TEL AVIV — Palestinian officials are growing increasingly concerned over a rise in the number of Palestinians in Jerusalem attending schools that follow Israeli curricula instead of those of the Palestinian educational system, which are taught in a majority of schools in the neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem.
Israeli media recently reported the results of a study conducted by Jerusalem’s municipality that found half of the parents in eastern sections of Jerusalem prefer their children to study under Israeli curricula. Municipality figures show a 20 percent leap this year in the number of students choosing to attend schools teaching Israeli curricula.
It was also found that 5,800 Arab students in Jerusalem are studying this year under Israeli curricula, as opposed to just 300 seven years ago.
The municipality budgeted NIS 25 million, some $7 million, to improve Arab education in the city.
This trend is being met with concern from some Palestinian leaders in the city. Jerusalem’s mufti, Ekrima Sabri, recently issued a fatwa, a religious ruling, forbidding Palestinians from learning Israeli curricula.
“The religious ruling is mean to commit all the parents and those who don’t abide by the religious ruling removes himself from the Muslim community and effectually commits a huge sin,” Sabri said in interviews with Arab media.
The mufti, who also addressed the issue during his weekly sermon on Friday at the al-Aqsa Mosque, where he is known to regularly incite against Israel. He confirmed that the religious ruling was issued in response to the significant efforts of what he called “occupation authorities” to force Israel curricula on Palestinian students in the city.
“Everyone who studies Israeli curricula or supports studying them, commits a huge sin,” said Sabri. “The parents must be made aware of this and they should avoid sending their children to schools that teach Israeli curricula.”
Hatem Abdel Qader, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council who is in charge of the Jerusalem District on behalf of Fatah, the movement led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, told Breitbart Jerusalem, “These figures from Jerusalem’s municipality shouldn’t necessarily be trusted.”
According to Qader, “This is a right-wing municipality cooperating with right-wing Education Minister Naftali Bennett in order to force the Israelization of the Palestinian education system in the city.”
Qader added that the Israelis are using the carrot and stick method with Palestinian schools. “They use threats and incentives to force the Israeli curricula on our students. In effect, they are using terror to achieve this,” he said.
According to Qader, Palestinians in Jerusalem pay taxes to the municipality, which “doesn’t do us a favor by funding education for Palestinian residents. We are in a fight against the imposition of Israeli curricula.”
When asked if learning Israeli curricula increases the chances for Arab students in the city to integrate into Israeli universities and the Israeli labor market, Qader said, “Palestinian schools also succeed in producing good academic graduates and as evidence most of the doctors in Israeli hospitals in Jerusalem are graduates of Palestinian schools that follow the curricula of the Palestinian education system. Palestinian curricula are very strong. For the municipality, this is a political issue that has nothing to do with the quality of the various education systems.”
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