Israel lures East Jerusalem schools to abandon Palestinian syllabus

Palestinian school children walk to school in the Ras Khamis neighbourhood of east Jerusalem. TAW

Jerusalem – The Israeli Ministry of Edu­cation is offering millions of dollars to underfunded East Jerusalem schools to abandon the Palestinian Authority’s approved curriculum and switch to an Israeli syllabus.

The ministry in January said it would give more than $5 million to schools that teach the Is­raeli curriculum instead of the Pal­estinian Authority (PA) teaching plan. The extra funding will not be extended to schools using the PA curriculum, although the money is from a general budget meant to serve all East Jerusalem students regardless of what they study.

The Palestinian Authority de­scribed the plan, first reported by the Israeli daily Haaretz, as an outrage. Palestinian parents said it was a violation of students’ human rights and an attempt to create a future Palestinian generation with a “Zionist mind”.

“Israel wants to teach our chil­dren that there is no al-Aqsa mosque and that [former Israeli prime minister Ariel] Sharon is a hero. They want our children to recite verses from the Torah and memorise the Israeli national an­them,” said Ziad Shamali, chair­man of Jerusalem schools parents’ committee.

Palestinian critics said the plan was part of a long series of illegal and unjust measures that jeopard­ise the Palestinian presence in Je­rusalem.

Traditionally, Israel has been op­posed to references in Palestinian textbooks identifying Jews as ene­mies, with clerics teaching religion classes that the last showdown on Earth would pit Muslims against Jews who would hide or run for their lives but not be spared.

Since Israel seized East Jerusa­lem in the 1967 war on grounds the city was part of the indivisible and eternal capital of the Jewish state, attempts to rub out the identity and culture of its indigenous Arab population have increased.

Israel tried at the time to force Palestinian schools to teach the Is­raeli curriculum, which omits Pal­estinian history, but gave up after families staged months of strikes and protests.

Shamali said that “even now, the curriculum approved by the PA is censored by Israel. We are not al­lowed to print our books and by the time our children receive them, they are full with blacked out text” by Israeli censors.

Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have expressed concern about the amount of mon­ey and effort invested by Israel to complete what has been labelled an “Israelisation process”.

Rasim Ebidat, a Jerusalem-based journalist and political analyst, said: “It is evident that the Israeli Ministry of Education led by the extremist Naftali Bennett, head of the Jewish Home far-right party, has put a comprehensive plan to control the educational system in Jerusalem.”

There are about 100,000 Pales­tinian students studying the Pales­tinian curriculum in Jerusalem and 1,500 studying the Israeli version, Shamali said.

According to Israeli statistics, eight out of 180 schools teach the Israeli syllabus and several schools have opened some classrooms to teach the Israeli curriculum.

Bennett said the main goal of the plan was to “bolster schools that already offer this curriculum and encourage additional schools to do so”. He said it aimed to “aid the process of Israelisation”.

Israeli commentators said the move allowed students to take the Israeli matriculation exam, easing acceptance into Israeli col­leges and universities. Shamali said those are groundless claims, because Israeli universities do not require students to study the Is­raeli curriculum to enroll at Israeli universities.

Palestinians said the plan was political and ideological rather than to benefit East Jerusalem’s students.

A mother of two children at a school run by the Jerusalem Mu­nicipality said the plan took advan­tage of Jerusalem’s need for extra classrooms because the funding is only for physical improvements, such as computer rooms and sports facilities.

“Israel doesn’t allow us to build new schools and renovate old ones. We need another 2,300 class­rooms to accommodate the grow­ing number of students. That is 100 schools,” Shamali said.

Israel gives permits to open pri­vate schools willing to teach the Israeli curriculum in exchange for financial support. Many Palestin­ians send their children to those schools because there is no other option.

Palestinian Education Minister Sabri Saidam said the plan was unfair and, along with several Arab Israeli Knesset members, in­structed East Jerusalem schools to be supplied with Palestinian text­books free of charge.

Hanna Issa, head of the Islamic- Christian committee, said Article 50 in the fourth Geneva Conven­tion says that the occupying power shall make arrangements for the maintenance and education, if possible by persons of the chil­dren’s own nationality, language group and religion, which means that Israel must not interfere in the curriculum.

Published Article.

68 years later, Palestinians bitterly remember

Abu Hafez holding the keys to his house, which he was forced to leave in 1948 when the the Jewish Haganah paramilitary annexed British-mandate Palestine, invading, depopulating and destroying hundreds of villages and towns. Credit: Baha Nasser

Ramallah – Mohammed Mansour, 93, fled his home in the village of Sal­bit when the Jewish Haganah paramili­tary annexed British-mandate Pal­estine and proclaimed an inde­pendent Israeli state in its place on May 14th, 1948.

