This graphic shows the six UNRWA schools in the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem) that Israel has ordered to close early in May 2025 in the wake of its recent laws outlawing UNRWA (see Palestinian Students Face Uncertainty as Israel Orders Closure of Six UNRWA Schools and Perspective: UNRWA: A Source of Dignity, Support, and Hope Whose Banning Will Leave an Unfillable Void).
All six schools have been serving the Palestinian refugee community for decades.
The graphic summarizes at a glance the numbers of children who will be affected and where they must find educational alternatives.
Israel has not provided any organized plan for transfer to new schools should the closures take place; apparently, parents just have to “make do.” For students at the three schools in Shu‘fat refugee camp, the loss of the UNRWA schools, the only ones in the camp, will mean having to pass through a military checkpoint twice a day that can take hours, since there are no other schools in the camp.
And for Palestinian students currently enrolled at all six of the schools, great uncertainty hangs over their lives as the education sector serving Palestinians in the city is facing multiple crises, including a severe shortage of classrooms that the city has not effectively been able to meet. (see Ir Amim Issues New Report on Education in East Jerusalem, Tracking Severe Challenges Facing Schools There). Given that around 800 Palestinian children will be set loose out into the educational system at once should these six schools in fact close this school year, the crisis will likely grow even more acute.