The Education Department of the Palestinian National Conference in Jerusalem Issues a Report on UNRWA Schools in the Holy City

SadaNews: The Education Department of the Palestinian National Conference for Jerusalem has issued a report regarding the fate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) schools in Jerusalem after the Israeli occupation state began its fierce war on the agency's institutions operating in the city and its suburbs. The aim is to eliminate the material symbols of the refugee cause in a clear attack on the emerging generation to erase its national identity and affiliation with its historical cause.

Ghadir Fawzi Jaber, the education specialist and head of the education file at the Palestinian National Conference for Jerusalem, stated that the occupation authorities have closed most of the basic schools belonging to UNRWA in the holy city. She pointed out that there are notices for the closure of other schools, including the female and male schools in Qalandiya camp and the Qalandiya Industrial Training Institute, which could be closed at any time decided by Netanyahu’s government. She clarified that these schools have been established for decades, specifically since the 1950s, following the great catastrophe of 1948, which were created by a UN resolution to provide education for students whose families were forced into the camps established by the United Nations as a temporary measure until displaced citizens could return to their original homes.

Jaber added in the report issued by her department in collaboration with the Media Unit and commissioned by the Secretary-General of the conference, General Bilal al-Natsha, that the students of these schools are now caught between a rock and a hard place: part of them is still waiting for the eviction decision while another part has become homeless, and there is no room to accommodate them in other schools, as the occupation authorities chose a malicious timing to close UNRWA schools, coinciding with the regular educational activities in government and private schools. This means the displacement of these students and the loss of their academic year.

Jaber considered this policy to be studied, as alongside Israel's efforts to contain these students in the occupation's municipal schools in Jerusalem, it also aims to displace them and incorporate them into the labor market to create a generation that is unaware of or not affiliated with its cause, all within the comprehensive war that Israel is waging against our people in various aspects of life, with education at the forefront.

Jaber indicated that the municipal schools of the occupation in Jerusalem have already begun negotiating with the families of the students in UNRWA schools to enroll their children in municipal schools in exchange for various incentives, including providing transportation for their children and providing modern educational tools to assist them in "modern" study according to their claims, in return for which they charge nominal fees aimed at encouraging parents to register their children in these schools that teach the purely Israeli curriculum, targeting the collective consciousness of students and their national identity, and erasing everything they have learned over the past years from courses that reinforce their belonging to their usurped homeland.

Since the Israeli Knesset banned UNRWA from operating at the end of October of last year, the occupation municipality has been racing against time to attract students from UNRWA schools, coinciding with parents looking for suitable alternatives amid an unknown fate looming over the second semester. The occupation has given the agency and its facilities - including schools - until January 30th of last year to close their doors permanently. This has indeed happened with many schools in Jerusalem, according to Jaber.

In less than two months, the occupation will disrupt many of the schools, clinics, and relief centers that UNRWA has opened in Jerusalem since its establishment, to rid itself of what it has always seen as a threat to its existence and sovereignty in Jerusalem and a reinforcement of the Palestinian refugee cause. Schools affiliated with the agency have been fought against in various ways, including denying licenses, reducing services, supporting alternatives, and launching counter-legal, political, and media campaigns.

It is noted that the occupation authorities, led by the extremist Ben Gvir, have taken full control over the UNRWA headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah in recent weeks and have destroyed its facilities, which are now under Israeli sovereignty. This operation was carried out amidst an overt Israeli military display, presenting a significant challenge to the United Nations and the international community, which considers the agency a symbolic institution that affirms that the refugee issue remains unresolved and that the tragedy of these displaced individuals from their towns, villages, and cities in the occupied territories has not ended.

The occupation municipality exploited this ban to finalize the agency's schools and attract their students to sit in the seats of the schools belonging to the Israeli Ministry of Education, which teaches the Israeli curriculum. Incentives were offered to parents, including personal communication to convince them, showcasing the low-cost services, and ensuring transportation for some students, according to data from parents who were spoken to regarding this matter.

However, the municipality’s task has not been easy, despite its dominance in East Jerusalem, where dozens of parents quickly moved to transfer their children to other schools teaching the Palestinian curriculum upon hearing the ban decision. Meanwhile, the municipality's teams struggled to access the personal data of all UNRWA students to persuade their families individually, and they found it difficult to persuade some school directors to switch to the Israeli curriculum, due to its distortion of national identity and its academic inadequacy compared to the Palestinian curriculum, especially in the English language.

One school director in Jerusalem confirmed in media statements, on the condition of anonymity, that the occupation municipality is persistently and with unprecedented determination waging war against the Palestinian curriculum in Palestinian schools, through surprise inspections, imposing the distorted curriculum, and cutting or reducing financial funding for violators. He also mentioned that the municipality is considering adding additional quality hours to strengthen students in English language within its schools to persuade parents.

He continued, "The municipality is racing against time out of fear of hundreds of students transitioning to schools that it claims are inciting and enhancing Palestinian identity, as it plans to establish temporary buildings worth 15 million shekels until new buildings are constructed to transfer students to, amid a shortage of 2,000 classrooms. It has already relocated some students to existing schools, as 200 female students from Shuafat camp were transferred to two mixed schools within the camp, and 50 female students were moved to a school in the Old City of Jerusalem that teaches the Israeli curriculum."

According to data from UNRWA, more than 1,800 Palestinian students are studying in seven educational institutions affiliated with the organization within the boundaries of the Jerusalem municipality, including six schools and a vocational training college in Qalandiya (which has 344 students). The remaining schools are distributed as follows:
Three schools in Shuafat camp in the northeast of Jerusalem, two for females and one for males.

A primary school for females in the town of Silwan south of Al-Aqsa Mosque near the Gate of the Maghribis.
And a primary school for males in the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood near the walls of Jerusalem.
And another intermediate school for females in the village of Sur Baher south of Jerusalem.
And a school for males and females in Qalandiya camp.

It is noted that the number of students in Jerusalem in school stages reached about 98,428 students, of whom about 45,500 attend 146 schools under the Palestinian umbrella (General Waqf, private schools, UNRWA), while the rest attend schools affiliated with the occupation municipality, including historic schools that the occupation took control of during the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, rented schools, and relatively modern schools, all of which teach the Israeli curriculum, according to data provided by the Faisal al-Husseini Foundation in Jerusalem.

Jaber recommended the following: Parents should not respond to the municipality's temptations, as doing so would mean succumbing to the status quo on one hand and a significant loss for their children on the other, as they will detach from their Palestinian identity, and as years go by, they will fall into the trap of total Judaization. Educational authorities, especially the Ministry of Education, should be mobilized to provide an official Palestinian alternative to UNRWA schools to accommodate students threatened by loss and displacement. UNRWA should take action and not acquiesce to the status quo, especially since the refugee issue remains unresolved and the occupation persists, thus UNRWA's mandate and historical responsibility have not yet ended. The popular committees in the camps should have a clear role in intervening in this crisis and seek creative solutions to provide alternatives to the Israeli schools that await our children to wash their brains as part of an Israeli systematic scheme targeting this generation that we wager on for the continuation of the liberation process. Finally, there should be resilience and patience in the face of attempts to uproot UNRWA institutions from their roots and not submit to what is imposed upon them, but rather find tangible alternatives that would save our children from the clutches of Judaization.