The Israeli military is barring efforts to provide basic education for some 36,000 Palestinian refugee children while U.N. schools in the West Bank remain closed, a U.N. agency has charged.
In a statement issued Thursday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees claimed that Israeli authorities are barring attempts to provide interim instruction to young pupils while 90 of the 98 UNRWA schools in the West Bank remain closed.
The schools have been periodically closed for security reasons since the early days of the 15 month-old Palestinian uprising. They have been closed continuously since Jan. 21, said UNRWA. Israel claims the schools have served as centers for agitation.
UNRWA said it had been preparing at-home lessons for children in the first three grades, but had been informed by the Israeli Foreign Ministry that military security precluded introduction of the interim measures.
UNRWA said it had been informed by the Israeli Foreign Ministry that it shared the agency’s concern that young people are being deprived of schooling and hoped that education could be resumed as soon as possible.
“We want them open at least as much as the U.N. does,” said a spokesman for Israel’s U.N. mission Thursday. “The facts are that when all the kids are together, agitators come and do collective work in a short time.”
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