Jerusalem has UNRWA schools and the municipality has no idea

Edit: Since this article was written and published, Deputy Mayor Arieh King has sent out a city-wide message to residents that reads as follows: 

"Dear Jerusalemites,

I will not let Jerusalem become Gaza! I have already started promoting the removal of UNRWA from the city. This coming Monday at 7:00 p.m., we will demonstrate outside UNRWA headquarters by Ammunition Hill."

Manhi, the municipal education administration, has no up-to-date information regarding Jerusalem’s private Arab educational institutions. There are said to be four UNRWA schools here, yet despite the known dangers UNRWA poses Safra Square does not have the faintest idea about their existence in the city.

There are 15,380 Arab Jerusalemite students (approximately 13% of all eastern Jerusalem students) registered in institutions operating without a license, which are not budgeted for by the state nor supervised by it. 

Just as in Gaza, they study from textbooks full of hatred and incitement against the State of Israel in general and against Jews in particular, learning the most notorious antisemitic definitions, philosophy, and history.

An example of a math problem in an UNRWA schoolbook is “You have 10 Jews, you killed two, how many Jews do you have left to kill?” 

Fighting to rid Jerusalem of UNRWA

Against the uproar over the termination of funding to the UN agency due to the participation of its Gaza employees in the October 7 massacre, it is interesting to check what is happening in the capital. Deputy Mayor and United faction head Arieh King requested that the National Fund for Israel, which owns the land where one of the UNRWA schools is located, to order that it be vacated. He was told to apply to the Israel Land Authority “because they manage the lands and their use.”

In the Arab sector in eastern Jerusalem, out of some 119,000 students, in addition to the 15,380 Arab students who attend unsupervised institutions, 58,080 study at “unofficially recognized” institutions, and 45,040 in official educational institutions. 

Recently, Education Committee chairman MK Yosef Tayeb (Shas) called on the Education Ministry to exercise closer supervision of all educational institutions in the sector. The Education Ministry responded in general terms that “The schools operate without a license, in violation of the law. The ministry’s enforcement division has begun investigating the matter, and intends to involve investigative bodies and other authorities if necessary.”

The Jerusalem Municipality had no data on how many UNRWA schools were operating in the city and in which neighborhoods, but King seems to know more than the municipality’s administration, as he says that there are four UNRWA schools in Jerusalem. They are located in the City of David in the Old City; in the Shuafat refugee camp (north of Jerusalem); and in the Kalandiya refugee camp. 

Moreover, UNRWA’s regional headquarters are in the city’s Ma’alot Dafna neighborhood. 

“There is no difference between UNRWA workers in Gaza and UNRWA workers in Jerusalem,” insists King. “We have to expel UNRWA from Jerusalem now. ■