Mansour’s memory is failing him as he tried to recognise faces and recall names but he is never wrong on details of the 50 hectares his family owned near what is now Ben Gurion International Airport. He was married and saw his grand­children get married but never al­lowed time to erase Salbit from his memory.

Mohammed’s eldest son Abdul­qader, 58, said his father, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s dis­ease, “forgot the names of most of my brothers and sisters due to ill­ness and age but he certainly did not forget Salbit”.

One day recently, Mohammed surprised the family when he col­lected his personal effects he said he wanted to “take home to Salbit”.

Sixty-eight years ago, about 750,000 Palestinians fled for their lives or were forced out of their homes in cities, villages and towns in areas now known as Israel.

To Palestinians, May 14th — the declaration of Israel’s independ­ence — is known as Nakba, Arabic for “the catastrophe”. It is one of the most jarring events in Palestin­ian history, which led to Israel cap­turing more Palestinian lands in the West Bank, including traditionally Arab East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, sending millions more Palestinians into exile.

When Zionism advocated the creation of a Jewish state, Jews, facing growing discrimination and oppression in Europe, dreamed of having their own state. They even­tually inflicted the oppression on the Palestinians.

In 1917, Britain conquered Pales­tine from the Ottomans and British foreign secretary Arthur Balfour pledged British support for the cre­ation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

Under British control, the num­ber of Jews migrating to Palestine increased significantly. In 25 years, the number of Jews in Palestine went from 11% to 31% of the popu­lation.

In the 1940s, the British decided to end their mandate of Palestine and exit the country, leaving the fate of the territory to be decided by the United Nations. It devised the UN Partition Plan for Palestine and advocated the creation of two states in what has historically been known as Palestine: one for Jews, known as Israel; and one for Pales­tinians, Palestine.

Palestinians rejected the plan be­cause it seized land that had been owned by their families for genera­tions. As tension grew, the British declared an end to their mandate and the Zionist movement, assisted by the Haganah, which became the core of the Israeli Defence Forces, declared the establishment of the state of Israel.

Driven by fear over purported Israeli massacres in Palestinian areas, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled to neighbouring countries, including Egypt, leaving their belongings, homes, planta­tions and livestock behind, think­ing they would soon return home.

Today, one-in-three refugees worldwide is Palestinian. UN re­cords indicate there are about 6.5 million Palestinian refugees world­wide, with the biggest concentra­tions in the West Bank, Gaza, Jor­dan, Syria and Lebanon. More than 3.8 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants are registered for humanitarian assistance with the United Nations.

Nakba is commemorated on May 15th in Palestinian areas with dem­onstrations, vigils and statements of condemnation in the face of Arab and international silence.

The right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland is a lin­gering point in stalled Palestinian- Israeli negotiations.

“Any peace deal that excludes a solution for Palestinian refugees to return to their homes is incomplete and unjust,” said Alaa Hamamra, a 25-year-old university graduate from the West Bank town of Jenin.

As years go by, many Palestinians say that the longer the conflict re­mains unsolved, the harder it will be to realise a Palestinian state and celebrate the return of those who were forced out decades ago. Des­peration and hopelessness seem to be the prevalent reaction.

Sari Hammouri, a 29-year-old from Jerusalem, said: “Sadly speak­ing, our families won’t be able to come back, because Israel has no respect for any law.”

Ramallah housewife Lubna Dar­wish said she feels hopeless. “The refugees who fled don’t seem to have a place to be allowed back to,” she said.

Young Palestinians share similar frustration and disappointment.

“The number 68 frightens me a lot,” said 26-year-old Ahmad Sabah from Nablus. “As the years pass, I feel more scared and desperate. When will the count end?”

In Gaza, Palestinians say they do not have the luxury to lament the past or think about those who dream about returning to Palestine. For many of Gaza’s youth, getting through the day is their priority.

Abeer A., 28, said she no longer commemorates Nakba because she is too busy worrying about elec­tricity schedules, closed border crossings and making a living. She argued that if crossings open on Nakba, Gaza will be preoccupied with the borders instead of mark­ing the anniversary of the event.

For Abdulqader, Mohammed’s son, hope for returning home re­mains alive.

“I may not live to see Palestinians return to their lands and homes but other generations will definitely see it,” he said.

El-Hakawati theatre struggles to survive

Jerusalem – After having amassed unpaid bills of about $150,000, the Palestin­ian National Theatre, El-Hakawati, was saved when the Palestinian Authority (PA) lent it money to stop Israel from shutting down East Jerusalem’s leading cultural institution and only theatre.

