Israel accelerates its plan to impose comprehensive control of education policy

The occupation authorities seek to control all the joints of life in occupied Jerusalem, as since the occupation of the city in 1967 it has imposed its control on the various sectors of the city, from the two sectors: health, economic, and up to the education sector, which during the years of the occupation was subjected to a number of measures aimed at imposing the occupation’s control of the education sector, benefiting from a fragmented reality, the absence of one reference, and related to the occupation plans and procedures that seek control The total in this sector.

The past years have witnessed an escalation in targeting education in Jerusalem, and the occupation authorities have mocked their various tools in order to control education, and pushing Palestinian students in occupied Jerusalem, to light under the umbrella of its affiliated schools.

In the context of highlighting what the education sector suffers in occupied Jerusalem, we present in this article a view of a number of developments on education, and the related occupation decisions and procedures.

Distribution of students and schools in Jerusalem: a fragmented photo

Before going into the developments of targeting the education sector, it is important to note that schools and students in the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem, according to the data published by the Israeli human rights organization “Air Amim” in its last report issued before the start of the school year, which was based on statements from the occupation municipality and other sources.

These data confirm the diversity of the diversity of Palestinian schools’ references on the one hand, and the fragmentation of Palestinian students among different types of schools on the other hand, according to the organization’s data, the number of Palestinian students at the age of education reaches about 139 thousand and 877 students, and these numbers include children and boys between 3 and 18 years, and the number of students is distributed to a number of references, and the report indicated to them according to the following points:

• The “official” Arab education (belongs to the municipality of the occupation and the Ministry of Education in the occupation government): about 53 thousand and 329 students constitute about 1% of the total number of students.
• Admitted Arab education (including endowment schools, private schools, etc.), and includes about 54 thousand and 68 students, constitute about 38.7% of the total number of students. Students outside the official and recognized educational frameworks, about 32,480 students, constitute about 23.2%.

The report indicates that these students are not leakage of education, but rather they are also divided into many sections:

• 15 thousand students in private schools (this classification refers to private schools, but the occupation authorities do not recognize them.
• 800 students in frameworks The Ministry of Labor, 3 thousand students who fully leaked from schools, constitute between 3 and 4% of the total number of students, and according to “Air Amim”, this number is twice the general rate in “Israel”.
• 4400 children in private kindergarten, or have not yet enrolled in the education sector.
• About 9949 students receive their education in the West Bank or other frameworks, and the report refers to charitable institutions, or the transfer of families out of occupied Jerusalem.

The “Air Amim” data revealed a variation in the curricula taught by students in the occupied city, between the complete Israeli curriculum “Al -Bajrout” and the Palestinian “Tawjihi” curriculum, and some schools depend on the curricula, that is, they have classes for the Palestinian curriculum and the Israeli curriculum.

Of course, the occupation authorities are trying to impose the Palestinian curriculum distorted on schools that adhere to the Palestinian curriculum, in the context of their attempts to distort the students ’perceptions, and keep them away from any religious and national contents.

An escalating aggression on education

The past years witnessed an escalation in targeting education, especially in the shadows of aggression against Gaza, in the context of the comprehensive Israeli attack on Jerusalem and its residents, and we highlight the most prominent of these measures in the following points:

Targeting schools after October 8

With the start of the aggression on Gaza, the targeting of schools in the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem escalated.

These measures focused on private schools that receive funding from the ministry, in the context of preventing the teaching of the Palestinian curriculum, by launching sudden inspection campaigns, which were largely focused between November 2023 to the end of March 2024.

According to Jerusalem sources, these campaigns included storming the classrooms, inspecting school bags, and seeing the books used by teachers, in addition to administrative documents and others.

In the aftermath of these inspection campaigns, the Ministry of Education has taken multiple punitive measures, which included stopping the temporary financing it provides to many private schools east of Jerusalem, in addition to conducting lengthy investigations with officials of these schools and educational supervisors in it.

