Systematic targeting of Palestinian education

Settlers demolished the Yanoun Basic Mixed School in the southern Nablus district on Thursday, nearly eight months after forcibly displacing the residents of Khirbet Yanoun. This act deprived 15 students of their right to education.

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education confirmed in a statement that the demolition of the school constitutes a new crime against Palestinian children and a clear violation of international humanitarian law and international conventions that guarantee the right to education and prohibit targeting educational institutions.

The Ministry explained that the school served 15 students from grades one through six and had contributed for years to ensuring the children of the community’s access to their right to education before its destruction.

The Ministry added that targeting the Yanoun school is part of a systematic policy aimed at weakening the educational process in Palestinian communities, imposing further pressure on their residents, and ultimately depriving children of one of their most basic rights: education. The ministry called on the international community, the United Nations, and human rights and humanitarian organizations to assume their legal and moral responsibilities, and to act urgently to protect educational institutions in Palestine, and to work to hold the occupation accountable for its ongoing violations against students and schools, and to put an end to the targeting of the education sector.