How Is the New Israeli Right-Wing Government Threatening Palestinian Schools in Jerusalem?

In light of the formation of the most extremist Israeli government in the history of “Israel,” the education sector in Jerusalem (al-Quds) will witness further attempts to impose Israeli curricula in all schools of the occupied city and to destroy everything related to Palestinian national affiliation.

In 2018, “Israel” developed a tight five-year plan to control education in the city of Jerusalem (2018-2022), aiming to control education by 90 percent, emptying the Old City of schools and controlling its historical buildings to turn it into a tourist city.

Palestinians in Jerusalem warned about the education situation in the city with the formation of the most extreme government by Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud Party.

Former mayor of the Israeli Occupation in Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, had previously confirmed, in a statement in January 2019, that the government is leading a revolution in education in East Jerusalem to integrate Arabs into Israeli society.

The number of students in each of the primary, preparatory, and secondary levels is about 98,428, according to data published by Faisal Husseini Foundation (a Palestinian charity) in early July 2022.

Education in Jerusalem is supervised by five different entities: Awqaf schools that are related to the city’s Directorate of Education, managed by the Palestinian Ministry of Education, and follow Palestinian curricula.

The second party is private schools related to churches or charities, or private schools led by individuals. These schools follow the Palestinian educational programs and curriculum, although most of them work under Israeli pressure as they receive monthly Israeli allocations.

The third party is Israeli schools, which are fully and directly managed by the Israeli Ministry of Education and the Israeli Occupation municipality. They are subject to the application of distorted Palestinian curricula, and part of them apply the Israeli curricula.

The fourth is schools for investors, which are licensed and recognized, but unofficial. They are also called contracting schools because their administration cooperates with the Israeli Ministry of Education and fully adheres to their instructions, to open classes in residential buildings, in exchange for allocations they receive from the Israeli Occupation municipality.

The fifth and last are the schools affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), operating under the management of the international organization and adhering to the Palestinian educational system and curriculum.

According to Israeli law, no school can operate in East Jerusalem without a license issued by the Israeli Ministry of Education, and therefore all private and municipal schools obtain a license from the ministry.

 

Endless Battle

Since the beginning of the school year, at the end of August 2022, a battle has been taking place in Jerusalem because of the curriculum that the Israeli Occupation authorities are trying to impose on all schools in the city.

At the end of July 2022, the so-called Ministry of Education approved the revocation of permanent licenses for Palestinian schools in occupied Jerusalem due to what it said was “incitement against the state and the army in textbooks.”

Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton threatened to revoke the license of every educational institution whose curricula contain incitement against “the State of Israel and its symbols.”

This came after a series of inspections of those schools carried out by the Control and Enforcement Department in the Israeli Ministry, which reached the point of selecting books from students’ bags inside the classroom, and summoning school principals to a hearing committee.

These schools were deprived of the permanent operating license and replaced with a temporary one for a year. To reobtain their license, they should remove some of their “inciting” contents.

During August, the Ministry sent a letter to several schools entitled “Textbooks Contain Inciting Content in East Jerusalem Schools.”

The aforementioned schools are the Abrahamic College in the al-Sawana neighborhood, which was established in 1931, and al-Iman Schools, established in 1984, with its five branches throughout occupied Jerusalem.

The latest Israeli decision claimed that “incitement” was mentioned in some third, seventh, and ninth-grade books by glorifying the prisoners and their armed struggle against the Israeli Occupation and accusing the latter of being responsible for the water crisis in the Palestinian Authority.

There were topics about the occupation of Palestine and the crimes committed against its people, including the Nakba in 1948, massacres, demolition, arrest, settlement, and the separation wall, in addition to obstructing and targeting Palestinian medical personnel.

A member of the Coordinating Council for Education in the occupied city of Jerusalem, Raed al-Bashir, warned against an increase in the Israeli authorities’ encroachment on education in Jerusalem with the next Israeli government, which includes the most extremist official, Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Al-Bashir said in his interview with Al-Estiklal: “The Israeli Occupation authorities realized that education in the occupied city of Jerusalem plays a role in shaping the personality of the Palestinian generation, knowing exactly how to deal with the occupation.”

