Saadi Mahmoud, the father of a student at the Arab Palestinian Vocational School for Orphans, known as al-Yateem al-Arabi, expected the school to close its doors at any moment. He was not surprised then when his son brought him a message saying that the young man would be transferred to the Lutheran-run Vocational Training Center in Beit Hanina or another vocational school. Al-Yateem al-Arabi will not open for the 2026–27 school year.1

The number of students has dwindled over time, Mahmoud told Jerusalem Story, and many parents have been removing their children and enrolling them in Israeli trade schools. He insisted on keeping his son at the school where he himself trained decades ago, learning to repair cars using the latest technologies.

Mahmoud believes that the number of students enrolled decreased from more than 300 to about 30 students over the last decade. Apparently, there are so few students enrolled that the school is shutting—for now.

The trade school also sent a letter to all teachers informing them that their employment would soon be terminated due to the low number of students enrolled, and that they would receive severance pay.2

At its peak in the 1970s and ‘80s, al-Yateem al-Arabi, taught students from the West Bank and Gaza automotive mechanic skills, electrical wiring, construction, tourism, and hotel management, all of which were in demand in Arab countries. Now, 61 years after its founding, the difficulties it faces threaten its survival.

The school, perched on a northern hill overlooking the Old City, covers an area of approximately 42 dunams. The large campus includes classrooms, advanced workshops, laboratories, and sports fields. It serves students aged 15 to 18 who are orphans.

This strategic location and the vast land holdings have made the school a target for Israeli authorities, who covet the open land due to its proximity to the illegal Jewish settlement, industrial and commercial zone, Atarot. Plans have also been approved for a new settlement in this area on the site of the old Jerusalem International Airport, also to be called Atarot, which will house thousands of religious Jews in 9,000 housing units. The area also lies in the northern tip of Jerusalem, where Israel is keen to insert its own populations to prevent any future merging between East Jerusalem and the Palestinian populated areas around it in the rest of the West Bank, notably the city of Ramallah.

Israeli authorities have placed numerous obstacles in the way of the success of this heritage educational and trade institution in Jerusalem. The first of these was the introduction of a permit regime in 1991, which grew more restrictive over time (see Jerusalem: A Closed City). Israel prevented students from the rest of the West Bank and Gaza Strip from accessing the school by denying them military entry permits, leading to a sharp decline in student enrollment. (This phenomenon has negatively impacted many of Jerusalem’s educational institutions, such as Dar Al-Tifel Al-Arabi and Dar al-Awlad.)

Next came construction of the massive, snaking Separation Wall throughout East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, which isolated Jerusalem from its hinterlands in the early 2000s (see The Separation Wall).

In 2006, the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq wrote an appeal on behalf of the school, highlighting violations of the right to education because its students and educators were not receiving permits to pass Israeli military checkpoints to enter Jerusalem and attend class. The report noted that in 2000, the school had about 250 students; by 2006, after the tightening of the permit requirements and the completion of the wall, the number had dropped to 120. The appeal included affidavits from involved parties, one of whom was Mahmoud Khdeir al-Froukh, a teacher at the school, who was commuting to work from Ramallah at that time. Al-Froukh had not been given the required entry permit and was only able to travel to the school once, illegally, in that school year, only to be sent home by his colleagues for fear of being caught up in frequent military raids.3 In his affidavit, al-Froukh said:

Furthermore, Israeli authorities have blocked foreign funding for the school and Jerusalem in general, claiming that such funding supports the Palestinian Authority (PA), for example. This interference drains resources. Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem have also faced de-banking—Israeli banks are sensitive to government pressure—and increased tax enforcement, which can also affect funding streams. Interference in the schools’ curriculum and efforts to impose an Israeli curriculum are just one more challenge that these educators must cope with. All these factors combined have led to decreasing enrollment and a growing sense of isolation surrounding the institution.

But the school also has resources and can offer young people possibilities. It is clear that the administration is not giving up.

Azzam Abu Saud, a respected Jerusalemite writer, told Jerusalem Story that al-Yateem al-Arabi's laboratories and workshops have been equipped by German donors with state-of-the-art equipment, some of which is unavailable elsewhere and has yet to be used. “With this equipment, the institute possesses tremendous potential to offer an intermediate university degree (two years post-secondary education) if its board of directors is truly committed to its development.”5

However, the board, which operates from Amman, has historically failed to grasp the competition from Israeli vocational training institutes that equip students with a high level of knowledge, training, and competence for employment in the Israeli market and abroad. Consequently, thousands of Palestinian students in Jerusalem attend these Israeli institutions, while only a small number attend their own.

Al-Yateem al-Arabi is supported by the General Arab Orphan Committee, which was established in Haifa in 1940 (see Deir Amr: A Haven for Palestinian Orphans That Inspired Awe Near and Far until It Was Forcibly Emptied in 1948).

The group was formed in the wake of the Great Palestinian Revolt, to support Palestinians orphaned in the violently put-down revolts responding to Zionist immigration. It financed the project by selling lottery tickets, creating an institution for orphans in Haifa.

Advertisements in newspapers and magazines urged people to participate and buy tickets to support the institute. A news article in Al-Difaa newspaper described the finale.

Members of the Arab Orphan Committee in Haifa, headed by Mr. Muhammad al-Baradei al-Abbasi and Mr. Wasfi Bseiso, welcomed the guests.

The shelter and school were completed in 1948 and then promptly confiscated during the 1948 War, when 750,000 Palestinians were exiled from their homeland.7 After 1948, the association moved to Amman and was re-established in 1949. In response to the increasing number of orphans and needy people, the committee opened a special branch in Jerusalem in 1965, within the areas under Jordanian control—only to be once again subsumed by Israel’s occupation in 1967. The association continues to operate, split between Jerusalem and Amman, to this day. The Arab Orphan Committee says that its campuses combined have educated and cared for 31,000 young people over time.8

Jerusalem Story visited the headquarters of the Arab Orphan Committee in one of the old, historic neighborhoods of Amman, in April, where we were received with other visitors by the young executive director, Abdullah Odeh.9 He explained at length the obstacles and difficulties that the school in Jerusalem is facing, including monitoring and harassment by Israel. We eagerly waited to learn what solutions were being proposed to keep this important Jerusalem institution standing, independent, without being sold. Israel cares more about the land the school stands on than it does the school or education, Odeh said. Officials from the Israeli Ministry of Education have visited the school repeatedly, sending warning letters and threatening its leadership. The letters advise that there will be an immediate closure if the administration does not improve its “performance”—a euphemism for accepting Israeli hegemony over the school, the building, and the curriculum.

Odeh was very cautious about disclosing the board’s ambitious plan to get out of the bottleneck, but he was remarkably and impressively optimistic and said simply that the people of Jerusalem should know that there is great hope and light at the end of the tunnel for al-Yateem al-Arabi. He said that the trade school was on the right track and only needed trust and a little patience from Jerusalemites.

Time is of the essence, however. Israel’s Custodian of Absentee Property, known for its racism and renewed campaign to seize Palestinian homes in the Old City, is now attempting to seize the land of al-Yateem al-Arabi, claiming it is absentee property. The custodian, along with the Israel Land Authority, has sued to obtain control over the land, arguing that its rightful owners are Jews it says owned the land in the early 20th century. These rulings have paved the way to advance government construction plans in open areas—such as sports fields or educational agricultural land—which will effectively strangle the school and its facilities.10