Palestine supporters rallying in Melbourne in 2021. Source: Matt Hrkac, Wikimedia Commons
Israeli forces have demolished a Palestinian public school in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, receiving criticism from the EU, which funded the program.
Palestinians threw rocks at Israeli forces, who fired teargas at them while bulldozers began moving in on the site in Jabbet al-Dhib village.
The EU said it was “appalled” when Israeli forces arrived at the school, which comprised five classrooms for 45 students, according to a Palestinian Authority official.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War. The area is home to roughly 2.9 million Palestinians.
The Israeli defence ministry body, COGAT, which oversees civilian affairs in the occupied territories, imposed a two-month deadline in March to vacate the school an order by a Jerusalem court.
COGAT said that the building had been constructed “illegally” and posed a “safety hazard.”
Ahmed Naser, a Palestinian education ministry official, said this school had been built to replace another, which had also been demolished by Israel in 2019.
The EU called on Israel to “halt all demolitions and evictions, which will only increase the suffering of the Palestinian population and further escalate an already tense environment.”
“Demolitions are illegal under international law, and children’s right to education must be respected,” the office of the EU representative to the Palestinian Territories said in a statement.
A group of UN experts called for action back in January to stop Israel’s “systematic and deliberate” destruction of Palestinian buildings and structures.
“Direct attacks on the Palestinian people’s homes, schools, livelihoods and water sources are nothing but Israel’s attempts to curtail the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and to threaten their very existence,” the experts said.
