Jerusalem Center for Social & Economic Rights

Jerusalem Center for Social & Economic Rights

The Suffering of Children Under Occupation    

 

The Suffering of Children Under Occupation 

 By:
  Iman Masarweh & Jamil Salhout
 Documentary Study -  2002

 

Childhood

Introduction

The dictionary defines a child as ‘a young human being from the time of birth to the completion of bodily development.’

The UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), which was ratified by the UN General Assembly in November 1989, defines a child as ‘every human being below the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.’

A study entitled, ‘Juvenile Delinquency in Palestinian Legislation’ was prepared by lawyer Qais Jabarin from the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights (PICCR). In the study, it was mentioned that article (2) of Jordanian Law no. (16) 1954, applicable in the West Bank, defined a juvenile as: ‘Every person who is over nine years of age and is under 18 years of age whether male or female.’ Article (2) of Juvenile Criminal Law no. (2) 1937, applicable in the Gaza Strip, defined a child as: ‘Every person who is under 14 years of age or who looks to the court as if he is under 14 years.’ It defined a juvenile as: ‘A person who is 14 years and above or who looks to the court that he is 14 years and above, but has not completed 16 years.’ It defined a youth as: ‘Every person who is 16 years and above or who looks to the court that he is 16 years and above, but has not reached 18 years of age.’ Puberty is attained at 18. It is defined in the dictionary as: ‘the time or stage of change in the human body from childhood to the state in which it is possible to produce children.’

An adult is a person who has reached the stage of taking full responsibility for their life. Linguists divide the human life cycle into the following stages:

  • Fetus:  A young creature inside the mother’s womb;

  • Newborn: A recently born child; 

  • Infant: Who is nursed by his mother. This stage can last until the age of three;

  • Crawler: Who crawls on both his hands and knees;

  • Toddler: A child who is learning to walk;

  • Early infancy: Can last until age seven;

  • Child: From seven years old until puberty;

  • Adolescent: From puberty until the age of 18. In legal terms, he would be described as a ‘juvenile’;

  • Young adult: Someone between the ages of 18 and 33;

  • Grown-up adult: Someone between the ages of 33 and 48;

  • Late adult or middle-aged adult: From 48 to 65 years of age;

  • Elderly: From the age of 65 until total disability;

  • Invalid: A person whose extremities have been disabled, or a person who suffers a vision or hearing disability.

Childhood is the stage in which the human body’s organs develop. This period stretches from the day a person is born until the age of 18. It also covers the same period necessary for the completion of compulsory education, which lasts up to 12 academic years in most countries, after which a student obtains a high school diploma. Afterwards, a student is given the choice whether to pursue his higher education or to enter the work life.


Jerusalemite Children

 It is impossible for any researcher to study the situation of Palestinian children in Occupied East Jerusalem in isolation from the people in the rest of Occupied Palestinian Territories, given that they live under similar conditions. These conditions result from the tragedy of occupation, which followed Israel’s aggressive war in 1967. The disastrous consequences of its attack was the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, including East Jerusalem, Sinai, and the Syrian Golan Height.

 Israel withdrew from the Sinai after a peace treaty was signed between Egyptian President Anwar As-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David in the 1970s.

 Meanwhile, the Occupied Territories remained and continue to remain under Israeli occupation. The Israelis have targeted Occupied East Jerusalem more than the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territories for a number of reasons, the most significant of which is religious - exemplified in their desire to replace the Al-Aqsa Mosque with a reconstruction of the temple they believe once stood there. To achieve this, the Israeli government, in accordance with a decision passed by the Israeli Knesset on 28 June 1967, three weeks after the Holy City was occupied, unilaterally expanded the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem by annexing an additional 70 km2 (70,000 dunums) of East Jerusalem and some 28 surrounding villages into the State of Israel’s territory, in grave violation of international laws and conventions, as well as UN Security Council resolutions. Palestinian Jerusalemites refused and continue to refuse this aggressive policy. The Israeli bulldozers leveled the walls and borders that existed between West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem. Israel dissolved the municipal council in Occupied East Jerusalem and banished its head, the late Rawhi Al-Khatib, to Jordan, and also banished the late Abed Al-Hamid As-Sa’eh, Head of the Higher Supreme Committee in Jerusalem, who used the platform of the Al-Aqsa Mosque to voice his refusal of the occupation and its polices.

In line with Israel’s aspirations to establish a Zionist State, it demolished the Ash-Sharaf and Bab Al-Magharbeh quarters, which were adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, destroying buildings and historical mosques and displacing Palestinian residents. A total of 8,000 people were sent to Shu’fat Refugee Camp and to other areas, to allow a new Jewish neighborhood to be built. Although the architecture of this new neighborhood aspired to be in consistent with the rest of the buildings inside the walls of the Old City, the buildings turned out to be a disharmonious note in the beautiful body of the historical city.