Arabic for “the storyteller”, El-Hakawati faced closure on Novem­ber 26th, when Artistic Director Amer Khalil received a phone call from the Israeli Enforcement and Collection Authority (ECA), respon­sible for debt collection and law en­forcement, notifying him that the theatre building will be seized and shut down in 48 hours.

The debt was owed to City Hall, the national insurance fund and the local Israeli electricity company. Two weeks before the phone call, ECA seized El-Hakawati’s bank ac­count.

Closure/Seizure order. Credit: Abir Kobty

To many, this may sound a stand­ard procedure, in which the state rightfully collects overdue debt, but analysts and activists accuse Is­rael of waging a covert war against Palestinian cultural institutions by levying hefty taxes and depriving them of services and fiscal support.

Activist Abir Kobty said the thea­tre faced Israeli closures more than 35 times since its establishment in 1984 in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem, signalling “a systematic attempt to shut down the theatre”.

East Jerusalem is disputed terri­tory that Israel seized from Jordan in the 1967 war, annexed it and de­clared it part of the indivisible and eternal capital of the Jewish state. However, no other country recog­nises Israeli sovereignty there and most expect its status to be deter­mined in negotiations between Pal­estinians and Israelis.

Jerusalem houses some of Islam’s holiest shrines, which makes the area highly sensitive to the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims and a flashpoint that spurred Palestinian violence against Israel, the latest bout of which started on October 2nd over a Muslim shrine Palestinians suspect Israel wants to annex.

The Palestinian cultural scene has been shattered by decades of Israeli occupation and isolation by Arabs who refuse to mix with Israelis liv­ing among Palestinians. Israel is seen as using all means to toughen living conditions for Palestinians in Jerusalem to motivate them to leave.

B’Tselem, an Israeli information centre for human rights, said aside from physically isolating East Je­rusalem from the rest of the West Bank, Israel “unfairly divides the budget” between East and West Jerusalem resulting in “harmful ef­fects to infrastructure and services in East Jerusalem”. It did not give a breakdown.

However, Khalil said lack of financial support was a significant issue for El-Hakawati. “There is no question that Israel wants to shut down El-Hakawati” and often makes excuses to do so, he said. The theatre’s bills include 3 million shekels ($763,155) in Israeli taxes, Khalil said, and operating expenses amount to an additional $1,300 per day.

“Now it is El-Hakawati but it might be another institution very soon. Israel is emptying Jerusalem of its indigenous people and mak­ing it harder for anyone to access the city,” except Israelis and Jews, he said.

Credit: El-Hakawati Facebook page

El-Hakawati began as a small troupe. It has hosted scores of Pal­estinian satirical plays, orchestra and dancing shows over the years. When the Palestine Liberation Or­ganisation (PLO) signed a frame­work of a peace deal with Israel known as the Oslo Accords in 1993, donor countries invested billions of dollars in Jerusalem and its Pales­tinian cultural sector, including the theatre.

The prosperity continued un­til 2000 when the second intifada broke out and the political situation deteriorated, most notably with the establishment of the separation wall that effectively separated East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.

Since then, donor support has gradually dropped due to political instability.

Jerusalem Affairs Minister Adnan al-Husseini said the PA paid 1 mil­lion shekels — $254,207 — to the theatre in 2015.

“When I first received a phone call that the theatre was at risk of being closed, I took a decision to provide the sum needed to stop the Israeli authorities closing the thea­tre,” he said.

Husseini confirmed that Palestin­ian President Mahmoud Abbas is working on a comprehensive plan for 2016 to help the theatre pay the entire debt and avoid similar finan­cial crises.

Khalil wondered when Palestin­ian institutions in Jerusalem would leave for a safer environment where they can function without fear of being targeted.

“We do not claim that the PA is not intervening to help, but if we are not offered steady financial support, culture in Jerusalem will disappear sooner or later,” Khalil explained.

“El-Hakawati must stay open. This place is our home and we won’t give it up even if we have to work for free again like we used to when we started El-Hakawati 32 years ago.”

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At the mercy of Israel in East Jerusalem

JERUSALEM – Shortly before dawn on Oc­tober 18th, Huda Darwish, 65, awakened her husband pleading for help, saying she couldn’t breathe prop­erly.

Mohammed Darwish quickly tel­ephoned his son, Youssef. “Bring your car quickly. We must take your mother to the hospital,” the father urged.

