Khaberni - The Jerusalem governorate warned of the plan pushed by the Israeli Occupation municipality to establish what it calls a new "educational complex" in the Kafr Aqab neighborhood, north of occupied Jerusalem, on land that has been hosting the vocational training college affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) for decades.
The Jerusalem governorate stated in a press release on Thursday that the project is a new link in the chain of Israeli policies aimed at undermining the work of the UN agency in occupied Jerusalem, under the guise of service and educational projects that ostensibly have developmental objectives, while inherently involving serious political and colonial dimensions.
It confirmed that the plan number (1421205), which spans an area of 82 dunams, is presented under the pretext of addressing the shortage of classrooms and educational facilities in Kafr Aqab, while its actual results involve the removal of the UNRWA vocational training college and ending its operation at the site.
It explained that the danger of the plan lies not only in its planning nature but in that it targets an established UN institution that plays a vital educational and vocational role for Palestinian refugees, which makes the educational pretext a cover for an action that effectively undermines the presence of UNRWA and replaces its institutions with others controlled by the occupation authorities.
The governorate emphasized that practical experience over the past years proves that the occupation has consistently used the basic needs of the Palestinian people, particularly education, as a tool to justify control over Palestinian lands and properties. Several projects were promoted as solutions to educational crises in occupied Jerusalem but were used as pretexts for demolitions, evictions, or takeovers, while the implementation of these projects has remained stymied or delayed for many years.
The governorate pointed out that the educational complex project in Jabal Mukaber, approved in 2017, did not see any real progress until eight years after its approval, while the majority of it remains unimplemented to this day. It also recalled the case of the Salhiya family in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which was forcibly evicted from its home and commercial nursery in 2022 under the pretext of establishing educational institutions, although construction work has not started yet. The same situation applies in the town of Anata, where a school project dedicated to Palestinian students was approved years ago without any building permit issued or any groundwork started.
The governorate confirmed that the occupation, which bears direct responsibility for the chronic educational crisis in Palestinian neighborhoods due to decades of deliberate discrimination and neglect, is now attempting to exploit this very crisis to justify the seizure of lands and the takeover of properties and to undermine institutions that provide vital services to Palestinians, instead of addressing the real causes of the existing deficit.
