JERUSALEM – September 4, 2008 – To contest the Municipality’s failure to provide sufficient public educational facilities for East Jerusalem’s children, despite its legal obligation to do so, local parents and children, ACRI, and the Community Action Center of East Jerusalem will set up a classroom outside of Jerusalem City Hall (Safra Square) on Sunday, September 7, from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Professional educators from participating organizations will conduct lessons on the right to education, human rights, and democracy for East Jerusalem children who were denied places in public schools, their parents, and members of the public.
Each year, thousands of children in East Jerusalem are left outside of educational frameworks because the Municipality and Israel’s Education Ministry have consistently failed to invest in East Jerusalem’s public schools. According to the Compulsory Education Law, Israel must provide public education for all school-aged children in East Jerusalem. Those children who are lucky enough to find places in public classrooms, study in crowded, unsafe, and sub-standard conditions.
Given the fact that more than two-thirds of Palestinian East Jerusalemites are poor, a quality education represents the children’s best chance of breaking out of the cycle of poverty. The Jerusalem Municipality and Israel’s Education Ministry have been denying them this chance for more than 40 years.
ACRI calls on the Education Ministry and the Jerusalem Municipality to invest in the East Jerusalem public school system as a long-term policy priority.
For background information and facts, click on the following link: https://law.acri.org.il/en/?p=533.
