Ramallah: The office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered to immediately shut down a basic school in the Bedouin communities east of Jerusalem under the pretext that the school had not been licensed by the Israeli authorities.
Al Khan Al Ahmar Basic School, located in the Bedouin village of Al Khan Al Ahmar of Area C of the West Bank and funded by the Italian government, accommodates 170 students from five different Bedouin communities in the region.
Eid Khamis, a spokesman for the Bedouin communities in the region, said the lawyer of the Bedouin communities and the Italian Ambassador to Israel were informed on Monday of the Israel’s decision in writing and instructed them to inform the Bedouin communities about Israel’s plans for the school.
He said that Al Khan Al Ahmar Basic School was established in 2009 and the building was made of mud and rubber tyres. The Bedouin communities had to build the school to spare their children trips that were both costly and risky to distant schools.
The Israeli Civil Administration argued that the school was close to a main road that connects the colonies of Maali Adumim, Kfar Adumim, Alon and Nofei Prat, and for which expansion plans have already been approved. Those colonies together with the Israeli organisation Regavim petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice demanding immediate implementation of the demolition orders issued by the Israeli Civil Administration for 257 Palestinian structures in the region including the school.
Responding to the Israeli school closure decision, Sabri Saydam, the Palestinian Education Minister, announced that this school year’s scheme will open about two weeks earlier in Al Khan Al Ahmar School than the rest of the West Bank schools. This school will be open as early as of Wednesday in an act of defiance to the Israeli closure and demolition orders. “Israel should not even touch the Area C-based schools. The Palestinian Education Ministry and its partners will stand up to the Israeli racial and fascist policies against the Palestinian education,” said Saydam.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the international community, the European Union and the Italian government in particular to intervene and pressure Israel to spare Al Khan Al Ahmar Basic School. “The arbitrary closure and demolition orders of the school are a part of Israel’s systematic campaign against the Palestinian Bedouin communities to relocate them in favour of the Israeli colonists,” read a ministry statement. “The entire Area C is an unquestionable part of the Palestinian state.”
