Israel imposes own curriculum on 45,000 Palestinian students in East Jerusalem

September 30, 2026 at 06:22 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Israel has imposed its own curriculum on 45,000 Palestinian students in occupied East Jerusalem, more than a third of the Palestinian student population and almost double the previous year's figure. Christian schools began the year with a strike after many West Bank teachers were denied entry permits. The move is part of broader Israeli interference in Palestinian education across the occupied territories.

Key Facts

45,000 Palestinian children in occupied East Jerusalem are now studying a curriculum put together by Israeli authorities, more than a third of Palestinian students in the territory.
The number of Palestinian students under the Israeli curriculum has almost doubled from the previous year.
Christian schools in East Jerusalem started the school year with a strike because many teachers from the occupied West Bank were not granted permits to enter the city.
A 2025 study of primary-school textbooks found that Israeli modifications included replacing “Palestine” with “Israel” in some contexts and removing passages about the realities of occupation.

Curriculum Imposition

The school year started in occupied East Jerusalem with 45,000 Palestinian children studying a curriculum put together by Israeli authorities. That figure is more than a third of the Palestinian students in the occupied territory and almost double the number from the previous year. For the Palestinian population of occupied East Jerusalem, this is another form of encroachment on their national rights by the occupation authorities. Israel justifies the intervention by claiming that Palestinian textbooks and teachers trained in Palestinian Authority institutions “teach hate”.

Legal and Academic Scrutiny

According to international humanitarian law, an occupying power must facilitate the normal operation of educational institutions and avoid interference in their affairs. Recently updated commentary by the International Committee of the Red Cross says an occupying power must not replace the existing education system with its own structures or impose new curricula. Academic research, including a study funded by the US Department of State and prepared by both Palestinian and Israeli scholars, found that Palestinian textbooks do not promote hate and dehumanisation of Israelis. Studies comparing Palestinian textbooks with Israeli-edited versions used in occupied East Jerusalem have documented the removal or alteration of references to Palestinian national symbols, sovereignty, and history.