Taking action in a show of Palestinian unity against the brutish and inequitable Israeli occupation schools in the besieged Gaza Strip rounded off a week of diversity activities by staging a demonstration protesting against a new Israeli-imposed curriculum in Occupied Jerusalem and declaring solidarity with schools who shut their doors on Monday after the unified parents committee and the Palestinian National and Islamic Forces in Jerusalem called for a full strike to protect Palestinian education.
The Israeli occupation policy in Jerusalem amounts to robbing the new generation of its right to education up to university level using multiple methods to ensure younger generations of Palestinians grow up uneducated and ignorant culturally and scientifically so they become alienated from their identity and roots. Occupation authorities remove the Palestinian Authority logo the Palestinian flag and any lessons that discuss the Palestinian cause adherence to the land the right of return glorification of prisoners the Israeli settlements in Palestine and military checkpoints from the books of the Palestinian curriculum.
The Ministry of Education in Gaza indicated that the multiple solidarity activities and actions have been organized including: allocating school broadcasts for occupied Jerusalem educating students about the situation by adding classes about the cause organizing solidarity vigils with students holding placards condemning the Israeli occupation policy launching social media campaigns and hosting academic and national figures to enlighten the students about the issue.
A spokesman for the Ministry said “These activities are in solidarity with parents teachers students and the Palestinians of Occupied Jerusalem in their protests and steps to confront the occupation its heinous acts and its violation of the right to education and sanctity of schools.”
The occupation’s inhumane and discriminatory policies were met with stiff resistance from the Jerusalemites and complete rejection from the teaching staff. Mohammed Abu Homos Palestinian activist says that international agreements entitle residents of the occupied area to obtain their own education from teachers who carry the same culture and religion.
Since last July schools in Occupied Jerusalem have been facing punitive measures for refusing to teach the new Israeli-imposed curriculum. The Israeli Ministry of Education canceled the licenses of six schools under the pretext of “incitement against the occupation.”
To raise awareness among the students the Palestinian Ministry of Education named the new school year the “Year of Sovereignty of Education in Jerusalem” expressing the commitment of all Palestinians to defend the identity and contents of education in Jerusalem and to protect it from Israelization.
The distortion of the Palestinian curriculum and the deletion of many of its terms is not state of the art and in fact the Israeli occupation has targeted Palestinian academic curricula through various means since the occupation of the city of Jerusalem in 1967 in attempts to liquidate Palestinian history and obliterate its identity which constitutes an essential pillar in building future generations who are aware of their cause.
Article 50 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantee the right of peoples under occupation to obtain education in line with their beliefs and to protect their culture and heritage from change or distortion.
The eastern half of Jerusalem was militarily occupied by Israel in 1967 and illegally annexed. Palestinians currently living in occupied East Jerusalem are approximately 350000 with 220000 Israelis living in illegal settlements among them.
