Judaization of Education in Jerusalem

The government of Benjamin Netanyahu, is seeking, in a race against time, to Judaize the city of Jerusalem, taking advantage of the current fuzzy Arab scene, and Arabs not raising their efforts in the political and financial support for Jerusalem. After an advanced state of construction of the separation wall around Jerusalem, Israel has issued several resolutions in order to Judaize it, the most serious is the Judaization of Arab education, as well as the application of the Absentee Property Law, which includes property seized from Israeli institutions in occupied East Jerusalem.

Observers noted that Jerusalemites are now facing the most serious challenge since 1967, where more than one Israeli official pointed out in a press statement recently that Arab schools getting financial aid, which is desperately needed, from the Israeli knowledge management, is subject to its obligation to apply the Hebrew curriculum. And it is established that the Netanyahu government has implemented several schemes at one time to accelerate the Judaization of Jerusalem. On the one hand, it continues to besiege the city by the separation wall, which is the largest settlement activity, and reports indicate that the construction of the wall is nearing completion.

On the other hand, various Israeli institutions are seeking the support of the Netanyahu government to gain absolute control over the Arab education sector in Jerusalem, having already controlled about 65 percent of this sector. Educational curricula in the Arab elementary schools was imposed since 1968, the word “Palestine” was replaced by “Israel” and “Jerusalem” was replaced by “orshalim”, in Hebrew, “"ירושלים, in Arabic, "اورشليم". The Israeli Ministry of Knowledge has been falsifying history and geography, through the development of educational curricula for Arab students in Jerusalem.

It is noteworthy that programs taught to the Arab minority inside the Green Line are the same programs taught in Arab schools in Jerusalem, Concepts and terminologies appropriate to establish a Jewish idea of the state of Israel are imposed on the students, in addition to the possibility of the Judaization of hundreds of Arabic names circulating in the city which is witnessing settler activity overheated since the formation of the fourth Netanyahu's government over a year ago, as well as non-stop break-ins to the courtyards of Al-Aqsa mosque by the settlers, guarded by the Israeli army and police. And it was clearly evident that Israel is trying to crack down on Arab students in Jerusalem to force them to leave the monopoly of education options, which exposes them to the transfer from their city according to Israeli unfair laws.

It is necessary to show the size of the suffering of Arab students in Jerusalem. Because of the programmed Israeli policies against the education sector, there is severe overcrowding in the classrooms and there is an acute shortage of laboratories in Arab schools, not to mention the weakness of sports equipment as well as the apparent lack of numbers teachers. Israeli authorities since several years have prevented the renovation and construction of additional rooms or schools for Arab students, which prevents the absorption of new students over the natural population growth in excess of 3 percent per year, and therefore the education sector in Jerusalem needs hundreds of rooms to accommodate tens of thousands new students each year.

It is noticeable also that schools of Arab Jerusalemites are not eligible for good teaching, because of their age and lack of necessary modernization. It is important to mention also that the Israeli Ministry of Knowledge and the Jerusalem municipality have banned since the academic year 2009-2010 free education for Arab students, which deprives every year hundreds of Jerusalemites students from educational opportunities, this is evident every year at the beginning of school in the month of September.

In light of the Israeli economic siege on Jerusalem, the financial options are closed in front of the students and the Arab families there, to enroll in private schools. Due to Israeli policies applied against the education sector from imposing Israeli curricula and prevent free education, the state will get a big leak between Arab students. In this context, the studies suggest that Arab students leak in Jerusalem before reaching high school ratio reached about 50 percent in the last decade, also we will see a forced migration on the part of the families of Palestinian students from Jerusalem to the cities and villages of the West Bank, to look for opportunities for free education, leading eventually to prevent them from returning to their areas of residence in Jerusalem under the pretext of Israeli unfair laws. When Arab families stay out of Jerusalem for over a year, this is the perfect pretext for Israel to take over their homes and their shops and commercial properties, under various names. It is then the property of the so-called organization of land and property of Israel.