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On April 8, Israel’s Education Ministry issued closure orders for six UNRWA-operated schools in East Jerusalem, set to take effect on May 7. In response, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) submitted a modest — perhaps too modest — request: delay the orders by two months to allow students to finish the current academic year and graduating seniors to take their matriculation exams.
Two weeks later, the ministry rejected the request. These were not “closure orders” at all, the ministry claimed, and certainly not an effort to displace some 800 Palestinian students just weeks before their final exams. On the contrary, it was all meant to protect the children.
According to the ministry, the closures were part of a routine “licensing process” designed to ensure that the schools meet “appropriate standards regarding safety, health, pedagogy, and other aspects intended to guarantee the students’ well-being.”
The ministry’s legal adviser who signed the letter went even further: “In fact, our position is that your request — to extend the operation of schools functioning without licenses — is what harms the students’ well-being and welfare.” Imagine that: the Israeli Education Ministry rescuing Palestinian students from the clutches of ACRI.
In its response to ACRI, the ministry also maintained that the closure orders were issued “only after it was verified and confirmed that there are alternative placements for all students.” The Jerusalem Municipality, they argued, planned to put the displaced students into official and recognized institutions, with a dedicated budget allocated to assist with transportation and the purchase of textbooks.
But ACRI field researchers heard a different story. Parents reported that schools they approached were already at capacity and that registration for the next school year had long since closed. The only schools that had openings for students displaced by the closures were too expensive for parents who relied on the free education UNRWA provided.
The Education Ministry added that the municipality was working with the Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister to establish new educational facilities in East Jerusalem to address the severe shortage of classrooms. However, they only intend to complete the construction of one school with temporary structures by the start of the next school year — no help to the students who may find themselves without classrooms this month.
‘There are other countries’
For years, Israel’s far-right coalition has openly targeted the education of Palestinians in East Jerusalem — a campaign that ramped up in 2023, when a subcommittee in the Knesset was established to oversee the curricula used in the city’s schools. Across 11 meetings held to date, lawmakers have discussed how best to prevent East Jerusalem students from studying from Palestinian curricula and to bar teachers trained by the Palestinian Authority.
From the very first session, committee chair MK Amit Halevi made his intentions clear: “East Jerusalem Arabs can decide. If they want to realize their national identity, there are other countries. Not in Jerusalem, not in our capital city … That is the framework of the discussion.”
While the committee sets the tone, implementation falls to government ministries and the municipality, both of which are well-versed in undermining Palestinian education in East Jerusalem. This includes the systematic strangulation of education budgets, efforts by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to block five-year development plans for Palestinian neighborhoods, and the eviction of Palestinian residents under the pretense of expanding public spaces.
The current move to close UNRWA’s school began with the passage of two laws in October 2024 targeting the agency. One law bans UNRWA from operating in East Jerusalem, where in addition to schools, the agency operates health clinics and vocational training centers; the other prohibits state authorities from maintaining contact with UNRWA officials.
Human rights organizations Adalah and Gisha filed a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court against both laws, arguing that they would violate Palestinians’ education, property, health, and freedom of employment — rights protected under both Israeli and international law. They would also run counter to Israel’s obligations as an occupying power, including the duty to prioritize the welfare of the local population in the occupied territory.
The Supreme Court rejected the petition, and the laws came into effect at the end of January. The Education Ministry then seized the opportunity to issue the closure orders: If UNRWA is now illegal, the ministry suggested, then so too are the agency’s schools in East Jerusalem. Adalah appealed to the High Court to delay the implementation of the closure orders until the petition against the UNRWA laws is resolved, but their request was also denied.
The Education Ministry’s justification for the closure orders is that the schools are operating without a license and violate the School Supervision Law. However, as ACRI noted in a letter to the ministry, at no point during the past 58 years of Israel’s occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem have UNRWA schools ever been asked to obtain such operating licenses from the ministry — so they never did.
UNRWA schools have always been classified as private institutions, meaning the state neither funds nor supervises them. This arrangement, of course, was convenient for the state, which was never required to pay to educate of these Palestinian children. For its part, UNRWA has rejected the orders as illegal, reaffirming its commitment to stay in East Jerusalem and “deliver education and other basic services to Palestine Refugees … in accordance with the General Assembly resolution mandated to the Agency.”
Making history
Shortly after they were issued, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Aryeh King posted the school closure orders on X, writing, “This is what making history together looks like. Thank you, Minister of Education Yoav Kisch.” Indeed, King is right to suggest that these orders carry historical significance — albeit not in the way that he intended.
Ninety-two years ago, on April 25, 1933, Germany passed a law limiting the number of Jewish students in schools and universities. The law’s original title — “Against the Overcrowding of German Schools and Universities by Foreigners” — made its purpose clear.
However, under pointed criticism, the Interior Minister changed not the substance of the law, but its name. The discrimination against Jews was thus concealed by the law’s new title: “Against Overcrowding in German Education.” Reducing classroom crowding, of course, was for the welfare of all students.
Similarly, a law was passed two weeks earlier banning Jews and other foreigners from holding any government position, including teachers. The law against Jewish teachers was called “The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service.” Naturally, “restoring” the civil service was claimed to be for the benefit of all citizens.
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Just as we can say clearly that Germany was not concerned about the well-being of its Jewish children in the years preceding the Holocaust, we should also insist that the Education Ministry’s orders have nothing to do with the welfare of Palestinian students in East Jerusalem. It’s a coordinated effort by the ministry and municipality to dismantle Palestinian institutions in the city — beginning with their schools.
A version of this article was first published in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it here.