Hanan Ashrawi: Schools are "Judaization" of Jerusalem

"Palestinian figures have condemned the fact that the occupation municipality in occupied Jerusalem has approved the establishment of a complex of Israeli Ministry of Education schools in the Shuafat refugee camp and in the village of Anata east of the city, which will constitute an alternative to the UNRWA schools (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East).

PLO Executive Committee member [and head of the PLO Department of Diplomacy and Public Policy] Dr. Hanan Ashrawi said yesterday, Thursday [Jan. 2, 2020], in a statement on behalf of the Executive Committee that this provocative step is actually directed against the Palestinian refugees and their rights that are anchored in international and humanitarian law, and is also against Jerusalem and its institutions.This is part of the occupation state’s strategy that is based on the continued Judaization of the holy city [of Jerusalem], beginning with control over all areas of life in it and imposing new facts on the ground…

The [PA] Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said that the fact that the occupation’s municipal council in Jerusalem approved a plan to establish an alternative Israeli learning area to the UNRWA schoolsis a continuation of the occupation's unlimited war against UNRWA and its activities in occupied East Jerusalem. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs added in a statement published yesterday, Thursday, that 'The decision of the occupation’s municipal council in Jerusalem is a new step on the path to imposing the Israeli curriculum on the learning process there, as a comprehensive completion of the activities and plots to Judaize Jerusalem.'"