Immediately after the occupation of East Jerusalem in June 1967, the Israeli archeological department undertook excavations that went under the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in unsuccessful attempts to find the remains of the alleged Temple, disregarding the danger of damaging the foundations of the Mosque, one of the holiest religious sites in Islam.

The settlement campaign was not limited to the Old City. It extended to Arab villages and neighborhoods surrounding the city of Jerusalem. Successive Israeli governments have confiscated tens of thousands of hectares of Arab land on which they have constructed a fence of settlements. Thirty-four percent of land in the Jerusalem area was confiscated for the construction of Jewish settlements, and 52 percent declared ‘green areas’ on which Arab construction is forbidden. These areas serve as land reserves for the construction or expansion of settlements, which have continued unabated since the city was occupied. Palestinians control only 14 percent of Jerusalem’s land, most of which is not allowed to be used for construction under the pretext that there are no structural maps for Arab neighborhoods. In order to solve their housing crisis, Palestinian Jerusalemites are forced to build without obtaining building permits from the Jerusalem Municipality. Punitive measures are taken against houses built without permits: house demolitions, high fines or imprisonment of the house-owner, or both. 

Although East Jerusalem was not subject to military rule under the annexation law, the Israeli occupation authorities dealt with East Jerusalem’s residents exactly the same way they dealt with the residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territories that were under military rule. Palestinian Jerusalemites to whom the Israeli law is applicable suffer from a discriminatory, racist policy in various aspects of their life. One thing they have in common with the Israelis is taxes. Various taxes are imposed on Palestinian Jerusalemites, including the Arnona municipal tax, national insurance fees, income tax, Value Added Tax (VAT) and property tax, at the same level of those for Israelis, with no consideration of the different income levels and social and economic patterns between East Jerusalem and West Jerusalem.

The Israeli occupation authorities imposed closure on East Jerusalem on 29 March 1993 by erecting permanent military checkpoints in a bid to isolate the Holy City from the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel’s closure policy has severely affected the city. Some 250 shops have shut down in the Old City (around a quarter of the total), because they were unable to pay the Arnona tax imposed by the Jerusalem Municipality. The situation in Jerusalem has affected other Palestinian areas, because Jerusalem cannot be economically separated from its surroundings. The most harmful step has been isolating Occupied East Jerusalem, making it a separate ‘Canton’ to serve Israel’s Judaization policy. This has also served to isolate the West Bank governorates north of Jerusalem from those to the south of the city, severely affecting the lives of many Palestinians.

The Israeli occupation authorities interfere in every aspect of Palestinian life in a repressive and brutal manner, disregarding international law and the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention pertaining to areas under military occupation. There is little regard for their human rights. Despite this, the world is doing nothing to stop Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. 

Palestinian children throughout the Occupied Territories, including East Jerusalem, live under harsh and difficult conditions. They have been targeted by Israeli shelling. Children accounted for 22 percent of those injured and killed in the first Intifada, which erupted in Gaza on 9 December 1987. Thousands of children have been arrested, and tortured in Israeli jails.

The second Intifada, also referred to as Al-Aqsa Intifada, erupted on 28 September 2000 when Likud opposition leader Ariel Sharon made a provocative visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He was elected Israeli Prime Minister. During this Intifada, the percentage of Palestinian children who have been injured and killed has remained high, as the Israeli army has been targeting Palestinian children aged 12 and above. Infants have also been killed in this conflict. Four-month-old Iman Hajo, two-year-old Sarah Abed Al-Haq, and 10-year-old Mohammed Ad-Dura are a few victims of Israeli aggression against Palestinian children. A number of Palestinian pregnant women have also died, or have been forced to give birth at military checkpoints, after being prevented from a hospital.

Palestinian children are not the fighters some people wish to portray them as. Unfortunately, the Arab mass media has backed up the propaganda that portrays Palestinian children as fierce fighters, to justify their killing, arrest, or torture. Was Iman Hajo, 4-months-old, a fighter when she was killed? Was Sara Abed Al-Haq, two-years-old, a fighter when she was in her father’s car? Were the fetuses, killed in the wombs of their mothers, fighters? The Palestinian child is innocent. He has been denied the normal life granted to other children worldwide. Portraying the Palestinian child as a fighter is a dangerous deception. During the second Intifada, hundreds of Palestinian children have been injured inside their homes, in schools, or on their way to school. Suppose a child throws a stone at an Israeli tank - does this justify being killed, as happened with Fares Odeh?

