The parents of 70,000 East Jerusalem students did not allow their children to attend school Monday, protesting the city's plan to remove textbook material the Education Ministry defined as "incitement."
The textbooks were edited and reprinted by the city hall's educational administration after the ministry threatened to revoke the licenses of six schools if the content was not removed from the curriculum.
The Education Ministry ordered the removal of what it said were false claims such as content that says that Israel is preventing medical treatment and intentionally harming medical staff, and other accusations that Israel is responsible for the water crisis in the Palestinian Authority – as well as claims of killing, expulsion and massacres of Palestinians.
Around 60 percent of all the 117,000 students of all ages in East Jerusalem schools participated in Monday's strike.
The parents' claim the protest is related to the growing number of schools in East Jerusalem replacing the Palestinian Authority's school curriculum with Israel's. The number of East Jerusalem schools adopting the Israel's education program has climbed to 14 percent with an estimated 16,000 students now studying Israel's syllabus – in contrast to around 5,000 students five years ago.
The Jerusalem Municipality said the “declaration of the strike was made by political figures in East Jerusalem, and not by the schools or the parents,” and said it has nothing to do with the Israeli curriculum but only...
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