Several schools who have been subjected to these campaigns have received threats to cancel the licenses, and prevent them from working if they continue to abuse, according to Israeli knowledge inspectors.

UNRWA schools close

Since October 7, 2023, the occupation arms have sought to end the work of the UNRWA agency throughout the Palestinian territories, and in Jerusalem in particular, and the agency’s targeting has escalated until it ended the effect of the Israeli “Knesset” decision, October 28, 2024, which fully banned the work of “UNRWA” in Jerusalem.

In the wake of the issuance of the decision, the occupation forces, accompanied by the Israeli Ministry of Education, stormed the agency’s schools on May 8, 2025, and suspended the final closure orders for these schools in Shuafat camp, in addition to a school in Wadi Al -Jawz, a school in Tire Baher, and the last in Silwan.

According to local sources, the occupation authorities imposed on the management of UNRWA schools in Shuafat camp, the transfer of students to schools affiliated with the municipality of the occupation in Jerusalem, and the decision also stipulated that school administrators prevent them from reopening them, and to prevent students and their parents from using them for any purpose, and whoever violates these decisions will receive criminal charges.

These decisions have greatly affected the reality of the sector in Jerusalem, as sources close to the parents of the Parents in Jerusalem indicated that the closure of the “UNRWA” schools led to the dispersal of its students, and pushed a large number of them to enroll in schools that follow the Israeli curriculum “The Garrot”, as a result of the lack of classrooms aggravating in Jerusalem schools.

The effects of the closure do not stop at this point, as about 150 male and female students suffer from “unification” problems in enrolling in education again, as they are deprived of studying at the agency in Shuafat camp, who suffer from problems in enrolling in other schools, especially outside the camp as a result of their legal status, and the great restrictions imposed by the occupation authorities.

The evacuation of Silwan Preparatory School for Boys

With the beginning of the academic year in occupied Jerusalem, the occupation returned to target Palestinian schools, and in its last episodes, the occupation municipality and the Israeli Ministry of Education decided in mid -August 2025 to evacuate the Silwan Preparatory School for Boys, which includes about 600 students, and transferred them to the “Comprehensive School” building in the Sweih neighborhood of Ras Al -Amoud.

In addition to what the decision holds of the students and the school’s educational staff, the decision will double the number of students in the last school, which affects the educational process in the school.

Jerusalem sources indicated that the decision to transfer came in the context of converting the “Silwan Preparatory School” building into a mixed school for teaching the Israeli curriculum “Al -Bajrout”.

Education in Israeli five -year plans

Five plans constitute additional budgets approved by the occupation government to move forward in a number of Judaization projects and targeting the education sectors. The first approved on May 13, 2018, when the occupation government allocated 2.3 billion shekels, including about 445 million shekels for the education sector.

As for the second, it was announced by the Prime Minister of the occupation on August 20, 2023, and it was titled “The Five Plan for East Jerusalem Development”, in partnership between the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Jerusalem and the municipality of the occupation, and Netanyahu announced the allocation of 3.2 billion shekels (about 845 million US dollars) for economic and social development of the eastern part of the occupied city.

According to the plan, about 800 million shekels (about 211 million US dollars) were allocated to Judaize the education sector, and the plan seeks to increase the number of students enrolled in Israeli curricula and preparation programs for the other Israeli Academy, in the context of their integration into the Israeli Academy and the world of employment.

Among the most prominent items of that plan is to allocate 507 million shekels (about 134 million US dollars) for what the plan called “Employment and Economic Development”, according to which the Ministry of Labor in the occupation government will work to raise the number of participants in vocational guidance centers, enhance technological education, and increase the number of students in vocational schools for youth through the opening of new schools.

The plan shows that the occupation arms seek to link more Jerusalemites to the Israeli work system, which is what followers of Jerusalem affairs described that the occupation wants to transform the Jerusalemites into “cheap technological workers.”

