Palestinian private schools, including Christian schools, in occupied East Jerusalem began a strike on Tuesday at the start of the new academic year in protest against Israeli restrictions preventing teachers and administrative staff from entering the city.
Private school administrators announced on Monday that classes would be suspended from Tuesday until further notice after Israeli authorities failed to renew entry permits for a large number of teachers and staff from the occupied West Bank.
They said classes would resume once Israeli authorities renew permits for all affected teachers and employees.
Christian schools in East Jerusalem separately announced the suspension of classes from Tuesday, saying Israel had failed to renew entry permits for more than 70 teachers and employees from the occupied West Bank, preventing them from reaching their schools.
Israel requires Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank to obtain special permits to enter occupied East Jerusalem, including for work, education, medical treatment and worship.
The new academic year began on Tuesday in Israel and East Jerusalem, with around 6,000 educational institutions receiving students, including 1,074 institutions serving the Arab community, where some 586,000 students are enrolled.
Since October 2023, Israel has restricted permits for Palestinian workers from the West Bank, including teachers.
In January, the Israeli Knesset passed legislation barring teachers who obtained academic degrees from institutions affiliated with the Palestinian Authority from working in the Israeli education system.
According to Israeli daily Haaretz, around 6,700 teachers work in East Jerusalem’s Palestinian education system, at least 60 percent of whom hold bachelor’s degrees from Palestine’s academic institutions.
