“Israel” Threatens Palestinian Kids’ Academic Year: Dozens of Schools under Threat of Demolition

 By Al hed Staff, Agencies

The school year in Occupied Palestine began earlier this month but there are students who have remained outside the classroom, after “Israeli” demolition orders were issued to several school structures and they are destined to be carried out in the near future, leaving hundreds of pupils without a solution.

Omar Kaabana an activist in the Bedouin community Ras Al Tin near Ramallah, said there is no school for the children and more than 50, now remain at home.

“We had an elementary school in a building near our high school, but we were evicted because settlers moved into the area,” he said.

“The school we had was built in 2020 and the demolition order was issued that same year. a motion against the demolition was rejected by the ‘Israeli’ District Court and now our pupils remain without a school to go to.

There are another 32 schools destined for demolition in the near future with demolition orders issued or construction stopped but they are still being litigated. However, most attempts to prevent demolitions have failed thus far.

Some 30 other schools face demolition in the more distant future, most have had demolition orders already issued but they are not expected to be executed soon.

Most school buildings under threat, serve the herding communities, that settlers have been working to evict, or at the very least to reduce their areas considerably. There are 16 such schools in the area of al-Khalil [Hebron], six in the Jordan Rift, 5 near Occupied Al-Quds two in the Bethlehem area, one near Ramallah, one near Jenin and one near Nablus.

The latest school demolition that evoked international condemnation was carried out earlier this month, in Kafr Malik, a village of 28 families near Ramallah, where 200 people live. The school was funded by the EU after the local children had been forced to study elsewhere. After the demolition, a delegation of EU officials visited the village and even asked the “Israeli” entity to refund the money invested in its construction.