The Honey Trap: So We Don't Lose the Educational Process in Jerusalem

Author: د. غسان عبد الله 

With Israel's occupation of the eastern part of Jerusalem on June 5, 1967, it attempted to assert control over education in this occupied area, but faced strong resistance that rejected this Israeli attempt. The campaign of resistance was led by the distinguished educator Hosni Al-Ashhab, Mr. Bahjat Abu Gharbieh, lawyer Ibrahim Abu Bakr (who was exiled from the homeland along with Mr. Bahjat Abu Gharbieh), educator Alia Nusseibeh, social activist Zuleikha Al-Shahabi, and Ms. Doris Salah; later, engineers Ibrahim Al-Daqaq, Hassan Al-Qiq, and Dawood Istanbul joined them.

The authorities overseeing education in Jerusalem are distributed as follows: Islamic endowments, whose schools later became known as the Hosni Al-Ashhab Schools, which came under the Palestinian Ministry of Education after the Oslo Agreement (even though the ministry's role can be described as an absent presence, evidenced by Bennett's government closing the Education Office in the Old City of Jerusalem and the authority's acquiescence to the decision by relocating to the town of Ram, a suburb of Jerusalem), schools overseen by Islamic and Christian religious institutions, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Education is not only a passport for Palestinians to improve their living and social conditions and thus contribute to achieving desired sustainable development, but is also a strong attraction for national unification work. For example, we cite:

• The national uprising that occurred at the beginning of the new school year in October 1968 (when the school year was delayed at that time due to the defeat of the June 1967 War and the attempts of the occupation to implement Israeli curricula in the schools of occupied East Jerusalem, at which time national educational figures from all political directions confronted this attempt by declaring a strike and civil disobedience, led by the engineer of the educational process in Jerusalem until his passing, Professor Hosni Al-Ashhab, Professor Bahjat Abu Gharbieh, lawyer Ibrahim Bakr (both were exiled to Jordan), Ms. Zuleikha Al-Shahabi, Ms. Doris Salah, until a response was made to the request to continue implementing the Jordanian curriculum in these schools and to maintain the Tawjihi exams therein. For the record, we must mention that at that time the Jordanian Minister of Education issued a decision considering West Bank students successful in the exam due to the war. Later, this devoted group was joined by engineer Ibrahim Al-Daqaq, engineer Dawood Istanbul, and educator Nihad Abu Gharbieh, brother of Mr. Bahjat Abu Gharbieh. (For more information, refer to: Al-Daqaq, Ibrahim: Education in Jerusalem, 1983, Arab Intellectual Forum- Jerusalem.)
• A teachers' union movement initiated by the public school teachers in 1977 which continued until a subsequent initiative emerged, in which workers in the government education sector organized into struggle committees, regardless of different intellectual orientations and political affiliations, which resulted in the formation of the General Union of Government Teachers, which included representatives from all national organizations and intellectual movements, thus receiving support from national forces aligned with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Some of them were arrested, and others were dismissed from their jobs. For the record, we list some names: Mr. Malik Marmash, Mr. Omar Assaf, Mr. Kamal Hanoun, Ms. Noha Barghouthi, Ms. Fadwa Labadi, Mr. Abdul Aziz Shanar, Mr. Abdul Karim Kanaan, Mr. Salah Zahran... (For more information, refer to the unionist Mr. Omar Assaf’s book on this subject published by the Citizen Foundation at that time.)
• A third experience of Palestinian national unity work manifested in attempts to form a unified union body for all educational frameworks in the homeland (government, relief agency, private schools, colleges, and universities). This attempt began in 1983 with the formation of the union of workers in the education sectors that continued its role until the beginning of popular education after the occupation closed schools on December 19, 1987, during the 1987 Intifada. With the increasing need to meet the demand for needs, the education branch of the unified leadership of the Intifada decided to form an independent union for Palestinian teachers, despite the presence of various trade union blocs with different names and organizational loyalties, such as the Youth Movement bloc for teachers, the Union of Democratic Teachers' Committees, the Labor Front for Teachers, and the Left Bloc for Teachers (the Communist Organization at that time).

