Reportage
East Jerusalem schools on strike against Israel's curriculum change
Audio 01:30
Ibrahimieh College in East Jerusalem was closed on Monday 19 2022 to protest Israel's change in school curricula.
AFP - AHMAD GHARABLI
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Palestinian schools in East Jerusalem, part of the city annexed by the Jewish state, have been in turmoil since the start of the school year in early September.
On Monday, parents' associations organized a general strike to protest against Israel's modification of school curricula.
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With our correspondent in Jerusalem,
Sami Boukhelifa
At the foot of Ibrahimieh College, Nawaf as-Salaymeh parks his empty school bus.
The schoolchildren on strike stayed at home.
This driver is also a member of an association of parents of Palestinian students.
It is out of the question for him that his five children follow an Israeli course.
“
I am going to read you an excerpt from this new Israeli textbook, intended for elementary school students.
They write:
"The State of Israel built towns and villages for the Arab population, and improved their quality of life."
But at no time do they say that their occupation has killed and displaced an entire population.
That because of them, Palestinians are scattered all over the world.
That they made them refugees, in Jordan and in Lebanon.
They didn't build anything else on our lands except settlements.
And they built them on the corpses of our ancestors
”, gets carried away the father of the family.
Imposed terminology
History, geography... Until this return to Jerusalem, the Israeli authorities contented themselves with erasing from Palestinian school textbooks, the chapters that did not stick to their story.
But this year, a new step has been taken, with an imposed terminology.
“
They want to teach our children that al-Quds, Jerusalem in Arabic, is in fact Orshalim, according to the official Israeli name
[in Arabic, Ed].
We are not Jews, we are Palestinians.
We are the children of this earth
,” says Nawaf as-Salaymeh, who finds the situation unacceptable.
Palestinian public schools in East Jerusalem are funded by Israel.
“
The Jewish state has carefully worked to block other funding, in order to take control of educational content,
” denounce the parents of students.
When contacted, Jerusalem City Hall did not respond.
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