Israel shuts six UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem, sending hundreds of students home midday

Israeli forces at an UNRWA school in Shuafat on 8 May 2025

Nir Hasson reports in Haaretz on 8 May 2025:

Israel’s Education Ministry issued closure orders Thursday for six UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem. Israeli security forces enforced the decision, sending hundreds of Palestinian pupils home midday.

The school day in the Shuafat refugee camp and the Wadi Joz neighborhood began as usual, but during the day, Israel Police arrived at the schools and instructed the principals to shut them down.

The closure orders, issued in the middle of the school day, stated: “The school will be closed, and no principal, teacher, staff member, or parent is allowed to operate or participate in educational activities at the institution.” The orders emphasized that anyone operating the institutions would commit a criminal offense.

According to the statement, officials from the Education Ministry and Jerusalem municipality, flanked by security forces, entered schools in the Shuafat neighborhood at 9 A.M. The forces detained a staff member and collected faculty ID numbers while the children were present. Officials then ordered the schools to send over 550 students home, all between the ages of six and 15.

Other schools in the area told their students to return home, fearing for their safety, UNRWA said.  “This is a traumatizing experience for young children who are at immediate risk of losing their access to education,” the statement read. “The current school year runs until June 20.”

The closure was carried out in accordance with a law passed in October in the Knesset that prohibited UNRWA’s activities in Israel. About 700 students are enrolled in UNRWA schools in Jerusalem, and no alternative solution has been found for them as of now.

Parents of school students told Haaretz that the school administrators intend to continue education remotely via Zoom.

Jamil Mazar, a resident of the Shuafat refugee camp, shared: “The children returned home, and there is a ‘celebration’ in the streets. How do they expect to maintain quiet when the children are not in school? We didn’t receive a letter from the municipality saying that we should register for another school. I’m worried about my children and all the children in the camp.”

A senior source at UNRWA told Haaretz that the closure of the educational institutions constitutes a “serious violation” of UN immunity, to which Israel is bound by international conventions. The source also said that the Ministry of Education’s decision is a “traumatic experience for young children who will lose access to education.”

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