Jerusalem's National Schools Insist on Resilience

Amidst the frantic campaign to Judaize or Israelize national institutions in Jerusalem, the challenge resurfaces for private schools, especially those owned by Christian churches, due to arbitrary Israeli policies. The most pressing challenge today is the difficulty for teachers and administrators from outside Jerusalem to reach their schools and educational institutions. It is well-known that a large percentage of school staff in Jerusalem, particularly in Christian schools, relies on male and female teachers and administrators residing in towns and villages adjacent to Jerusalem, especially Bethlehem and Ramallah.

In response to Israeli arbitrariness in allowing educators and administrators to access their workplaces, due to the occupation authorities' refusal to renew travel permits, Christian schools decided to declare a strike last Saturday (1/10/2026), for one day, as part of the first phase of a escalating protest program. The issue of permits is a new-old problem controlled by the occupier, using many baseless justifications that contradict the right to movement and the right to education guaranteed by international law, including the Geneva Conventions regarding the treatment of citizens living under occupation. The issue of movement in the occupied Palestinian territories has seen a tremendous decline since "Al-Aqsa Flood," and the situation has not improved after more than two years and the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza. The occupation exploited the war on Gaza to establish more than a thousand military checkpoints or iron gates in the West Bank, while the settlement offensive increased, especially in villages and sites near Jerusalem, which made life more difficult. It must be noted that cities near Jerusalem, especially in the Bethlehem governorate, are suffering an additional economic crisis due to the collapse of the tourism economy since "October 7" (2023). Of course, the refusal to grant movement permits to Jerusalem is considered collective punishment, as it does not include specific individuals whom the occupation authorities might claim pose a threat, but the comprehensive ban on an entire segment of Palestinians deprives security arguments of any justification. It is strange that the strike came at the same time that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu boasted to Western media and American officials that he and the occupation state are supporters of the Christian component, and that they are more concerned about the Christian community than any country in the Middle East. Church leaders strongly responded to these misleading statements, which were refuted by neutral studies proving that the occupation does not provide the minimum freedom of movement between the two most important cities for the Christian world, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, which are separated by only a few kilometers. All attempts by occupations throughout the ages have failed to create a rift among the population, especially among the Christian component in the vicinity of Jerusalem, hindering social, family, professional, and religious communication. In the absence of permits to work in Israel and the absence of tourism from the governorate, many residents of the Bethlehem governorate to the south and Ramallah and Al-Bireh to the north tried to find any ways to reach Jerusalem to cover the severe shortage faced by most families, including Christian Palestinian families working in Jerusalem's Christian institutions, knowing that Christian institutions in the Holy Land are considered the third largest employer of Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Christian schools have stood firm against challenges and attempts to change their national course through pressure to deal with Israeli curricula, preventing the introduction of Palestinian national education courses, and the occupation's failed attempts to stop this course to no avail. The right of Christian schools in Jerusalem to employ their full teaching and administrative staff from residents of Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Bethlehem cannot be relinquished. Those who have taught and managed schools since 1967 and graduated batches of male and female students cannot be dispensed with due to the difficulty of obtaining travel permits that were available in previous years. Israeli arbitrariness in the educational process in Jerusalem, which is added to the harassment, will not succeed in weakening the policy of resilience or pushing it to retreat, a policy that has become the most appropriate within the Palestinian national struggle.