We apologize here for not mentioning the names of representatives of these blocs for several reasons that we see as legitimate. Efforts continued to form a unified teachers' union until 1991, when a large meeting was held for many members of the Fatah Youth Bloc at the Al-Hakawati Theater in Jerusalem, and the announcement was made to establish a union of teachers of a single color, after the preparatory committee failed to form a union that included everyone about a month before the teachers' meeting in Al-Hakawati (documents recording this meeting are still preserved by some members of this preparatory committee).

• In light of these organizational disputes, the other side has been cunningly attempting to fragment the educational process, starting from sidelining the role of some major official schools to a negligible role in the field of education by turning them into centers for other education (Hebrew language, theoretical driving courses...), neglecting some historically renowned educational institutions (the Arab College being an example), and tightening the grip around most of them (such as Al-Rashidiya School, Al-Omari School, the Al-Ma'muniya School for Girls, and the Lutheran School being examples), which forced one school in the Al-Dabbaghah Market to close and convert the facility into another business.
• The author here starts from the saying of the martyr writer Ghassan Kanafani, "If we have lost the political battle, it is a shame for us to lose the cultural battle," and I add that our failure in the educational process is akin to the collapse of one of the fundamental pillars of national identity; to prevent that:

• The author reminds here of the fact that once the virus of factional work began to spread, distancing from unifying work, the other side committed more violations against education in Jerusalem, among which are:
• - The deliberate marginalization of government schools with a rich history, as mentioned above, leading to a decrease in student enrollment and a decline in success rates in the Tawjihi exam, not to mention what happened to the Arab Orphan Committee Professional School and the Dar Al-Aytam Professional School, where their pioneering role shrank significantly historically.
• - The closure of the Education Office affiliated with the Islamic Endowment in Jerusalem (which was referenced above).
• If we went back a little to the history of education in Palestine since the occupation of what remains of historical Palestine in 1967, we would find that education had formed a unifying factor for all national and Islamic intellectual forces and currents. To support this claim, we mention:

• A third experience of Palestinian national unity work manifested in attempts to form a unified union body for all educational frameworks in the homeland (government, relief agency, private schools, colleges, and universities). This attempt began in 1983 with the formation of the union of workers in the education sectors that continued its role until the beginning of popular education after the occupation closed schools on December 19, 1987, during the 1987 Intifada. With the increasing need to meet the demand for needs, the education branch of the unified leadership of the Intifada decided to form an independent union for Palestinian teachers, despite the presence of various trade union blocs with different names and organizational loyalties, such as the Youth Movement bloc for teachers, the Union of Democratic Teachers' Committees, the Labor Front for Teachers, and the Left Bloc for Teachers (the Communist Organization at that time).

We apologize here for not mentioning the names of representatives of these blocs for several reasons that we see as legitimate.

Efforts continued to form a unified teachers' union until 1991, when a large meeting was held for many members of the Fatah Youth Bloc at the Al-Hakawati Theater in Jerusalem, and the announcement was made to establish a union of teachers of a single color, after the preparatory committee failed to form a union that included everyone about a month before the teachers' meeting in Al-Hakawati (documents recording this meeting are still preserved by some members of this preparatory committee).

• In light of these organizational disputes, the other side has been cunningly attempting to fragment the educational process, starting from sidelining the role of some major official schools to a negligible role in the field of education by turning them into centers for other education (Hebrew language, theoretical driving courses...), neglecting some historically renowned educational institutions (the Arab College being an example), and tightening the grip around most of them, which forced one school in the Al-Dabbaghah Market to close and convert the facility into another business; this was followed by encouraging the operation of private schools under the name of non-official but recognized schools. (For more information on this, see the study: The Honey Trap on the role, tasks, and purpose of establishing these schools, published in March 2023 in some local newspapers, including Al-Quds newspaper in Jerusalem and one of the international publications in English.)

