Israel to move Palestinian pupils to Israeli-approved curriculum

The move is part of a wider effort to replace learning programme in Jerusalem

Earlier this year, the US, by far the biggest contributor to UNRWA, announced it was halting its funding to the organisation, which it labelled 'irredeemably flawed'. AFP

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Israel is advancing plans to move pupils learning in schools run by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, to Israeli-approved curriculum as legislation to ban the organisation from operating in the country nears.

The move aims to reduce the number of pupils taught a Palestinian curriculum by teachers from the occupied West Bank. The syllabus would be replaced with a learning programme formulated by the Israeli government, taught by Hebrew-speaking instructors.

In October last year, the Israeli parliament passed two laws that would ban work by UNRWA, prohibiting the agency’s operations in areas under Israeli control and barring Israeli officials from co-ordinating with its personnel. The body provides education and social services for tens of thousands of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank who fled or were removed from their homes in the 1948 war that led to the establishment of Israel.

An UNRWA school in the Qalandia refugee camp. Thomas Helm / The National

The ban, which has been condemned by the international community, comes into force on January 28.

There are 125,000 pupils in East Jerusalem, including those in UNRWA schools, ecclesiastical Christian schools and Israeli government schools, according to Orit Harel, spokeswoman of the Knesset’s Education, Culture and Sports Committee.

There are currently two curriculums taught in the city: an Israeli one and a Palestinian version devised by the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli officials are calling for UNRWA schools and other campuses teaching the Palestinian curriculum to switch to the Israeli one because they accuse the current learning programmes of anti-Semitism and inciting hatred. UNRWA says it has, “zero tolerance for hate speech and incitement to discrimination, or violence,” and that independent analysts and international education experts have “vouched for the quality and content of the education” provided in its schools.

“As a city, we have the possibility, we have the budget, we have the tools to educate the Arab population,” deputy mayor of Jerusalem Arieh King told The National last year. “The majority today are already studying in other schools, not UNRWA schools. We are capable of adding the rest that are still with UNRWA, and any other services that UNRWA is giving.”

An UNRWA school in the Qalandia refugee camp. Thomas Helm / The National

Mr King is a supporter of settlements in East Jerusalem, which under international law has been occupied by Israel since 1967. Israel views the city as its capital and opposes the creation of a Palestinian State with the city's eastern sector as its capital.

Israel is building a 26,000 square metre school next to the Shuafat refugee camp, within Jerusalem’s boundaries, partly to accommodate children taught in UNRWA schools, which it wants to shut down. Authorities are also trying to find places for current UNRWA pupils in other schools across East Jerusalem.

“We also have plans to build the same in Qalandia and anywhere in East Jerusalem where UNRWA has any kind of service,” Mr King said. “We are the municipality and with the help of the Israeli government, we will try now to convince more and more Arabs to leave the UNRWA services that are being given, and to be in touch with more positive services and more professional services that we will provide them.”

Any new schools in East Jerusalem follow only the Israeli curriculum, according to Ms Harel.

In existing schools, the Israeli curriculum is replacing the Palestinian one. In August 2023, the Israeli government approved a decision that aimed to increase the proportion of pupils studying the Israeli programme from 24 per cent to 45 per cent in 2027-2028, in schools controlled by the Jerusalem municipality.

“In the last discussion on the subject, the director of the Jerusalem district in the Ministry of Education said that this year they are introducing two such classes (the Israeli curriculum) in ten schools,” Ms Harel told The National. “The other classes in those schools continue in the first stage with their regular Palestinian curriculum.”

However, officials from UNRWA and other humanitarian organisations, oppose Israel’s moves to shut down UNRWA and to move all children in East Jerusalem to the Israeli curriculum.

​​On the grounds of a UNRWA vocational training centre in the Qalandia refugee camp, Roland Friedrich, director of UNRWA affairs for the West Bank field office set out how the organisation is trying to navigate the future.

Mr Friedrich fears the two Israeli laws could lead to the cancellation of programmes in the occupied Palestinian Territories, at a time of need.

That could affect schooling as well as other areas such as the provision of medical services. If staff are not able to interact with Israeli authorities, it could become impossible to cross military checkpoints and import goods for healthcare centres.

“We’ve not received any guidance, correspondence or information,” he said. “The concern is about a situation in which we’re still bound by our mandate but these services completely stop.

“UNRWA cannot be expected to provide solutions for problems that we did not create,” Mr Friedrich said.

UNRWA’s presence in Qalandia is a sign of how complex and integral a part of the West Bank the agency has become after 75 years. There are 19 refugee camps and more than 900,000 registered refugees in the territory, which includes East Jerusalem. Qalandia is in both East Jerusalem and Area C of the West Bank, where Israeli authorities have administrative and security control under the Oslo Accords.

The centre from which Mr Friedrich spoke contained several teaching centres, where pupils learn vocations that most reliably provide an income in the unstable area, such as computer and mobile phone maintenance.

A short walk away across a busy road that is often gridlocked because of traffic from a nearby Israeli checkpoint, girls at a primary school went about their day during what could be one of their last terms at the campus.

An UNRWA school in the Qalandia refugee camp. Thomas Helm / The National

On one side of the building young girls were chanting in English during a language lesson. In the courtyard, a class of pupils a few years older were bellowing motivational slogans before dashing into an obstacle course.

In Gaza, where many UNRWA schools have turned into shelters, the consequences of the bills could be immediately life-threatening, Mr Friedrich said.

“If we can’t have interaction with Israeli counterparts officially then it will be very difficult to deconflict aid convoys in the Gaza Strip and their movements in the West Bank,” he said. Scores of humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza throughout the war, many of whom worked for UNRWA.