Were the people whose houses have been completely destroyed in Jenin Camp, and Al-Qasabeh quarter in Nablus, fighters? Israeli crimes are occurring in front of the entire world and demonstrations are being held to condemn the war crimes committed by the Israeli army throughout the Occupied Territories and in Jenin Camp and the city of Jenin in particular. On 18 April 2002, UN Secretary General Kofi Anan called on the UN Security Council to hold an emergency session to send international forces to the Palestinian territories to provide protection for the Palestinian people. On the same day, UN Special Envoy to the Middle East Terry Larson paid a visit to the Jenin Camp and described the scenes in the camp as tragic, painful, and disgraceful for the history of Israel. On the same day, the European Union (EU) expressed its deep concern over the current situation in the Palestinian territories, and its willingness to investigate crimes against the Palestinian people. Also on the same day, Amnesty International (AI) and another human rights organization in the US issued statements condemning the crimes committed by the Israeli army against the Palestinians, describing them as war crimes against humanity. US President George W. Bush delivered a speech before the whole world describing the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the second time as a ‘man of peace’, and calling on the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and the Arab leaders to condemn what he called ‘Palestinian terrorism’ publicly, threatening that anyone who is not with us is against us. 

The US President regarded the Israeli invasion into the Palestinian self-rule areas as self-defense. His statements are nothing but a call for the killing of Palestinian people, including children, women, old men and women, as happened in the Jenin Camp. Unfortunately, the US President made his statements after the UN Security Council issued three resolutions (1397, 1402 & 1403) calling for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from the PN areas. This report is neither to list the war crimes committed by the Israeli army, especially in the Jenin Camp and Al-Qasabeh quarter in Nablus, nor to outline the statements made by international high-ranking officials, including William Bernz, Assistant of the US Secretary of State, and Nicolia Kartozof, the Russian Special Envoy to the Middle East, who regarded the crimes in Jenin Camp as a humanitarian tragedy. However, we are presenting these facts to show the extent to which Palestinian children are neglected, deprived, and discriminated against, as a result of the Israeli occupation.

The Palestinian people are targeted by the Israeli occupation authorities at various stages of their life. A statement made by Israeli Prime Minister the late Golda Meir, reads as follows, ‘I become very anxious when I hear about the birth of a new Palestinian child’. This statement is a witness to Israel’s racist, discriminatory policy. Afterwards, Ishaq Shamir, former Israeli Prime Minister, accused Palestinians of killing Israelis by saying, ‘Palestinians are cruel. They force our sons into the army to kill their sons.’ This theory is based on total deception and reverses the facts to acquit the killer and convict the victim.  

A Palestinian child who escapes death is doomed to a life of psychological and moral decay in which he can see the house of his relatives collapsing under the jaws of Israeli bulldozers, or when he sees the Israeli army breaking into his house in a brutal and savage manner to arrest his brother or father, or when he sees his parents being humiliated at the military checkpoints erected at the entrance of Jerusalem and other Palestinian cities, or when he sees the Israeli army breaking into his school ………etc.

 

Education

When we discuss the issue of education it is worth looking back to the start of the Israeli occupation. Following the occupation, the Israeli authorities were keen to begin the school year on 1 September, as usual, to persuade the world that life in Jerusalem, post-annexation, was normal. However, most teachers and students refused to return to their schools, in protest at the occupation and the imposition of the Israeli curriculum. Ar-Rashidia school, the largest in East Jerusalem, opened its doors to just 32 teachers and 11 students, after Israeli authorities appointed new teachers, most of whom were unqualified.

When study was regulated in October 1967 in East Jerusalem and the rest of Occupied Palestinian Territories, most teachers and students remained on strike. A large majority of students joined private schools, UNRWA schools, or schools teaching the Jordanian curriculum, which were located outside the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem. As these schools could not absorb this number of students, it was necessary to expand the circle of private education, such as Al-Waqf and Riyad Al-Aqsa schools, as well as private schools, known at the time as ‘Husni Al-Ashhab Schools’, named after the late Husni Al-Ashhab, the Director of Education in Jerusalem before the occupation, who refused any cooperation with the Israeli authorities.

During the Jordanian rule, East Jerusalem schools were divided into three parts. In 1966, 63 percent of public school students were under the supervision of the Jordanian Ministry of Education, 26 percent were in private schools, while 11 percent of students were at UNRWA schools, which had adopted the Jordanian curriculum.

Following the unilateral annexation of Jerusalem on 28 June 1967, three weeks after the occupation of Jerusalem, and the declaration of Jerusalem as ‘a united city’ by Israel, Jordanian rules, especially education law (16), 1964, were replaced by Israeli laws and legislation. As a result of these measures, education suffered and continues to suffer. Concerted efforts have been made by numerous bodies to reject the Israeli educational system in East Jerusalem, including the Secrete Teachers’ Union, private and UNRWA schools, as well as alternative schools, established by Al-Maqassed Charitable Islamic Society.

