With the beginning of the school year in Palestine four weeks ago, the issue of
education in Jerusalem has returned to the forefront of events. It is the battle of
the Israeli occupation attack on the Palestinian curriculum in Jerusalem. This is a
policy followed by the Israeli occupation authorities through the Jerusalem
Municipality and the Israeli Ministry of Education to prevent the teaching of the
Palestinian curriculum and replace it with the Israeli curriculum. The Jerusalem
Municipality and the Israeli Education Ministry modified the Palestinian
curriculum, and are trying to impose the modified curriculum on Jerusalem’s 150
schools, some of which are affiliated with the occupation municipality. The Israeli
Ministry of Education, private schools, schools affiliated with the Palestinian
Authority, and schools affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
for Palestine Refugees in refugee camps ( UNARWA) in Jerusalem such as the
Shuafat camp.
Since the first day of the opening of the school year, weeks ago, the Israeli police
have been besieging schools, searching students' school bags, and confiscating
textbooks issued by the Palestinian Authority that include the Palestinian
curriculum. It is a policy that the occupation authorities had begun to implement
in recent years, but this year it took a more harsh and severe form, as the Israeli
police surrounded schools since the morning hours, arresting students, searching
their bags, and confiscating books that include the Palestinian curriculum, which
was rejected by the students, their families, and Jerusalem institutions. As a racist
policy that aims to empty Jerusalem of its Palestinian identity by attacking the
Palestinian curriculum and imposing the Israeli curriculum in line with the
occupation’s decisions to annex Jerusalem and declare it the capital of the State
of Israel. Many students preferred to sit on the roads near their schools and
practice education as a refusal to submit to this policy and as an example of
popular resistance to this racist policy.
More than this, the Israeli Ministry of Education in Jerusalem sent a letter to
Jerusalem schools obligating them to teach the amended Palestinian curriculum,
that is, in practice, teaching the Israeli curriculum. The letter included a decision
on the necessity of adopting the amended curriculum and prohibiting the
teaching of the Palestinian curriculum issued by the Palestinian Authority. The
letter included a warning to withdraw and cancel the license of schools that do
not implement the decisions of the Jerusalem Municipality and the Israeli
Ministry of Education, or that teach the Palestinian curriculum, and that the
municipality will cancel the licenses of these schools and close them. It is
noteworthy that last year, for the same reason, the Jerusalem Municipality and
the Ministry of Education withdrew and canceled the licenses of five private
Palestinian schools. It is worth mentioning that about 70% of Jerusalem schools
are now affiliated with the Israeli Ministry of Education and the occupation
municipality and use the Israeli curriculum. The municipality and the ministry are
trying to control all schools by teaching the modified Israeli curriculum. Not only
that, but the Israeli police stop cars carrying textbooks to schools, confiscate
books, and arrest drivers, as happened a few days ago at the entrances to a
number of schools in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The Palestinians in Jerusalem, through educational institutions, civil institutions,
and national forces, say that this is a dangerous policy practiced by the Israeli
authorities to empty Jerusalem of its identity and by attacking the most important
sector, which is education in Jerusalem. It is a policy that is consistent with the
Israeli decisions to annex Jerusalem and isolate it from its Palestinian
surroundings, and it is a policy that violates International agreements and
international law because Jerusalem is a city occupied in 1967 and its condition is
the same as the rest of the occupied Palestinian cities. The annexation decision is
illegal and illegitimate, and Jerusalem must be treated as an occupied city, and no
changes may be made that affect this legal status. It is a racist policy against
Palestinians by imposing the occupation curriculum on schools in Jerusalem.
What the schools are exposed to in Jerusalem is not new, but has been going on
for years, and which the Palestinians reject. Strikes have occurred during previous
years, especially last year, in rejection of this policy, in what the Palestinians in
Jerusalem called the slogan “the battle for education in Jerusalem.”
The result these days in Jerusalem is that the educational process is confused and
does not proceed normally. Many schools cannot be accessed by students due to
police siege and the policy of confiscating books. This negatively affects the
educational process and leads to its irregularity, which constitutes a violation of
the freedom of education and the provision of appropriate conditions for
students and educational bodies. For education. Thus, Israel is seriously violating
its obligations as an occupying power to provide these conditions in accordance
with the Fourth Geneva Conventions.
Ahmed Jaradat : Alternative Information Center - Palestine