Critics say tons of of youngsters are prone to be moved to colleges educating Israeli curriculum, which may ‘erase’ Palestinian identification.
Israel has shut down six faculties run by the United Nations company for Palestinian refugees after shifting to banish the organisation from the occupied West Financial institution and East Jerusalem early this yr.
The UN Reduction and Works Company for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) stated in an announcement that Israeli police forcibly entered faculties within the East Jerusalem neighbourhoods of Shuafat, Silwan, Sur Baher and Wadi al-Joz on Tuesday.
Officers from the Israeli Ministry of Schooling have been additionally available. They issued orders to shut the faculties inside 30 days.
“If we’re pressured to shut, the results can be dire as the youngsters can be disadvantaged of their primary proper to training, which is able to exacerbate their struggling and negatively have an effect on their future,” stated Abir Ismail, director of UNRWA’s info workplace.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini stated in an announcement that Israel’s orders have been a “violation” of worldwide legislation and the principles granting the UN operations safety from native jurisdictions.
“Some 800 girls and boys are straight impacted by these closure orders and are prone to miss ending their faculty yr,” Lazzarini wrote.
This morning, Israeli officers from the Jerusalem Municipality, accompanied by Israeli Safety Forces, forcibly entered six @UNRWA faculties in East Jerusalem. They gave closure orders for the faculties efficient in 30 days.
UNRWA faculties in occupied East Jerusalem are…
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) April 8, 2025
Al Jazeera correspondent Nour Odeh stated the closure of the UNRWA faculties is “extraordinarily problematic” as a result of the youngsters would probably find yourself at Israeli establishments run by the Jerusalem Municipality.
She defined that the youngsters admitted to Israeli faculties would not be taught underneath the Palestinian curriculum.
“It’s an Israeli-run curriculum that Palestinians say ignores and erases Palestinian identification,” Odeh stated from Jordan’s capital, Amman. Al Jazeera is reporting from Jordan as a result of it has been banned from Israel and the West Financial institution.
UNRWA at present offers humanitarian help to about 750,000 Palestinians.
Ismail stated the help company maintained its “agency dedication to proceed offering instructional companies to Palestine refugees in East Jerusalem, together with the present tutorial yr”.
Nonetheless, Israel has accused UNRWA workers of involvement within the Hamas-led assaults on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, a cost vehemently denied by the UN.
Final yr, within the aftermath of these allegations, the Israeli Knesset handed two bills prohibiting UNRWA from conducting actions inside Israel’s borders and making it unlawful for Israeli officers to have any contact with UNRWA. These measures have been in impact since January.
Odeh stated Israel began implementing its ban by refusing to have interaction with UNRWA with regards to support to Gaza. However now, she defined, the nation has moved on to focusing on the company’s operations and headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem.
That transfer, she stated, is prone to have a “crippling impact” on UNRWA’s operations “in 19 different refugee camps” throughout the occupied West Financial institution, affecting “Palestinians who depend on the company, not only for training but additionally for well being companies, for psychosocial help”.
Odeh added that Israel has accelerated its implementation of the UNRWA ban for the reason that begin of its “Iron Wall” army incursion within the West Financial institution in January.
The operation was launched simply two days after a ceasefire took impact in Gaza.
It has concerned the Israeli army bombing and bulldozing communities throughout the West Financial institution, razing complete residential areas in what critics concern is a bid to maneuver in the direction of full annexation.
Greater than 40,000 Palestinians have been uprooted from the Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps as a part of the army marketing campaign.
UNRWA was established by the UN Common Meeting in 1949 to supply help to Palestinians displaced from their land in the course of the creation of Israel in 1948, an occasion recognized to Palestinians because the Nakba, or “disaster”.