Due to Israel’s willingness to regulate study in public schools in Occupied East Jerusalem for purely political reasons, and due to the refusal of students to sit for Israeli General Education Exams, known as the ‘Bagrout’, the Israeli occupation authorities were forced to replace an amended Jordanian curriculum in 1972, in order to allow secondary schools students to sit for the Jordanian General Education Exams ‘Tawjihi’ exams. For these reasons, the Israeli Ministry of Education had to apply the amended Jordanian curriculum to the preparatory education level during the school year of 1978/1979, and the elementary education level during the school year of 1980/1981, in addition to teaching Hebrew at all levels.

Numerous experts and authorities supervised the education system in East Jerusalem prior to the eruption of the first Intifada on 9 December 1987, which had a negative, disruptive impact on the educational process. Schools, universities, and kindergartens were shut down by Israeli occupation authorities for long periods of time as a form of collective punishment. These closures were implemented, disregarding international law, the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, and, in particular, article (26) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

East Jerusalem Schools are Divided into Four Types

1. Islamic Waqf schools/affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) with a total of 27 schools, 9,624 students, 650 teachers, and 317 sections;

2. Private schools with a total of 32 schools, 11,366 students, 698 teachers, and 838 sections;

3. UNRWA schools with a total of 8 schools, 3,108 students, 112 teachers, and 94 sections;

4. Municipality or Jerusalem Education Authority (JEA) schools with a total of 34 schools, 27,508 students, 1,300 teachers, and 873 sections.

These figures for the school year 1999/2000 were taken from Taher An-Namari’s study entitled, ‘Reality and the Needs of Education in East Jerusalem’. His research reveals that East Jerusalem schools lack equipment and appropriate buildings and facilities compared to West Jerusalem schools. Few schools have been built since the Israeli occupation.

Palestinian Jerusalemites (at least 32 percent of Jerusalem’s total population) receive less than 10 percent of the municipal budget; on average the city invests seven times as much on a Jewish resident as on a Palestinian resident. In addition, Palestinians are exposed to an unfair tax system, e.g., Arnona tax, which requires them to pay the same rates as their Israel counterparts whose income levels are far higher.

The Arnona municipal tax imposed on East Jerusalem residents constitutes 26 percent of the municipal budget; 6 percent of the municipal total budget is spent on the services sector; and 2 percent is spent on educational services.

81 percent of East Jerusalem schools suffer from a severe shortage of classrooms; 63 percent lack multi-purpose halls; and 80 percent lack appropriate yards. 

The ongoing Israeli closure imposed on Jerusalem on 29 March 1993 has prevented West Bank teachers commuting to Jerusalem schools, as they require an Israeli-issued permit. However, obtaining this permit has become almost impossible. Israeli policies and practices have limited the access of Palestinian children in Jerusalem to free education in the Jerusalem Education Authority (JEA) schools in East Jerusalem. In order for a child to be registered in a school, the JEA requires proof of residency in the city. Children whose parents have no residency status or have had their residency status revoked yet remain in the city, are often denied their right to public education. This means they have to go to private schools or study outside the city boundaries. However, school certificates are part of the many requested documents to prove one’s ‘center of life’ in the city. Therefore, students are likely to face numerous problems obtaining a Jerusalem ID card at the age of 16 years.

According to a report issued by the Jerusalem Center for Social & Economic Rights, another factor limiting the access of Palestinian children to education is that the severe lack of space and facilities that the Municipal Education System (MES) in East Jerusalem suffers from. The responsibility for this lies within the Ministry of Education, but the Ministry has neither provided the necessary buildings in East Jerusalem nor set out any development plans. The solution has been to rent buildings, however, these buildings, which are found in almost all the Palestinian neighborhoods, do not meet the criteria set by the Ministry of Education for schools.

The Dell-Report, conducted under the auspices of the ‘Ministerial Committee for Jerusalem Affairs’ in 1999, cites that 370 out of the total 770 classrooms being rented do not meet the necessary standards. These classrooms are situated in apartment blocks or houses, designated for residential purposes and are often not suitable to host over 30 children at one time and do not have sufficient ventilation. There is a need for further development as the number of pupils is growing at an average rate of 5 percent a year and is projected to grow faster in the years ahead. Between 1997 and 1999, only 111 classrooms were built in Occupied East Jerusalem, keeping the average number of pupils in each class far above that in Jewish schools.

No. of Classrooms Built in East Jerusalem & West Jerusalem

School Year

Arab Sector

Ultra-Orthodox and Hebrew Sector

1997/1998

12

Both years

252

1998/1999

44

1999/2000

55

178

*Source: Statistical yearbook of Jerusalem, 1999.

