UNRWA warns against closure of six schools in East Jerusalem

This article is published in association with United Nations.

The education of 800 students in occupied East Jerusalem is at risk as Israel moves to close their schools next week, a senior official with the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said on Wednesday. 

“It’s a grave threat to the right of those children to education,” Roland Friedrich, Director of UNRWA Affairs for the West Bank, told UN News.

The development follows two Israeli laws that went into effect in late January which ban UNRWA from operating in its territory and prohibit Israeli authorities from having any contact with the agency.

UNRWA is the largest provider of healthcare, education and other services for nearly six million Palestine refugees across the Middle East, including in war-torn Gaza.

This week the International Court of Justice – the UN’s highest court – began hearings to examine Israel’s restrictions on the work of the UN and other international organizations in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Mr. Friedrich spoke about how the affected students are anxious over the prospect of being shut out of the classroom.  He also underlined UNRWA’s commitment to continue to deliver in East Jerusalem “as long as we can.”

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Roland Friedrich: Roughly four weeks ago we received notifications from the Israeli Ministry of Education that the three schools we operate in Shu’fat refugee camp and another three schools we operate inside East Jerusalem shall be closed. 

We have 800 students in these schools and these children have no adequate access to education beyond these schools. This is very concerning for the children, for their families, and it comes while the school year is still ongoing. So, this is unprecedented. It’s a grave threat to the rights of those children to education and it’s very concerning particularly because these closure orders are supposed to come into effect on 8 May, which is less than a week from now.

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UN News: What other UNRWA programmes are at risk in the West Bank?

Roland Friedrich: I think we have to make a distinction between our work in occupied East Jerusalem, which according to the Israeli legislation is banned, and our work in the rest of the West Bank where, according to Israel, all our work is not banned. 

In East Jerusalem we operate, in addition to the six schools with 800 children, two health centres – one in the Old City and another in Shu’fat refugee camp – with  roughly 60,000 patients: vulnerable patients who have no adequate access to other health facilities, patients with non-communicable diseases, patients who have West Bank ID who have no access to alternative health facilities, and low-income patients. 

We are also responsible for garbage collection in Shu’fat refugee camp, which is on the Palestinian side of the so-called separation barrier. 

In addition to that, we also operate a vocational training centre in the north of Jerusalem, also on the Palestinian side of the barrier, with 350 trainees, all from the West Bank. 

Our main headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem is in the Sheikh Jarah neighbourhood. We currently cannot operate from it because of continuing security threats: threats to the safety and security of our staff, ongoing attacks against the compound. 

We again had an arson attack against these facilities three weeks ago, and continuous destruction of the fence, of cameras, of security infrastructure with high material damage. 

So that’s a place that’s not safe for our staff to work despite the fact that it is a facility protected by the privileges and immunities of the United Nations. 

When it comes to the West Bank overall, our operations there largely continue. That means our 90 schools, our 41 health centres, our microfinance installations, continue to operate. 

But we do have a severe humanitarian crisis in the northern West Bank due to an ongoing Israeli security forces operation that started in late January and that has led to the displacement of more than 40,000 Palestinian refugees from three refugee camps.  

UN News: What messages did you hear from students, parents and teachers during your latest visit to Shu’fat camp? How is the community coping with this uncertainty?

Roland Friedrich: There is anxiety among children. They are worried that they can’t continue the school year, which runs until the end of June. They’re worried that they will be separated from their friends. 

They’re worried that they will lose access to education. They are worried that they will have to be placed in education facilities that are maybe very far away or not available at all.

These are free schools, and we teach from grades one to nine. A lot of them are young girls who feel safe there in an appropriate learning environment that they will possibly lose.

Parents are also concerned. UNRWA has been delivering services in that refugee camp since the 1960s, predating Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, so there’s a history of UNRWA teaching in that place and an appreciation for the quality of the services we deliver. 

Given the fact that all international UN staff have not received visas from the Israeli authorities since late January, it’s our local staff on the ground who are taking high risks in continuing to serve their communities.

UN News: In this challenging environment, what steps is UNRWA considering to support the continuity of its services in East Jerusalem?

Roland Friedrich: We’ve been very clear since these laws against UNRWA entered into effect on 29 January. We’ve been seeking to live up to our humanitarian commitment, to our mandate to continue to deliver these services to communities in East Jerusalem.

There have been legal efforts by Israeli civil society organizations before the courts against these laws and against these disclosure orders. Some of these proceedings are still pending.

We clearly call upon all actors to respect the obligations under international law, particularly to respect the inviolability of the premises of the United Nations in East Jerusalem. 

We are providing these services based on a mandate by the General Assembly.

UNRWA clearly enjoys full privileges and immunities like any other UN agency, and our staff there are taking grave personal risks.

We are assessing the situation on a daily basis. Is it still safe for our staff to operate or not? As a matter of principle, we will be there as long as we can.