After completing a massive mural he had worked on for months at the Dar al-Aytam Islamic School in Jerusalem’s Old City, artist Taleb Dweik was overjoyed. He wanted the six-meter-high artwork, with its vibrant colors, to be the first thing students and families saw when the school year began. “Its bright colors give students hope for a better future, despite the reality suggesting otherwise,” he told Jerusalem Story.1 “We must give hope to these generations facing a terrifying present.”

Dweik, a renowned artist in Jerusalem, established the Jerusalem Icon of Fine Arts, a group that supports local Palestinian artists. He has contributed his artwork to more than 40 murals in schools and neighborhoods across East Jerusalem. He says that he consciously chooses bright colors to provide a sense of comfort for students, teachers, and families at a time when Jerusalem is suffering from the tightening Israeli grip on the education sector, the majority of which is now under Israeli control.

The Israelization of Jerusalem’s education sector threatens the Palestinian curriculum. A report published by the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC) in August 2023 indicated that of the 110,293 Palestinian students in East Jerusalem, approximately 45,223 were enrolled in the Jerusalem Municipality education system, amounting to 41 percent.2 This figure has risen over the last two years, with the Jerusalem Municipality boasting 52,000 Palestinian students being enrolled in its institutions at the start of the 2025–26 school year.3

The municipality also announced the opening of several new schools in Shu‘fat, Kufr ‘Aqab, Jabal Mukabbir, and Beit Hanina, including mixed-gender schools, kindergartens, and private schools. These steps are part of Israeli Government Decision 3790, which purports to reduce Palestinians’ socioeconomic hardships in Jerusalem through development initiatives, but ultimately advances Israelization efforts.

For example, the municipality statement added that special privileges were granted to schools teaching the Israeli or modified curriculum. These privileges include building expansion, the addition of new specializations, free transportation, and maintenance of buildings and facilities. Ir Amim, an Israel NGO focused on government policy in Jerusalem, reported that the policy exploits the existing crises in Palestinian schools, forcing “parents, students, and educators to choose between continuing to endure severe classroom shortages—including overcrowding and dilapidated facilities—or abandoning the Palestinian curriculum, which is rooted in their national identity and cultural heritage.”4 The report, released in August 2025, indicated a shortage of 1,461 classrooms in East Jerusalem at the start of the 2025–26 academic year.

This comes in conjunction with recently passed Israeli laws that allow the Ministry of Education to terminate teachers based on their “expressed opinions” and to defund schools if expressions of “support for terrorism or violence” occur or if the school should have known about such expressions (see Hassan Jabareen: “If You Succeeded in Closing UNRWA, Why Not Continue and Close Schools and Fire Teachers?”).

The municipality has also been cracking down on private Palestinian schools or those affiliated with the Waqf Department and Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry of Education, including the confiscation of Palestinian textbooks and the prosecution of their distributors in the city.

Ziad Hammouri, director of the Jerusalem Center for Economic and Social Rights (JCSER), told Jerusalem Story that the Jerusalem Municipality and other Israeli institutions have made significant strides in Israelizing education in Jerusalem, with more than 50 percent of students receiving education in municipal or affiliated schools. “The municipality also continues to impose harsh conditions on schools receiving financial support, including forcing schools to teach some Israeli subjects, even if the school does not offer the Bagrut."5

He added that more than 120,000 students in Jerusalem, distributed across municipal, private, and community schools, suffer from severe overcrowding due to a severe shortage of classrooms.

Furthermore, schools that refuse to receive funding and support from Israeli institutions face significant financial difficulties and a lack of critical resources, especially since the aid that was supposed to reach these schools from the PA never arrived.

Overall, Israel continues to eliminate what remains of Palestinian education in Jerusalem.

The unprecedented rise in private school tuition fees and exorbitant increase in the cost of educational materials, including backpacks and stationery, are exacerbating the educational situation in Jerusalem.

Dr. Yousef Natsheh, a historian and director of the Center for Jerusalem Studies at Al-Quds University, compared his school days to those of his grandchildren. “The cost of education these days is extremely high,” he told Jerusalem Story, “reaching thousands of dollars in tuition fees, not to mention the prices of clothing, stationery, and school supplies, which have reached astronomical figures that those who lived in the 1970s and 1980s could hardly imagine.”6

“In the 1970s, school fees did not exceed 25 to 40 piasters,” Natsheh explained. “We did not have the luxury of what we now call a lunchbox. A sandwich with olive oil and zaatar was the norm, and with a little luxury, we could even afford a falafel sandwich. Some people used a bookbag, a special case for books, rather than the bags that require a porter to carry them, as is the case today.”