The Israeli Ministry of Education is in charge of funding the Municipal Education System in Jerusalem. However, the overall situation of the public Arab education system, in both budget and educational standards, is insufficient. The JEA has 169 schools in West Jerusalem and 35 in East Jerusalem. However, Palestinian students comprise one-third of the school age (5-19 years) population in the city. In the summer of 1999, the Dell-Report revealed that the East Jerusalem school system is, in many respects, not budgeted in the same way as the Israeli system. Teaching methods are outdated while the schools themselves lack resources. The number of study hours per Jewish pupil or class is far greater than that per Palestinian pupil or class. The number of study grants given to teachers is 382 percent higher in the Jewish sector. This affects teachers’ skills and consequently pupils academic achievements.

Impact of These Polices on Education

Thirty percent of the pupils in the upper elementary level of East Jerusalem municipal schools are illiterate, while 40 percent of high school students (Tawjihi students) drop out prior to attaining qualifications. Clearly, the neglect of the education system in East Jerusalem by Israeli officials is at least partly responsible for these statistics. Only 56.7 percent of Palestinians living in Israel and Jerusalem are still in school at the age of 17 years compared to 90 percent of the Jewish-Israeli youth of the same age.

It is noted that around 29,000 Palestinian students were registered during the school year 1999/2001, while the number of students registered in private schools were 20,363 during the same year.

Recent Developments

As a result of growing overcrowding, the Municipality turns down large numbers of children who want to register at Municipality schools, advising their parents to enroll them in costly private schools, despite the fact that the 1949 Compulsory Education Law stipulates that compulsory education for every child must be provided free of charge. Item (1) of article (28) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child notes that State Parties shall recognize the child’s right to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular:

  1. Make primary education compulsory and available freely to all;

  2. Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, either general or vocational education, make them available and accessible to all children, and take appropriate measures, such as the introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of need;

  3. Make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capabilities by every appropriate means;

  4. Make information, educational and vocational principles available and accessible to all children;

  5. Take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction of drop-out rates.

During the 2001/2002 school year, more than 3,000 Palestinian children, who requested to study in the municipal public schools, were not accepted. An additional unknown number of children attempted to register for school but were not even recorded in the waiting lists, as the Municipality abruptly terminated all registration on 23 March 2001. This is in violation of the registration regulations. Mr. B. Weller, Assistant Director of the Jerusalem Education Authority (JEA) and in charge of the Arab Education in Jerusalem explained this as follows: ‘The Municipality and the Ministry of Education are unable today to provide classrooms in East Jerusalem for ‘all who seek’.

The report noted that Israel violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which stipulated the provision of education to all children. Palestinians right to equality and education is being discriminated against.

* Schools

Total no. of schools

School Year

152

2000/2002

143

1999/2000

138

1998/1999

133

1997/1999

*Source: ‘The Children of Palestine: Issues and Statistics for the Year 2002’ issued by (PCBS).

The above figures exclude schools supervised by the Jerusalem Municipality and the Israeli Ministry of Information.

Schools Supervised by the Jerusalem Municipality & the Israeli Information Ministry (1999/2000)

Male Schools

Female Schools

Co-educational

Total no. of Schools

Total no. of Students

12

13

7

32

27,611

*Source: ‘The Children of Palestine: Issues & Statistics for the Year 2002’, PCBS.

The above figures exclude private schools and kindergartens.

Schools with Facilities
Schools with libraries 15
Schools with laboratories 18
Schools with computers 11 (with a total of 462 computers)
Schools with language laboratories 4
Schools with playgrounds 20
Schools with painting or music halls 7

*Source: ‘The Children of Palestine: Issues & Statistics for the Year 2002’, PCBS.

* Students

Total number of students (2000/2001) in the governorate of Jerusalem amounted to 52,724.

Distribution of Students per Teacher by Supervising Authority (2000/2001)

Average no. of students per:

UNRWA

Government

Private
Class Teacher Class Teacher Class Teacher
   

30.4

 

23.3

 

16.7

*Source: ‘The Children of Palestine: Issues & Statistics for the Year 2002’, PCBS.

Distribution of Students per Class by Supervising Authority (2000/2001)

Average no. of students per:

PN

UNRWA

Private Schools

29.6

35.5

25.8

*Source: ‘The Children of Palestine: Issues & Statistics for the Year 2002’, PCBS.

Distribution of Students per Class (2000/2001)

Average no. of students per:

Kindergarten

Basic education

Secondary education

Schools for special needs

 

29.4

32.6

31.6

8.5

*Source: ‘The Children of Palestine: Issues & Statistics for the Year 2002’, PCBS.