• The author believes that as soon as the virus of factional work began its activity, with a distance from unifying work, the other side committed more violations against education in Jerusalem, among which are:-
• - The deliberate marginalization of government schools with a rich history, leading to a decrease in student enrollment and a decline in success rates in the Tawjihi exam.
• - Facilitating the opening of more contracting schools and increasing financial incentives for their operators, which led to a sharp decrease in the number of students enrolled in city schools, especially private schools.
• - Imposing the Israeli curriculum forcefully on Palestinian students in East Jerusalem schools and intensifying raid and inspection campaigns during school hours to ensure the use of the distorted Israeli curriculum.
• - Starting to expand the implementation of the honey trap, which is represented in allowing the relevant Israeli authorities to grant permits to open what is known as unofficial, illegal, but recognized schools, called in the Palestinian street contract schools, whose hidden aims are:
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• - Destroying the esteemed educational structure in Jerusalem as a contribution to efforts to Judaize the city.
• - Escaping from the responsibility of the occupying authority, which collects taxes with various names, of its duty to build schools and meet the requirements of the educational process, replacing this with this type of schools (contract schools), as the municipality pays monthly amounts to the contractors operating these schools from the Palestinians with many material temptations, finding its way with some who responded to it, as these operators began renting buildings, most of which are unlicensed by this municipality (and we know the fierce war by the municipality against such buildings, starting with heavy fines and ending with demolition), most of which are concentrated in the Samir Amis area – Kafr Aqab, Shufat refugee camp, as areas geographically affiliated with Jerusalem from ancient times. Israel gained from this another benefit represented in not pumping Palestinian students into Jerusalem schools
• inside the wall of the separation barrier (among them with their parents), which contributed to crippling the Arab presence and commercial movement in Jerusalem, as thousands of students used to head to these schools in the morning and return from them in the evening before the construction of the separation wall.
• Years passed until the Israeli official authorities returned to distort the Palestinian curriculum applied by deleting poems, verses from the Quran, and certain geographical terms; followed by, and with all brutality and violation of international laws and norms, demanding these schools to start applying the Israeli curriculum, and in case of non-compliance, financial aid would stop to the point of raiding official municipality crews, accompanied by Israeli police forces, into school classrooms to ensure the application of the Israeli curriculum, as happened with the Ibrahimi College and the Al-Iman Schools.
• It can be said that a high percentage of private schools, including those that were founded during the Jordanian era, whether Christian or Islamic, receive financial support under this Israeli policy, with only a handful of schools that do not receive such financial support (the Islamic endowment schools and the Al-Hassad School affiliated with the Refugee Girl Association, which is a women’s association established in Jerusalem).
• Among the most prominent challenges facing education in occupied Jerusalem:
• - The multiplicity and rivalry of authorities overseeing education in Jerusalem (as evidenced by the fate of the Arab Orphan Committee School, for example) and the application of some private schools of the Israeli Bagrot exam as a substitute for the Palestinian Tawjihi, using Israeli curricula, disregarding the national stance towards that.
• - The absence of an effective national role supervising education in Jerusalem, with the authority being an absent presence and the rest of the institutions having limited financial and technological capabilities; here we must record appreciation and respect for the quality initiatives carried out by the Faisal Al-Husseini Foundation regarding some schools in Jerusalem.
• - The absence of practical visions that can be implemented and executed; the weakness here may be Palestinian, as narrow factionalism and political divisions prevail.
• - The wall of separation that has socially, psychologically, and economically uprooted Palestinian families.
• - The deliberate arrest of students, especially in early age stages (Ahmad Manasra, 12 years old, and Rola Bakeer, 14 years old, in addition to the killing and burning of the body of the child Mohammed Abu Khdeir in Shufat, Jerusalem).
• - The greatest challenge lies in the spread of unemployment in Jerusalem and the high poverty rate, as about 39% of the population in East Jerusalem lives below the poverty line, according to statistics from the Israeli National Insurance Institute, which have been published in both Hebrew and Arabic media, resulting in a high level of apathy and motivation to engage in the educational process.
• - Attempts to destroy what remains of solid educational foundations by spreading and establishing intermediate institutes and centers between some youth and fake educational institutions, where such intermediaries sell packages they call educational certificates under various names and academic degrees.
• - The growing lack of classrooms and school buildings equipped with the educational infrastructure suitable to be a functioning school.
• - The need to train and qualify teaching and administrative bodies and equip them with educational and pedagogical skills amid crises, which would contribute to rebuilding the Palestinian identity, especially in Jerusalem.
• - The absence of a unified school curriculum that Palestinian educational visions agree upon to achieve the desired goals from education that targets the oppressed.