Natsheh laments about Khan al-Zeit Street in the Old City, which once bustled with activity at the start of the schoolyear:

Natsheh concluded with somber words: “Education in the Old City of Jerusalem is suffering from significant difficulties, including the problem of school dropouts. It is clear that education in Jerusalem needs a renaissance, a revolution, and very clear support.”

The fate of students in six UNRWA schools, which were closed by the Israeli authorities at the beginning of this year, has once again come to the forefront, leaving the fate of 800 students in limbo.7 Since the Israeli municipality has not found alternative schools for them, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) sent a letter to the Ministry of Education stating: “After the ministry closed the schools run by UNRWA in East Jerusalem, no one, neither in the ministry nor the municipality, bothered to provide alternative frameworks for approximately 600 students.” The letter continued: “Parents reported that they had repeatedly tried to contact the municipality to place their children in schools, but some received no response, and others were told that there were no available spots in East Jerusalem schools."8

In the letter, Attorney Tal Hassin of ACRI wrote, “Leaving hundreds of students without an educational framework just days before the start of the school year is yet another injustice in the authorities’ treatment of East Jerusalem students."9

"The neglect of Palestinian students and the blatant indifference of the ministry and municipality toward them,” Hassin continued, “would not have lasted a second and a half if the matter concerned Jewish students from the city’s western neighborhoods.”10

Thirty-five-year-old Abu Abdullah from the Shu‘fat refugee camp, whose son’s UNRWA school was closed by the municipality in May, said he had approached the Jerusalem Municipality dozens of times to request a place for his son in one of the municipal schools.11 This, he explained, was promised by the education official who visited the school before the municipality closed it. After a long wait, he received the response that there were no places in the municipal schools, and that he should seek another solution.

Several months passed, and he called again after being unable to register his son in any private, waqf, or PA school. This time, however, he received no response at all, and now he does not know what to do with his son, who has just completed elementary school.

His son joins tens of thousands of Palestinian students in East Jerusalem who are “invisible” to the system insofar as their educational whereabouts are unknown, whether due to a failure to track or a failure to educate (see Jerusalem’s “Invisible Children”).

Dr. Audeh Quawas, the CEO of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate Schools in Palestine, told Jerusalem Story that Jerusalem private schools face two major problems. “The first is the occupation’s attempts to impose curricula devoid of the Palestinian narrative."12 He said that Israeli authorities distribute books for free, conduct surprise inspections in schools, and even search students’ bags to ensure that they do not carry Palestinian textbooks.

“All of this is an attempt to impose the Israeli narrative, placing administrations and teachers under constant pressure.”

The second crisis is financial. Schools suffer from a chronic deficit due to parents’ inability to pay tuition fees, in addition to strict laws that determine support rates based on student numbers and teacher registration criteria. Quawas pointed out that Saint Dimitri's (Mar Mitri) School in the Old City relies heavily on funding from the Patriarchate to cover salaries and monthly expenses, which amount to hundreds of thousands of shekels.

It did not help matters when Israel froze the bank accounts of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate on August 6, just ahead of the school year. With its funds blocked, the Patriarchate would have been unable to pay salaries to clergy, teachers, and other staff.13 As of this writing, the freeze has been temporarily lifted, but the dispute (over the city’s right to tax church properties) remains unresolved.

Quawas explained that a number of schools are attempting to circumvent the imposition of the Israeli Bagrut curriculum by introducing international curricula. Schools are using educational programs such as the IGCSE and IB, and the US SAT, in order to preserve the quality and independence of education. He emphasized that the curriculum battle in Jerusalem continues to pose a threat to Palestinian national identity and threatens the future of generations of students.

Quawas added that these challenges are inseparable from the political reality facing Jerusalem, where educational policies are used as a tool to pressure Palestinians to leave the city so it is Judaized. Accordingly, he explained, education in Jerusalem is not merely an academic or financial issue, but rather a daily battle to defend the Palestinian presence within the city. He believes that the resilience of educational institutions requires political and financial support from various Palestinian, Arab, and international parties.

In addition to scarce resources and underdeveloped infrastructure, Palestinian schools suffer from limited professional development opportunities for teachers to ensure the provision of education that meets international standards. Quawas also addressed the issue of travel permits for teachers coming from the rest of the West Bank, explaining that Israel imposes severe restrictions on them, disrupting the educational process and depriving students of the full benefit of their teachers’ expertise. He added that these restrictions require constant legal and administrative interventions by school administrations to protect teachers’ rights and ensure the normal course of study.

Despite these and many more challenges, the joy of returning to school remains visible. Children arrive in colorful backpacks, their faces lit with excitement, even as they walk toward an uncertain future. Behind each smile lies a larger question: Will Palestinian education in Jerusalem survive?

Palestinian education in Jerusalem is under siege, but it endures. Its survival requires not just resilience, but urgent support from Palestinians, Arabs, and the international community.