Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses. Share the link of this article with your facebook friends

 

Israeli Occupation Government to Expel UNRWA from Jerusalem, Threatening the Education of Palestinian Children

October 13, 2018 

Editor's Note:

While brutal force has been used to create Zionist Israel and sustain it thus far, Zionist claims to Palestine are false. Actually, from the five thousand years of known written history, there has been a continuous Palestinian-Canaanite presence in the Holy Land. Despite the Zionist false claims, the ancient Israelites ruled part of the land for only 85 years (during the reign of David, Solomon, and Solomon's son).

 After that, the Egyptians conquered Palestine-Canaan in 925 BC, followed by Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, before the Arab Muslim rule, starting from 636 AD.

By the Time Jesus started his mission, the three population groups of Canaanites, Palestinians, and Israelites were melted together in religion and language. Most of them became Christians when Constantine converted in 313 AD. Then, most of them became Muslims in the 7th and 8th centuries AD.

So, Palestinian Muslims, Christians, and Jews are the ones who have the right to claim descent from ancient Israelites, Palestinians, and Canaanites, not Zionists from other continents.

The following news stories are just examples of the Israeli occupation government violations of Palestinian human rights, on daily basis.

More detailed news stories can be found at the following sources: https://english.palinfo.com/, http://imemc.org/, https://paltoday.ps/ar/

 

Palestinian children in UN elementary education threatened by Israeli expulsion of UNRWA from Jerusalem, file, October 13, 2018

 

Israel to Expel UNRWA from Jerusalem, Threatening the Education of Palestinian Children

IMEMC, October 12, 2018 8:13 PM Alternative Information Center

POSTED BY: AHMAD JARADAT OCTOBER 11, 2018

The Israeli mayor said he would stop the UN Agency from administering services to Shuafat refugee camp, claiming ‘there are no refugees in Jerusalem.’

The outgoing Israeli mayor of occupied Jerusalem Nir Barkat announced a plan to expel the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from East Jerusalem on Israeli television on October 4, 2018.

“There are no refugees in Jerusalem, only residents. They will receive their services from the Jerusalem municipality alone, like all other residents,” Barkat said, according to the Times of Israel.

According to Barkat’s plan, seven schools run by UNRWA in Jerusalem’s Shuafat refugee camp will be closed at the end of the academic school year. The Israeli municipality will then force the 1,800 affected Palestinian students to matriculate into Israeli schools and seize the UNRWA buildings. Barkat also said Israeli authorities would eventually close UNRWA’s medical centers in Shuafat refugee camp.

UNRWA expressed concern about Barkat’s statement on October 5, 2018, emphasizing “The Agency is specifically mandated by the UN General Assembly to deliver protection and assistance to Palestine refugees in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, pending a resolution of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.”

UNRWA was established in 1949 to serve Palestinian refugees of the 1948 Nakba – when Zionist militias expelled 750,000 Palestinians from their homes to conquer 78 percent of Historic Palestine. Today, the agency serves 5.4 million Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, including approximately 100,000 in East Jerusalem, where the agency provides services such as schools, medical clinics, food assistance, and sanitation systems.

UNRWA established Shuafat refugee camp in 1965 in the northern part of the Jerusalem district. The camp was initially envisioned to house about 1,500 Palestinians to address overcrowding in M’askar refugee camp, which served refugees of the 1948 Nakba in Jerusalem’s Old City. However, in 1967, Palestinians again found themselves needing to flee Jerusalem (many for a second time) and some went to Shuafat refugee camp.

The camp is the only Palestinian refugee camp within the Jerusalem borders and today consists of approximately 80,000 Palestinians. About half of the population in the camp is registered as refugees with the UN and about half maintain Jerusalem residency. Though residents pay taxes to the Israeli municipality, discriminatory Israeli policies have over time created conditions in Shuafat refugee camp that, in effect, transform the area into an open-air Israeli prison.

Barkat spoke of plans to remove UNRWA from Jerusalem in September after US President Donald Trump announced he would cut $300 million from UNRWA funding. At the time, Member of Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization Hanan Ashrawi responded, “Israel is responsible for creating the Palestinian refugee problem, and it has no right to alter the mandate, duties and responsibilities of UNRWA as defined by the United Nations.” Indeed, Palestinians view Barkat’s announcement about UNRWA as a continuation of the aggressive Israeli policies enabled by the Trump administration.

Ahmad Jaradat is the Senior Project Coordinator of the Alternative Information Center (AIC).

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