Jerusalem Schools Strike: Palestinians Say No to Israeli Curriculum

ALBAWABA - The Palestinians of East Jerusalem are angry with Israeli authorities once again for their discriminatory educational policies. 

The Israeli Education Ministry is calling - more so forcing - schools in Arab East Jerusalem - to teach the Israeli curriculum or else they will not be funded and worse still their licences would be revoked. 

This is making Palestinian parents, teachers, Arab teacher's unions and NGO's very angry for what they see as an Israeli attempt to distort and "Zionize" the school curriculum. In protest they called on all schools in Jerusalem to declare Monday, 19 September as a day of national strike.

The strike proved very successful with 90 percent of Arab pupils not attending schools and adhering yo the national strike that is seen as the start of a series of actions to fight the introduction of an Israeli-based curriculum in Palestinian schools in Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Chronicle put it this way: WAFA correspondent said the Palestinian National and Islamic Forces (PNIF) in occupied Jerusalem, a coalition of the Palestinian political factions, issued a statement calling for a general strike in East Jerusalem’s Palestinian schools on Monday to affirm the right of the Palestinian children to be taught their Palestinian curriculum, not the Israeli one.

The issue of the enforcing of the Israeli curriculum on Arab schools in East Jerusalem has always been at the top at the beginning of each school. The Israeli Ministry of Education has always been adamant and want to replace Palestinian symbolisms and culture such as the hoisting of the Palestinian flag, national identity, manipulating historical and geographical facts about Palestine and Jerusalem with a narrative of their own. The Israeli Ministry of Education have also sought to change the verses of the  Quran. 

The issue of the one-day strike is a registration by the Palestinian families, teachers and management that they will not be bullied and are determined not to "Israelize" the curriculum despite the pressure that they are being placed under.  They are demanding the curriculum used by schools of the Education Ministry of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). 

Already the Israeli Ministry of Education has put six Palestinian schools in East Jerusalem under their black list by revoking their licences and replacing them with temporary ones that are to be renewed each year and this is another way of increasing pressure on these schools.

With the East Jerusalem schools included the total number of Palestinian pupils in the West Bank and Gaza Strip stand at around 1.4 million with 3222 schools. In East Jerusalem alone there are over 280 schools with a total of 115,000 people from kindergarten till Grade 12. 

The social media has been rife with news about going to school in the Palestinian territories and the ongoing Israeli pressures against them. 

Last Saturday, Palestinian parents and students held protests in several neighborhoods of the city against attempts by the Israeli occupation authorities to prevent the school from teaching the official Palestinian textbooks and rather use the distorted Israeli-issued textbooks the Palestine Chronicle wrote.