Parents and students join a protest outside the Ibrahimia School in East Jerusalem against steps by the Israeli authorities to prevent schools from using Palestinian textbooks.

According to the members of the parents' committee, the Israeli Ministry of Education and the West Jerusalem Municipality have forced many schools in East Jerusalem to teach the Israeli curriculum and use Israeli textbooks. Parents also reported that the authorities threatened to cancel teaching licenses if the new rules are not followed.

The committee also said that the new textbooks left out important issues and cultural symbols such as the Palestinian flag.

RESTRICTION SUMMARY: Jerusalem- 27 August 2022. Palestinian parents and students take part in a protest against steps by the Israeli authorities to prevent the school from using the Palestinian textbooks and curriculum and impose instead altered and distorted Israeli-issued textbooks outside the Ibrahimia School in East Jerusalem

01.SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Member of the Parents Committee Iyad Mona
02.SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Student Adam Mujahid
STORYLINE:

Members of the Parents Committee said the Israeli Ministry of Education and the West Jerusalem Municipality have forced many schools in East Jerusalem to teach the Israeli curriculum or use textbooks altered and distorted by the Israelis instead of the Palestinian textbooks that have been used for decades by threatening to cancel their teaching license if they continue to use the Palestinian textbooks.

As the new school year is about to start, parents and students of the Ibrahimia School on the Mount of Olives protested outside the school against the Israeli measures stressing that Israel seeks to alter everything the students learn about their history and culture and force them to learn the distorted Israeli narrative of their city, history and the history of this region.

The Parents Committee said the Israeli authorities have printed new textbooks similar to the ones provided by the Palestinian Ministry of Education but with alterations and omission of many facts, such as the Palestinian flag, national symbols, and other terms and historical facts, and replaced them with others in a way intended to deny the Palestinian students in occupied East Jerusalem the right to learn about their history, culture and the history of their city, Jerusalem, and country, Palestine.

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