“Air Amim”: Education in Jerusalem is an open battle

At the beginning of the article, we referred to the report of the Israeli human rights organization “Ayer Amim” because of its implicit contents about the numbers of students in occupied Jerusalem, and in extrapolating more important contents that the report shed light on, that the eastern part of occupied Jerusalem suffers from a severe shortage of classroom, reaches about 1461 classes, and despite the promises of the many occupation authorities, it builds only 20 classes New, despite the release of promises to build about 1,200 rows.

Based on this contrast, the occupation municipality takes advantage of this deficiency to pressure the parents, students and Palestinian teachers, the Ministry of Education and the Jerusalem Municipality revealed that building new classes and schools is conditional on work exclusively according to the Israeli curriculum.

The report pointed to the high number of Palestinian students enrolled in the Israeli curriculum “Al-Bajrout” during the academic year 2024-2025 to about 22 thousand and 966 students, which then constituted about 27% of the total number of students between 6 and 17 years old.

In the face of the occupation authorities from closing the UNRWA schools and the transfer of students and others, it is expected that the numbers of those enrolled in the schools that apply the “Al-Barajout”, which is the focused goal of the five-year occupation plans (2024-2029), which will allow the occupation to move forward towards full control of education.

The “Air Amim” report documented a number of laws approved by the occupation authorities, targeting the Palestinian educational system, or its employees, the most prominent of which are:

• In January 2025, the UNRWA activities law entered into force, which led to the closure of the agency’s schools and the damage to about 1,100 students.
• Approving the “Hygternotentness of Teachers” law, which granted the Israeli Minister of Education the authority to withdraw funding, and prevent the employment of teachers based on their declared opinions.
• In July 2025: A law proposal that prevents the employment of graduates of Palestinian universities in schools affiliated with the Ministry and the municipality, which will exacerbate the crisis of a lack of educational staff.

Why does the occupation want to control the education sector?

The Israeli occupation authorities are striving to impose their full control on the educational system in occupied Jerusalem.

When you are unable to directly control schools, she resorted to forcing them to adopt the Israeli educational curriculum, and prevent any curricula bearing religious, patriotic, intellectual and moral contents, related to Palestine, Jerusalem and Al -Aqsa, and this trend hides deep goals aimed at “family” education, the most prominent of which are:

• Imposing the Zionist narration of history and space: The occupation authorities seek to consolidate their account on Jerusalem and Al -Aqsa Mosque, by promoting concepts claiming the “historical and religious right” of the Jews in the city, and rewriting history from a colonial perspective that erases the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic novel.
• In obliteration of national identity and collective awareness: It works to exclude any educational content that reminds students of their Palestinian affiliation, or emphasizes the right of the authentic Palestinian people in Jerusalem, and the role of the city and its sanctities in the Arab and Islamic conscience, with the aim of emptying the collective memory of its national content.
• A generation that accepts the legitimacy of the occupation: It aims to raise a Palestinian generation that believes the idea of ​​”the Jewish state” and “the unity of the Israeli people”, and reduces the Palestinian national identity, without facing or even realizing the reality of the repressive occupation that it lives.
• The normalization of colonial reality psychologically and socially: By photographing the occupation institutions as legal and natural entities, it is established in the awareness of students a kind of “forced admission” of the imposed reality, which weakens the critical sense, and reduces the future motives for resistance or change.
• Weakening and emptying the Arabic language from its content: The Arabic language is marginalized in favor of Hebrew, and the emptying of the curricula from the cultural, value and national contents associated with it, in an attempt to undermine its role as an essential tool for thinking, expression, and linking to Palestinian identity and heritage.
• Creating a “moderate” layer that can be integrated into the Israeli regime: Through dedicated educational and professional programs, the occupation authorities seek to prepare a generation of Palestinian youth that will be more ready for functional and economic integration into the Israeli system, away from engaging in national action, or the struggle for liberation.
• Weakening the role of Palestinian and religious institutions: By isolating education from Palestinian references, a goal that meets with weakening the structure of Palestinian society in Jerusalem, and ending the presence of community institutions away from the dominance of the occupation.