Amid Israel’s relentless campaign to Israelize Palestinian national institutions in Jerusalem, Palestinian private schools in the city, particularly those owned by Christian churches, have been facing renewed challenges defending their rights from arbitrary Israeli policies.

At the beginning of 2026, Israeli authorities suddenly refused to issue military entry permits for the Palestinian teachers and administrators in these schools who hold Palestinian Authority (PA) (green) IDs and live in nearby Palestinian towns and villages that lie outside the various checkpoints controlling Palestinian access to the city. Such individuals are only allowed to enter Jerusalem with a military entry permit.

Until now, teacher work permits for those in the “allowed” categories (e.g., married persons, as opposed to unmarried persons, who are not allowed to enter to teach) had generally been approved without issue, and permanent staff had managed to enter Jerusalem even during periods of closure.1

More than 7,682 Palestinian students receive their education in 15 Christian schools in Jerusalem. These schools employ 820 teachers and staff, 183 of whom hold PA IDs and live outside the checkpoints. They can only reach their workplaces with these permits, which in the case of teachers are renewed at the beginning of each semester.2

The General Secretariat of Christian Educational Institutions in Jerusalem oversees the 15 schools: Terra Sancta College (with its four branches), the Rosary Sisters’ School (with its two branches), the Collège des Frères (with its two branches, one in the New Gate and another in Beit Hanina), St. George’s School, Schmidt’s Girls’ College, St. Dimitri’s School, St. Charles Kindergarden, the Jerusalem Prince Basma Centre, the School of Our Lady of the Pillar (Spanish school), and the Sts. Tarkmanchatz Armenian School.

Private schools owned and run by churches have historically depended on Christian professionals, whether they live in East Jerusalem or other parts of the West Bank. At the start of 2026, some teachers were not provided permits while others were only issued permits for weekdays, but not Saturdays, even though Christian schools have always operated on Saturdays and taken Fridays and Sundays off in order to mark the holy day of the Muslims, and Sabbath day of the Christian, students they serve, respectively. Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath day, but Jewish students do not attend these schools.

Richard Zananiri, principal of St. George’s School, explained to the media that the travel ban on about 171 teachers and staff “resulted in the absence of nearly 30 percent of the teaching staff in some schools. This makes continuing classes practically impossible, especially with entire classes without teachers.”3

Zananiri was quoted as stating that “Christian schools, whose historical roots extend back hundreds of years, carry an educational, cultural, and national message and attract students from diverse backgrounds.” He added that “disrupting education serves no one and that keeping thousands of students at home violates their fundamental right to education.”4

The crisis, he added, is part of a broader context of pressures faced by schools in Jerusalem, ranging from attempts to impose specific curricula and administrative restrictions, to the denial or restriction of teachers’ permits. He noted that “some permits were issued with incomplete days, while other teachers were prevented from entering despite holding previously issued permits.”5

Zananiri emphasized that the hiring process in these schools does not discriminate between Palestinian professionals who live in Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, whether in terms of salaries or professional standards. He explained that “employment in the schools is based on competence and experience, and residents of the West Bank are an integral part of the Palestinian fabric, just as residents of Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip are.”6

The schools rejected the pressure and informed their church leaders and the consortium of Christian schools in Jerusalem.

On the first day of the semester, January 10, 2026, the General Secretariat for Christian Education Institutions in Jerusalem issued a statement on the matter. While issued in Arabic, an unofficial English translation was circulated on social media, which read in full:

None of the 15 schools opened their doors on January 10.

The school strike was soon supported by a number of other private schools and went on for a week. Roughly 25,000 students participated in the weeklong strike.8

The Israeli measure, which the schools described as “arbitrary,” has struck at the heart of the educational process and disrupted the daily lives of thousands of students and their families. This comes at a time when Palestinian educational institutions in Jerusalem are already under increasing pressure to maintain the continuity of education and ensure the right of students and teachers to access their schools.

Zananiri told Al Jazeera on January 14 that the strike spread to other private schools in Jerusalem that were also affected by the Israeli restrictions.9 He explained that between 287 and 300 teachers and staff who travel to Jerusalem from various areas of the West Bank were affected.

Restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement in the occupied Palestinian Territories (oPT) (see Closure) have increased dramatically since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, and the situation has not improved even after the so-called ceasefire came into effect on October 10, 2025. Israel exploited the war to establish more than 1,000 military checkpoints and iron gates across the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), while settlement activity intensified, particularly in villages and areas near Jerusalem, further exacerbating Palestinians’ difficult living conditions (see Settlements). Jerusalem and nearby cities, especially in the Bethlehem Governorate, are also suffering an additional economic crisis due to the collapse of the tourism sector since the war (see On World Tourism Day, Tourism Has Evaporated in Jerusalem and The East Jerusalem Tourism Industry, a Casualty of Israel’s War on Gaza).

The refusal to grant entry permits to teachers and administrators constitutes collective punishment. It does not target specific individuals whom Israeli occupation authorities might claim pose a threat; rather, the blanket ban on an entire segment of the Palestinian population renders any security justifications implausible.10

Ironically, the school strike came right after Prime Minister Netanyahu’s claim to Western media and US officials that Israel supports the Christian community more than any other country in the region.11

Church leaders strongly refuted these misleading statements, pointing out that Israel restricts movement between the two most important cities for the Christian world, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, which are separated by only a few kilometers. Throughout history, the contiguity of the Christian centers in and around Jerusalem has been integral to the social, familial, professional, and religious connections of Palestine’s Christian community.

With no permits to work in Israel and a collapsed tourism sector, many Palestinian residents of Bethlehem, Ramallah, and al-Bira have been desperately seeking means to circumvent the travel restrictions in order to provide for their families. Christian institutions are the third largest employer of Palestinians in the oPT.12

As with all Palestinian institutions, Christian schools have withstood countless challenges and Israeli attempts to alter their missions, including pressuring them to adopt Israeli curricula and preventing the introduction of Palestinian national education courses (see Palestinians in Jerusalem Reject Israeli Attempts to Impose a Distorted Curriculum in Schools). For the most part, however, Israel has failed at implementing these oppressive policies due to resistance from the schools.

The right of Christian schools in Jerusalem to employ their teaching and administrative staff from Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Bethlehem is nonnegotiable. Those who have taught and managed schools since the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, graduating generations of students, are indispensable.

One week after the school strike, Israeli officials retracted the travel ban and issued permits to all the teachers and staff, albeit under a new restriction: the permits are invalid on Fridays and Sundays, the schools’ usual weekend.

Sanaa, a schoolteacher, told Jerusalem Story that schools have had to adopt: “With this partial victory, our schools decided to cancel any activities requiring teachers on Fridays and Sundays.”13