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Occupied Jerusalem- The Israeli occupation authorities took advantage of the war on… Gaza stripto fight Palestinian education in Jerusalem, as a parliamentary committee in the Knesset (Parliament) recently held consultations to examine the possibility of closing Palestinian schools in Jerusalem on the grounds of “incitement to terrorism” during wartime.
The Israeli consultations, which base their procedures on a state of emergency, come as the occupation police closed the Al-Aqsa Islamic School and Kindergarten earlier this week.Old Jerusalem Adjacent to Bab Hatta.
It did so under the pretext of “incitement to terrorism” through the approved Palestinian teaching curriculum, and the students’ participation in confrontations with Israeli security forces.
The occupation authorities threaten to close 3 schools located in Bahaat Al-Aqsa MosqueThey are Al-Aqsa Sharia High School for Boys and Al-Aqsa High School for Girls, which are affiliated with the Islamic Endowments Department, and Al-Aqsa School and Kindergarten, which are private, where hundreds of Jerusalemite students from the Old City learn in each school.
Israeli allegations
These practices are in addition to the refusal of the Israeli Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, to fund the five-year plan, which is a plan for high school students from East Jerusalem to encourage young men and women to engage in university and academic education.
The plan was previously approved in 2018, and was allocated a budget of 250 million shekels ($68 million), and was financed with Jerusalemite taxpayers’ money.
The subcommittee of the Education, Culture and Sports Committee discussed BThe KnessetSupervisor of educational programs in the education system in East JerusalemLast Wednesday, what she described as the “inflammatory contents” taught in curricula and books during the war, and the escalation of manifestations of incitement and identification with the Palestinians in Gaza.
To justify Israel’s threats to close Palestinian schools and kindergartens, the occupation police delegate, Sami Marciano, claimed, during the subcommittee’s deliberations, that Palestinian school students were involved in incitement, protests, and carrying out attacks against security personnel and settlers in East Jerusalem.
Since the beginning of the aggression against Gaza, the occupation police have arrested 620 Palestinians from the Jerusalem area, including 250 who were arrested on charges of incitement, the vast majority of whom were minors. 9 school students were accused of carrying out attacks against Israeli targets.
Marciano said, “We are facing troublemakers as young as eight years old,” as he put it.
For his part, the Chairman of the Committee, Member of Knesset, said: Likud PartyAmit Halevy, “Students in schools supervised by the State of Israel receive regular incitement. There must be a complete change in policy.”
He stated, “We want to know what the Ministry of Education’s position is toward the Palestinian schools that have received warnings over the years, including the 7 schools in which dangerous inflammatory materials were found. I want to know what the Ministry’s action is in the case of the Rashidiya School, from which the terrorist emerged.” Who killed Eliyahu Kai?
Israeli incitement
Halevy added, “It is time for the State of Israel to deal with this educational infrastructure, which contains incitement to terrorism. The gun does not shoot alone. It shoots from the head, from the heart.”
The members of the committee pointed out the need for the Knesset and the relevant parliamentary committees to discuss the issue of the effects of curricula and educational programs in East Jerusalem schools as soon as possible in light of the war on Gaza.
According to the data received during the discussions of the Parliamentary Committee, out of 100,000 students in East Jerusalem schools, there are 20,000 students studying in schools of the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA), as Israel does not fund them, but the Israeli supervision and control law applies to them.
During the discussions, data was presented regarding alleged incitement by students in East Jerusalem schools during the war on Gaza, according to what was stated in the discussion of the committee, which warned of the expansion of what it called “the phenomenon of incitement among minors in East Jerusalem.”
Members of the parliamentary committee reviewed the written materials presented to them, which included “inflammatory language,” according to allegations by the occupation police. For example, the police claimed that he wrote in a post sent to students on social media, “To proud Gaza we write our most beautiful words.”
These words were written as part of the “Victory Project” for a school in Sheikh Jarrah. Within the framework of the project, the students of the Arab American School a few days ago praised the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), in implementation of the instructions of the educational staff, according to what was stated in the committee’s deliberations.
The occupation authorities have been waging a war on the Palestinian curriculum in East Jerusalem schools since the beginning of the current academic year last September, with the help of police officers who spread out in front of the schools, search the bags of male and female students, and confiscate the Palestinian curriculum books.
Intrusion and distortion
With the authorization of the Israeli Ministry of Education, the occupation police storm Palestinian schools in East Jerusalem, to verify that they are not teaching the Palestinian curriculum. The Ministry threatened in an official letter to withdraw the license from the schools, if it is proven that they are teaching this curriculum, which is printed by the Palestinian Ministry of Education.
The Israeli Ministry of Education forced all schools in East Jerusalem to adopt the Palestinian curriculum books that it had distorted, made amendments to, and deleted any content deemed to “incite terrorism,” replacing them with paragraphs and materials promoting the Israeli narrative.
The occupation municipality in Jerusalem, with authorization from this ministry, supervised the transfer and distribution of amended and distorted Palestinian curriculum books to schools in East Jerusalem.
School administrations were also forced to receive the modified books and sign their receipt and distribution to the students, because they did not contain “inflammatory content against the State of Israel,” according to what was stated in the official ministry letter.
Last academic year, the occupation authorities, under the pretext of “incitement to terrorism” with textbooks, withdrew the permanent license from the Ibrahimiyya College and 6 schools affiliated with the “Al-Iman” school network.
These schools were granted a conditional license for one year to correct the contents of the textbooks and their contents, in line with Israeli instructions, and threatened to close them if they were caught teaching the Palestinian curriculum.
150 schools
There are about 150 schools in East Jerusalem under multiple administrations, some of which belong to the occupation municipality, others to private entities, whether the church or the Islamic Endowments Department, schools affiliated with the Palestinian Authority, and UNRWA schools.
70% of the schools in East Jerusalem are subject to the occupation authority and municipality, as schools are financed, restored and maintained, and crews of principals and teachers are employed with budgets from the Israeli Ministry of Education.
The occupation authorities have continued to employ the weapon of funding and budgets to contain Palestinian schools in Jerusalem, tame school students, both male and female, and separate them from the Palestinian people and keep them away from the perpetuation of the conflict over Al-Aqsa Mosque. However, it failed in this bargain, and resorted to closing schools from early childhood to secondary school.