He points out that the schools of the Holy City are subjected to a strong campaign by the Israeli Education system aiming at passing their distorted curricula by replacing the Palestinian ones.

He added: “International law recognizes that the city of Jerusalem is occupied, and obliges the occupying power to secure all basic rights for its people, respect for the beliefs and traditions of the people it occupies, freedom of education for its residents, and their right to choose their curricula in accordance with the Palestinian narrative.”

Article 50 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantee the right of peoples under occupation to obtain education that aligns with their beliefs and protect their culture and heritage from change or distortion.

He explains that the Israeli Occupation authorities began targeting Jerusalem schools by withdrawing permanent licenses from some schools and granting them a temporary license for a year due to their non-compliance with the distorted curriculum.

He shows that the forms of attacks by the Israeli authorities on schools that follow the Palestinian curriculum are represented in withdrawing licenses, conducting inspection control, and stopping students in the streets and checking their bags to verify which curriculum is being taught in their schools.

He points out that the Israeli authorities do not have any powers over private schools in the city of Jerusalem and are not entitled to force them to teach any curricula or to implement any administrative or educational decisions.

 

School Crises

In addition to the Israeli authorities’ confrontation with the curriculum, Palestinian schools in the city of Jerusalem suffer from an acute shortage of classrooms, amounting to about 2,200, in addition to the fact that most of the school buildings are rented residential buildings.

The media spokesman for the Union of Parents’ Committees in Jerusalem, Ramadan Taha, confirmed that the Israeli authorities provide many advantages to its affiliated schools, which teach distorted Israeli curricula.

In his interview with Al-Estiklal, Taha said: “The Israeli authorities are harassing Palestinian schools that refuse to teach their curricula, and threaten not to provide them with any budgets, and to revoke their licenses.”

He stressed that the Parents’ Council in the city of Jerusalem will work to confront attempts to pass the teaching of distorted Israeli curricula because they carry misleading topics aimed at influencing students’ minds.

He also indicated that the most dangerous thing that the Israeli curriculum carries is the use of Jewish terminology and putting Palestinian symbols under Israeli names, such as the term “Temple Mount” instead of “al-Aqsa Mosque” and “Independence Day” instead of the “Palestinian Nakba.”

He pointed out that the Israeli Ministry of Education tried in recent days to storm the al-Ibrahimia School in the city of Jerusalem with the aim of inspecting the curricula taught inside the school and imposing distorted curricula, but they were prevented by the school’s administration.

He indicated that there is a decision to enter into an education strike in case the Israeli Occupation authorities withdraw the licenses of any of the schools or impose the distorted curricula.

The Director of the Jerusalem International Center, Hasan Khater, explained that education in the city of Jerusalem is one of the files that are most exposed to Judaization, directly and indirectly, whether through the lack of schools, poor infrastructure, or poor financial capabilities.

Khater said in his interview with Al-Estiklal: “There is a significant shortage in the number of classes in Jerusalem schools, overcrowding of students, and the absence of health facilities.”

He indicated that the Israeli Occupation wants Arab and Palestinian schools to follow its curriculum during the pupils’ childhood, in which children can be easily manipulated and “shaped.”

He revealed that the steadfast schools in the city of Jerusalem, which refuse to teach the Israeli curriculum, are in a miserable situation, and some of them may be closed during the coming periods as a result of the lack of financial support.

He pointed out that the dominance of the Occupation over education in Jerusalem means presenting the Israeli vision to the children’s minds which constitutes a great danger.

Khater pointed out that there is an ongoing struggle between the councils of affairs and the Israeli Occupation authorities in Jerusalem to prevent the passing of Israeli curricula in all Palestinian schools and to distort awareness, so Jerusalem needs support in the face of Israeli attempts against education.

On August 27, the Palestinian Ministry of Education said the Israeli Occupation authorities are launching a fierce and unprecedented attack on Palestinian education in Jerusalem as an integral part of its plans to erase all that is Palestinian from its material, moral and spiritual features.