45,000 Palestinian students in East Jerusalem now required to study Israeli curriculum
LONDON: Beginning with the start of the new school year on Tuesday, about 45,000 Palestinian students in East Jerusalem starting their first or seventh grades will be re required to study the Israeli curriculum. It is the first time this has happened since Israel occupied the city in 1967.
Critics say that since 2018 the Israeli government has incentivized schools to adopt its curriculum by promising funding for education in Palestinian areas, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
The affected students attend 105 municipal schools run by Israel in East Jerusalem, and represent about 38 percent of the 120,000 pupils in the city’s schools.
Schools in East Jerusalem have long taught the Jordanian curriculum, a legacy of Jordan’s rule over the city and the West Bank between 1950 and 1967. Israel tried to impose its curriculum in the early days of the occupation, which sparked protests and school strikes. A Palestinian curriculum was introduced in East Jerusalem after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in the 1990s.
