Educational Exclusion under an Ethnocratic State:
The Case of East Jerusalem

Abstract

The political conflict over the city of Jerusalem results in the breach of Palestinian Jerusalemites civil, political and social rights. Israel claims sovereignty over East Jerusalem. However, it neglects its duty in providing adequate educational services to the Palestinian residents of the city. The Israeli Jerusalem Municipality does not only provide insufficient and highly politicised educational services to the Palestinians residents of the city, but it also discriminates against the other Palestinian systems that provide educational services. This study offers a detailed description of the structure of the education sector in East Jerusalem with its four main providers; the Palestinian Authority through Awqaf schools, the Israeli Authority through municipal schools, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and private schools. It reveals that there is no single body that oversees the provision of educational services in the city and ensures that the services provided are sufficient and of quality.
This study employed a qualitative research strategy, with semi-structured interviews and focus groups in the Palestinian and Israeli schools, in order to compare the educational services provided to both their students. The findings of this study show that Palestinian and Israeli students routinely receive vastly different learning opportunities, in terms of school funding, qualified staff, school facilities and school programmes. This ethnic provision of services in the city is engineered to disempower Palestinians and ensure an Israeli Jewish hegemony over the city.