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Destructive Legislative Bill Against East Jerusalem Schools Scheduled for First Knesset Reading Tomorrow
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As Jewish Israelis demonstrate across Israel against the government’s assault on Israeli "democracy," the state continues its oppressive policies and practices which have undermined Palestinians’ basic freedoms and deprived them of any modicum of democracy for decades. Less than a week after the acquittal of the police officer charged with killing Eyad al-Hallaq, an autistic Palestinian man from East Jerusalem, the police forcibly evicted the Ghaith-Sub Laban family from their home in the Muslim Quarter this morning. Settlers immediately entered their home, seizing it for Jewish settlement.
Against this backdrop of systematic oppression and denial of true democracy and equal rights for all, the Israeli government is now targeting the education system in East Jerusalem. Since the current government came to power, the Palestinian education system in East Jerusalem has been under attack. This has come in the form of legislative bills which have arisen in the government's Ministerial Committee, discussions held in the Knesset Education Committee, or by orders from the Minister of National Security to disband parents’ meetings and the East Jerusalem Parents' committee.
As a prime example of these efforts, tomorrow, July 12, a bill (Bill No. 3147/25) which seeks to deny funding to East Jerusalem schools teaching the Palestinian curriculum is scheduled for its first plenum reading. Sponsored by 12 Knesset members headed by Ohad Tal (Religious Zionism), the bill has been described as ostensibly combating alleged incitement found in Palestinian Authority textbooks although they are already censored by the Israeli authorities. However, the real goal of the bill's initiators, as well as those leading the Knesset’s Education Committee's discussions, is to deny the right of East Jerusalem residents to study according to their own culture, heritage, and historical narrative and to impose the Israeli curriculum on them. These measures are not driven by educational considerations, but rather by aggressive, nationalist motives that seek to eliminate any trace of Palestinian identity in Jerusalem.
The Subcommittee of the Education Committee – established for this very purpose – held a discussion this week in which its members demanded that supervision and coercion in East Jerusalem be significantly intensified, with the undisguised aim of switching to the Israeli curriculum.
The outcome of legislation to withdraw funding would be disastrous for the East Jerusalem education system which already suffers from severe neglect. Given Israel’s obligation for ensuring the realization of the right to education – as enshrined in international law and to which Israel is a signatory – the government should rather be urged to rectify the substandard condition of the education system in East Jerusalem. This includes, but not limited to:
- The shortage of 3,517 classrooms in East Jerusalem schools
- 40,963 "Invisible Children" – the number of East Jerusalem. Palestinian children of compulsory school-age unaccounted for in official municipal data and records.
- The soaring school drop-out rates – in the past year alone, 1,682 girls and boys have dropped out of school.
In 2019, the State Comptroller confirmed many of Ir Amim’s findings, noting the abysmal neglect and incompetence of the Ministry of Education and the Jerusalem Municipality vis-à-vis the ‘unaccounted for’ children. The municipality has likewise acknowledged the shortage of at least 2,000 classrooms in East Jerusalem. Moreover, a Supreme Court verdict from January 2023 in a lawsuit filed by the Jerusalem Parent’s Association and joined by Ir Amim as an amicus curiae concerning the classroom deficit further reinforced Ir Amim’s position. The ruling required the state and municipality to prepare an incremental outline for the planning and construction of the missing classrooms in East Jerusalem.
Therefore, an unambivalent message of opposition to the proposed legislation is also a timely opportunity to demand that the relevant Israeli authorities:
- Take immediate action to ensure that all children in East Jerusalem are enrolled and studying in the city’s schools and have sufficient classrooms in which to do so.
- Uphold and respect the desire of the overwhelming majority of East Jerusalem families (approx. 90%) to educate their children according to the Palestinian curriculum – as is their right under international law and in accordance with the Oslo Agreements to an educational curricula which reflects the community’s heritage, identity and culture.
For more information, see Ir Amim’s East Jerusalem Education Report, 2021-2022, August 2022
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Please address all inquiries to:
Amy Cohen
Director of International Relations & Advocacy
Ir Amim (City of Nations/City of Peoples)
Jerusalem
amy@ir-amim.org.il
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