Please help protect Palestinians’ right to education and ensure that Israeli bulldozers do not reduce more Palestinian schools to rubble! Following the confiscation of a classroom and a clinic from the grounds of Al-Maleh school; and the confiscation of the metal roofing shade installed above the school’s playground, Palestinians are sounding the alarm about the looming Israeli demolition of five more schools in the Jordan Valley of the occupied West Bank.
On Monday, October 25, 2021, Israeli occupation soldiers raided Al-Maleh school in the northern Jordan Valley and confiscated a classroom, a clinic and and an awning.
The Al-Maleh school was built at the end of 2020 as part of the Right to Education Campaign. The small school has only four classrooms, filled with students from Khirbet Al-Maleh and the neighboring communities of Ein Al-Helweh and Al-Farsiya.
To increase the capacity of the school, in September 2021 the Stop the Wall Campaign, with the support of the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), started construction of one more classroom and a school clinic that Israeli bulldozers confiscated without any notice on Monday.
The four remaining classrooms and four other schools located in Bedouin communities in the Jordan Valley—Ras Al-Auja, Khan Al-Ahmar, Fasayil Al-Fawqa and Arab Al-Ka’abneh—have also received several demolition orders and face imminent destruction.
Depriving Palestinians of their right to education is a central component of the crime of apartheid. In the Jordan Valley and other parts of Area C, it is one tactic the Israeli occupation uses to displace Palestinians in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the forcible transfer of occupied persons. It is also part of Israel’s strategy to make decades of de facto annexation irreversible.
Since former US President Donald Trump announced his “Plan of the Century” in 2020, Palestinians in the Jordan Valley have faced an escalated Israeli ethnic cleansing campaign. According to Trump’s plan, the rich and fertile Jordan Valley, which is critical to Palestine’s future, is due to be officially annexed to Israel.
We urge you to support the Right to Education Campaign, launched by popular committees and Palestinian civil society organizations in solidarity with the steadfastness of Palestinians in the Jordan Valley. Please support us by:
- Calling on your foreign ministry and your consulate in Palestine to take action to:
- Stop the demolition of the threatened schools and infrastructure in the Jordan Valley and to guarantee Palestinians the right to education.
- Ensure that the classroom, the school clinic and the awning that were recently confiscated in Khirbet Al-Maleh are returned back and protected from confiscation.
- Joining the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Israeli academic and cultural institutions are deeply complicit in Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights, including the right to education.
Please see below a sample letter to be sent to your government, parliamentary representatives and/or consulates.
Thank you for your solidarity
Stop the Wall Campaign and Middle East Children’s Alliance
Sample letter:
To:
Subject: Protect schools in the Jordan Valley from further Israeli demolition
Dear Sir/Madam,
We write to you to denounce Israel’s recent confiscation of a classroom, a clinic and an awning from Khirbet Al-Maleh school on Monday, October 25, 2021, and to express concern over the looming demolition of five schools in the Jordan Valley.
The school in Khirbet Al-Maleh was built in 2020 through the efforts of the Right to Education Campaign, launched by popular committees and Palestinian civil society organizations. The school serves students through grade four from the communities of Khirbet Al-Maleh, Al-Farsiya and Ein Al-Helweh. Prior to that, students had to travel to the school in Ein Al-Baida, 25 kilometers from their homes.
Recently, the Right to Education Campaign, together with the Stop the Wall Campaign and the Middle East Children’s Alliance, started construction of one more classroom and a clinic at Al-Maleh school. Through this, Palestinians endeavored to increase the capacity of the Al-Maleh school, which consists of only four classrooms that serve 40 students.
The remaining four classrooms in Khirbet Al-Maleh and other four schools in the Jordan Valley—Khan Al-Ahmar, Fasayil Al-Fawqa, Arab Al-Ka’abneh and Ras Al-Auja—have received several demolition orders and face imminent demolition.
Denying Palestinians their right to education is part of Israel’s de facto and planned de jure annexation of the Jordan Valley, in violation of international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention and the UN Apartheid Convention (1973).
We urge you to ensure that the Palestinian right to education is respected by exerting pressure on the Israeli government to respect its legal obligations as an occupying power.
We urge you to take the following steps:
- Use all diplomatic channels to demand Israeli authorities refrain from demolishing the schools of Khirbet Al-Maleh, Ras Al-Auja, Arab Al-Ka’abneh, Khan Al-Ahmar and Fasayil Al-Fawqa.
- Ensure that the recently confiscated classroom and clinic in Khirbet Al-Maleh are returned back and protected from further Israeli confiscation.
- Visit Khirbet Al-Maleh, where the confiscation took place, to emphasize your support of Palestinians’ human right to education in the Jordan Valley and throughout Palestine.
- Issue a public statement for an immediate end to school demolitions and in defense of Palestinians’ right to education, in particular in the Jordan Valley and other areas in the process of de facto annexation and under continued threat of de jure annexation.
Please follow this link for further information: https://www.stopthewall.org/right2exist/denial-of-education-an-israeli-apartheid-tool-to-colonize-the-jordan-valley/
Looking forward to your urgent response
Yours sincerely,