* Classes

Distribution of Classes by sex (2000/2001)

No. of classes

Female

Male

Co-education

1,832

772

604

456

*Source: ‘The Children of Palestine: Issues & Statistics for the Year 2002’, PCBS.

Illiteracy Rate for Individuals between 15 and above

Illiteracy rate (2000/2001)

Male

Female

Average

5.2 percent

11.5 percent

8.4 percent

Illiteracy rate (1997/1998)

 

 

11.8 percent

*Source: ‘The Children of Palestine: Issues & Statistics for the Year 2002’, PCBS.

Lack of adequate services and facilities is sometimes a main factor in a student’s decision to drop out of a government school, and in their inability to pass the Tawjihi exams successfully. Private and UNRWA schools suffer from a lack of services and facilities as well. Head of the UNRWA Education Programme in East Jerusalem, Dr. Lamis Al-Alami, confirmed that there are no kindergartens in UNRWA schools. Computer science is taught only in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades, even though computer science has become compulsory in the Israeli school curriculum.

Dr. Al-Alami pointed out that there are psychological and social counselors within the emergency programme, which took effect on 1 October 2000. The main duty of these counselors is to help children overcome difficulties and problems resulting from the current political situation.

She stated that UNRWA schools do not have playgrounds. However, yards are used for teaching football, and basketball and other simple games.

As for the extracurricular activities, UNRWA schools encourage music, drama, acting, arts, painting, sports, and other activities especially during summer holidays.

Dr. Al-Alami referred to a number of schools built a few years ago, without mentioning the exact quantity. The schools included five specialized rooms, with a total area of 112 square meters each: a library, a science laboratory, a computer laboratory, a multi-purpose room, and a vocational training room.

In the science laboratories, there are 12 tables, equipped with conductors for experiments, in addition to laboratory materials, chemicals, and bottles within the very limited budget of the UNRWA.

The libraries contain cultural books to help promote students’ habit of reading, and the number of books increases annually.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international human rights organization, conducted a report entitled ‘Second Class: Discrimination Against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel’s Schools’, to serve as a witness to the situation of Arab education. The 187-page report was presented to international organizations, including the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and human rights organizations.

Two researchers from HRW conducted a field trip, during which they examined the Arab education system, as well as looking at the Israeli Ministry of Information’s policy on budgets, educational programs, and goals for Arab education. The study included 26 Arab and Jewish schools.

The HRW report referred to amazing differences between Arabs and Jews in the education system. The Israeli Ministry of Education does not allocate funds to Palestinian children in the same way that it provides for their Jewish counterparts, even though the number of students in Arab classes is 20 percent higher than in Jewish classes. Far fewer educational programs are offered to Arab pupils, due to the fact that the Israeli Ministry of Education has different needs assessment standards for Jewish children. The condition of Arab schools buildings is much worse than those for Jews and there aren’t enough kindergartens.

East Jerusalem schools suffer from a shortage of appropriate buildings and facilities. The Jerusalem Municipality rents a number of buildings in Palestinian neighborhoods located inside the municipal boundaries, originally designed for residential purposes. Students are placed under psychological and physical pressures, due to the lack of playgrounds, laboratories, computers, libraries, or any recreational activities, such as sports, painting, or music. This is the current situation at schools in Silwan, Ath-Thori, Al-Issawiyya, Shu’fat, At-Tur, and elsewhere.

The gap between private education in Arab schools and in Jewish schools is huge. Palestinian students with special needs receive fewer financial subsidies and services than Jewish students. Many East Jerusalem residents are forced to enroll their handicapped children in Jewish schools, because of the lack of services and facilities in Palestinian neighborhoods. The language is an obstacle for both the handicapped child and their families.

The HRW report noted; ‘Although Arabic is an official language, and is taught in Arab schools in Israel, the Israeli government does not allocate enough resources to develop Arab curricula. Palestinian teachers have fewer texts and less educational materials available to them than their Israeli counterparts.’

‘The Israeli government admitted that its average expenses for a Jewish child are much higher than those for a Palestinian child. Despite this, it has not changed its policy. It is the Palestinian children who are in need of greater financial investment. In 2001, the Israeli government promised to allocate additional financial subsidies to the education of Palestinian children. However, the promise was not fulfilled in its 2002 budget,’ said Torsen Neff, a researcher who conducted the above report.

HRW urged the Israeli government to end its discriminatory polices against the Arab education system in Israeli schools. Its report stated that a quarter of the 1.6 million pupils studying in schools run by the Israeli government are Palestinians. Arab schools are separated from Jewish schools.

Palestinian children who study in East Jerusalem schools that belong to the Jerusalem Municipality or the Israeli Ministry of Information are neglected and discriminated against. Private schools suffer as a result of the shortage of government school places, as they are forced to accept more children than they have resources to cope with.