His mother started choking as Youssef sped towards the closest hospital, which was just outside their village of Al-Issawiya in north-east Jerusalem. With him were his father and brother Kareem.

There were about 100 vehicles ahead of them at the village’s en­trance waiting to cross an Israeli checkpoint recently set up to sepa­rate Jewish neighbourhoods from the disputed traditionally Arab eastern sector of the city.

“Cars let them pass but when they arrived at the roadblock, Israeli sol­diers fired shots in the air, warning them not to come closer,” Marhan Darwish, another brother, said.

While Kareem tried to resuscitate his mother, Youssef pleaded with the soldiers to allow them to pass, Marwin Darwish said.

“My brothers shouted that they had an emergency that my mother is sick and needed instant medical attention but the Israeli soldiers re­fused and ordered my two brothers to leave the car, put their hands up in the air and place their feet apart,” he said.

“Meanwhile, my mother died in the car.”

An autopsy determined that Huda Darwish died of heart failure, according to hospital officials.

Darwish’s is one of scores of cases of hardship endured by Palestinians recently as Israel sealed off Jerusa­lem neighbourhoods with cement barriers to protect Jews living there and stem Palestinian violence in the communities.

In all, 19,000 Palestinians are under Israel’s mercy as it isolates Jerusalem’s Arab neighbourhoods. The Israeli moves have turned Al- Issawiya, like many other Arab vil­lages around Jerusalem, seemingly into one big prison.

Palestinians entering or leaving Al-Issawiya queue for two hours be­fore they are thoroughly searched. Entry restrictions are not limited to a certain age or sex. Young students, women, men and the elderly are all subject to the same restrictions, which they see as “collective pun­ishment”.

Al-Issawiya’s four entrances were blocked off with cement barriers on October 18th. Israeli soldiers set up makeshift checkpoints for Palestini­ans to pass through as instructed by Israel’s security cabinet. The moves effectively separated Al-Issawiya from the adjacent neighbourhoods of Sur Baher, Jabel al-Mukaber and the Old City of Jerusalem.

The decision came shortly after the security cabinet permitted Is­raeli soldiers to “impose a closure on, or to surround, centres of fric­tion and incitement in Jerusalem, in accordance with security considera­tions”, Israeli media reported.

On October 19th, local, national and Islamic factions in Al-Issawi­ya announced a general strike to protest the Israeli roadblocks and delays they said caused Darwish’s death and the Israeli encroachment of Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, Is­lam’s third holiest shrine.

The Israeli cabinet said it ap­proved placing cement barriers around Al-Issawiya because it overlooks the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim’s road. It said the barrier will prevent Palestinians from throwing rocks at passing ve­hicles.

The restrictions followed Israeli claims that five stabbings or at­tempted stabbings by Palestinians took place October 17th in Jerusa­lem and in the West Bank.

Mohammed Abu al-Hummus, an Al-Issawiya town committee mem­ber, said villagers “didn’t attack anyone”. He said two villagers who died were Fadi Alloun, 19, and Dar­wish.

“Both didn’t pose any threat,” he said. Alloun was seen in a video seeking help from Israeli police while being chased by armed Jewish settlers. Instead of helping, police shot him, Abu al-Hummus added.

Even though the village has been relatively calm since Dar­wish’s death, Abu al-Hummus said all entrances to the village remain blocked and access to the village is “extremely difficult”.

Palestinian families in all Jerusa­lem neighbourhoods have suffered from increasing Israeli restrictions for several months. At the begin­ning of October, Palestinians from the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip took to the streets to protest what they regard as official Israeli attempts to divide al-Aqsa mosque to allow Jewish prayers at the site, also revered by Jews.

Clashes ensued. The Palestin­ian Health Ministry said on Octo­ber 22nd that Israeli forces killed 57 Palestinians, including 12 children, a pregnant woman and her 2-year-old and caused hundreds of injuries with bullets or tear gas. Eight Israeli settlers have been killed in Palestin­ian stabbings or gun attacks.

Al-Issawiya residents said Israeli restrictions do not reinforce secu­rity. “The Israelis want to humiliate us, collectively, punish everyone living in Jerusalem and tighten their control of Palestinian neighbour­hoods,” Mahran Darwish said.

“I went through many check­points in the West Bank but I’ve never witnessed this level of humil­iation,” he said, noting that soldiers mock, provoke and yell at Palestin­ians.

Hani al-Issawi, a member of a lo­cal committee established to defend Al-Issawiya, accused Israeli police of cracking down on residents. “Israeli soldiers raid our houses at night to detain our youth,” he said. “They blow up doors and break into the houses while the families are asleep.

“Israel has turned the village into a big prison.”

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