to reach their schools on the other side of the Wall, they must acquire a student permit. It is therefore up to the Israeli military, and not the student or the student’s family, to decide which school the student should attend.205 The impeded access to education often results in a high drop-out rate, especially among girls after the ninth grade,206 as parents of girls are more likely to stop them from attending when they are faced with harassment and violence at checkpoints on their way to and from school.207 In 2010 the World Bank identifiedthat the movement and access restrictions imposed by Israel are not gender neutral, but are in fact more problematic for Palestinian women than for Palestinian men. For instance, the World Bank found that the intrusive body searches and detainment that often occurs at checkpoints 201 See for example HaMoked, “The Permit Regime: Human Rights Violations in West Bank Areas Known as the “Seam Zone””, March 2013, page 5. Available at: www.hamoked.org/files/2013/1157660_eng. pdf 202 OCHA – Occupied Palestinian Territories, “10 Years since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Advisory Opinion”, 9 July 2014, page 6. Available at: www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_10_ years_barrier_report_english.pdf 203 HaMoked, “The Permit Regime: Human Rights Violations in West Bank Areas Known as the “Seam Zone””, March 2013, pages 28-29. Available at: www.hamoked.org/files/2013/1157660_eng.pdf 204 Ibid. page 64 205 Ibid. pages 64-65 206 OCHA – Occupied Palestinian Territories, “Occupied Palestinian Territory Consolidated Appeal 2013”, page 35. Available at: www.lacs.ps/documentsShow.aspx?ATT_ID=6719 207 Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA), “Education under Occupation Access to Education in the occupied Palestinian territory”, February 2013, pages 2 and 6. Available at: http:// www.unicef.org/oPt/UNICEF_Under_Occupation_final-SMALL.pdf 56