Zama Carson Neff, the legal advisor for children’s rights at Human Rights Watch, noted that drop-out rates among Palestinian students are three times higher than for Jewish students. The success rate in university admission exams among Palestinian students is also significantly less than that of Jewish students.

The report called on the Ministry of Education to adopt a written policy aimed at achieving equality in schools and prohibiting discrimination on the basis of religion, or race, or sex.

The Ministry of Education should immediately start distributing financial allowances to schools, on a basis free of any discrimination, as well as allocating additional financial subsidies to bridge the existing gaps between Jewish and Arab education systems.

The Israeli Knesset demanded an amendment of the present education laws that would prohibit discrimination by the Israel government. The latter should work to improve Palestinians’ participation in decision-making process with regard to policies and educational resources.

As mentioned above, there is a clear discrimination between the education system in East and West Jerusalem, and between Palestinian public schools and Jewish public schools. West Jerusalem schools provide vocational and professional training, which is only provided in two public schools in East Jerusalem: Abdullah ibn Al-Hussein Secondary Boys School, and Al-Ma’mounya Girls School (see ‘Reality & the Needs of Palestinian Education in East Jerusalem, p. 55, Taher An-Namari).

In addition to the differences in the level of education between East and West Jerusalem, East Jerusalem schools suffer from a shortage of classrooms, and those that do exist are inappropriate, unhealthy, and overcrowded. West Jerusalem schools in comparison are large, well ventilated, air-conditioned, and properly lit. To cover the shortfall of classrooms, the Jerusalem Municipality rents residential buildings, placing students under psychological and physical pressures. These buildings lack proper lighting and ventilation.

Forty percent of classrooms are in rented residential buildings. The average area of the classroom is 4 square meters, with a total capacity of 20-25 students. However, 30 students are often squeezed into these classrooms. Al-Issawiyya Girls Elementary School operates from rented property. Two terraces have been turned into classrooms. Three to four children sit on a seat originally designed for two.

Another example is a three-floor building in the Al-Issawiyya neighborhood in East Jerusalem. The first floor is used as classrooms for male students, the second floor for female students, while the third floor is used by the house-owner. This example shows the extent to which the East Jerusalem educational system is neglected, deprived, and discriminated against. 

Health Situation

 Occupied East Jerusalem suffers from various problems, as do the other Palestinian cities, villages and refugees that fell under the Israeli occupation in June 1967. The tragedy of the Holy City is perhaps greater than that of other Palestinian cities, given that there is more interference from the Israeli occupation authorities. Israel, in accordance with a decision passed by the Israeli Knesset on 28 June 1967, unilaterally expanded the boundaries of Jerusalem through the annexation of an additional 70 km2 (70,000 dunums) of East Jerusalem to within the municipal boundaries of West Jerusalem, in violation of international laws. Ever since, Israel’s policies regarding Jerusalem have followed a clear pattern: to establish irreversible facts in the city that allow it to secure and maintain exclusive control. The Judaization policy adopted by the Israeli authorities aims to uproot the Arab presence in East Jerusalem in favor of Jewish settlers. 

Perhaps, the first things the Israeli authorities targeted, after land, were health institutions. The Jordanian government had built a new facility in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, where it planned to relocate the only government run hospital - Hospis Hospital, which had previously been housed in one of the convent buildings in Al-Wad area in the Old City. Israel turned the new building into a police station and then in 1985, closed the hospital altogether, leaving Occupied Jerusalem without a government hospital.

Private Hospitals in East Jerusalem:

  • Augusta Victoria Hospital in the Mt. of Olives;

  • Al-Maqassed Hospital in Mt. of Olives;

  • St. Joseph Hospital [French Hospital] in Sheikh Jarrah.

Without these hospitals, East Jerusalem would have hit a real health crisis. The Arab Health Center was opened after the closure of the Hospis Hospital and has played a leading role in providing health services to Palestinian Jerusalemites.

If Israel claims that the patients’ funds in Israel, known as ‘Kopat Holim’ provide health services to Palestinian Jerusalemites, and transfers those in need to Israeli hospitals, it forgets the fact that the Israeli health insurance was obligatorily applied to Palestinian Jerusalemites in 1995 only. The Israeli health institutions opened health centers, such as Kopat Holim Klalit [public patients’ fund], Kopat Holim Miohedet [private patients’ fund], and Kopat Holim Makabi [Makabi patients’ fund]. They opened health centers in Occupied East Jerusalem through contractors, some of which had nothing to do with medicine or health, and have exploited the doctors and nurses working in these centers.

In spite of this, some Israeli institutions, including the Israeli Interior Ministry and the National Insurance Institute, which is responsible for health insurance and the collection of fees, cooperate closely together to confiscate the ID cards of Palestinian Jerusalemites, thus discontinuing their health insurance, claiming that they live outside the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem.

The real health tragedy in Occupied East Jerusalem occurs in the villages and refugee camps surrounding the city. This takes in a total population of around 150,000, none of whom have Jerusalem ID cards. They cannot enter Jerusalem, or nearby cities such as Ramallah, Bethlehem or Jericho, especially when they are under siege or curfew. Israel imposed a general closure on Jerusalem on 29 March 1993, denying Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip entrance to Israel and access to Jerusalem, thus depriving thousands of Palestinians the right to get to their workplaces, holy places, or using medical, educational, and economic services. The closure has been intensified since the Al-Aqsa Intifada began on 28 September 2000.

Those citizens, including children and pregnant women, cannot access hospitals in Jerusalem for medical treatment despite the lack of hospitals outside the municipal boundaries of the city. Most children have not been vaccinated against dangerous diseases, while people suffering from chronic and dangerous illnesses, such as heart disease, kidney failure, and diabetes are prevented from seeking treatment.

There are around 20,000 Jerusalemites who live in property inherited from families, but who nonetheless do not have Jerusalem ID cards, they fled their homes during the census conducted by the Israeli government immediately after the occupation of Jerusalem in June 1967. A curfew was imposed on the city while the census was conducted, but those who returned to their homes once the curfew was lifted are regarded as ‘present absent’. They pay the Arnona municipal tax, but do not receive any health or education benefits. Rather, they live as prisoners inside their homes during closures and curfews.

Israeli Health Centers ‘Kopat Holim’

A number of officials of the health centers in Occupied East Jerusalem affirmed that the Jerusalem Municipality has not provided them with enough services. The latter is financially supported by the Israeli Health Ministry and provides services to mother and child health care centers. The Jerusalem Municipality controls these centers’ budgets, which are relatively few in number compared with the size of the population they serve. Recently, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a ruling showing the failure of the Jerusalem Municipality to provide services to child and mother health care centers in East Jerusalem. Under the ruling, the Supreme Court ordered the Municipality to open at least 15 more child and mother health care centers in East Jerusalem. Some Kopat Holim health centers provide these services in agreement with the Jerusalem Municipality, along with UNRWA and private institutions, but the number is still insufficient to cope with the demand.

The siege imposed on Jerusalem has prevented mothers and children from reaching Jerusalem to receive health care from UNRWA clinics, despite the fact that most of them have Jerusalem ID cards and live close to these clinics.

Officials revealed that there are no specialized pediatric hospitals, although there are specialized units in hospitals either inside or outside Jerusalem. There is one specialized hospital in ‘Peitah Tigva’. Al-Maqassed hospital in Jerusalem has developed a pediatric unit, which provides medical services to Palestinians from Occupied Territories.

Item (1) of article (24) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child notes: ‘States Parties shall acknowledge the child’s right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, and to facilities for the treatment of illness and health rehabilitation. State Parties shall do their utmost to ensure that no child is deprived of his/her right of access to such health care services.’

State Parties shall pursue full implementation of this right and, in particular, shall take appropriate measures in order to:

  1. Diminish infant and child mortality rate;

  2. Ensure the provision of necessary medical assistance and health care to all children with   emphasis on the development of primary health care;

  3. Develop primary health care;

  4. Ensure appropriate pre-natal and post-natal health care for mothers.

It is clear that concerted efforts are being made by the private sector to provide part of the services that the Municipality should provide as it does in West Jerusalem.

‘The Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2001’, issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), mentioned that the number of primary health care centers supervised by the non-governmental organizations in the governorate of Jerusalem is 21, up from 15 centers in 1998. In 1999, there were seven hospitals, with a capacity of 553 beds, 75 doctors, 157 specialized doctors, and 493 nurses and midwives.

* 82.4% of the people surveyed have health insurance in the governorate of Jerusalem. This percentage is divided into 55.5% in J2 areas, and 97.9% in J1 areas. [J1 refers to the city center and residential areas; J2 refers to areas surrounding Jerusalem];

* 96.1% of mothers in East Jerusalem have received health care during pregnancy: 98.9% in J1 areas, and 91.8% in J2 areas respectively;

* 55.6% of mothers have received health care services in a private clinic, 18.6% in a private hospital, 10.8% in a non-governmental center, and 7.3% in a governmental hospital;

* 95.4% of children born between 1997 and 2002 were breast-fed;

* 2.3% of children under the age of five suffer from weight loss, 2.9% suffer from wasting, and 9.2% of children are under the average height;

* 69.5% of mothers under the age of 30, and 83.5% of women aged between 30 and 49 use contraceptive pills.