Israel to auction two prefab classrooms donated to Palestinians by EU

Israeli authorities are reportedly going to auction two prefabricated classrooms that were donated to Palestinian schoolchildren by the European Union.

According to a report published by the British daily The Guardian, the classrooms, which were torn down and confiscated by Israeli forces in October last year, will be put up for sale next week.

They had been intended for 49 Palestinian students of primary school age in the northern occupied West Bank village of Ibziq. 

Israel attacks Palestinian children’s right to education

The European Union (EU) has condemned the Israeli demolition of a school in Bethlehem the day before the new school year was due to begin.

An advertisement published in the Israeli Hebrew-language daily Maariv said the sale would take place at the offices of the so-called Israeli Civil Administration across the West Bank.

When the classrooms were dismantled, the EU mission to Jerusalem al-Quds and Ramallah condemned the move, and called on Israeli authorities to rebuild the structures in the same place “without delay.”

EU condemns Israel’s demolition of Palestinian schools

The European Union has condemned Israel for the demolition of three Palestinian schools in the occupied West Bank.

“Every child has the right to access education and states have an obligation to protect, respect and fulfill this right, by ensuring that schools are inviolable safe spaces for children.

“[The] EU calls upon the Israeli authorities to halt demolitions and confiscations of Palestinian houses and property, in accordance with its obligations as an occupying power under international humanitarian law,” it said at the time.

Israel argues that the schools had been constructed in Area C without obtaining a prior permission from the so-called Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit in Israel’s ministry of military affairs that oversees civil matters in the Palestinian territories.

PressTV-'Israel keeps demolishing Palestinian schools'

Israel has demolished three Palestinian schools in two weeks, leaving desperate students under the searing heat of the August sun.

Area C constitutes about 61 percent of the entire West Bank and it is directly controlled by COGAT, which demands permits for new building projects. Nevertheless, the majority of planning requests are firmly denied, leaving international donors and Palestinians alike with no choice but to construct new schools anyway.

Late last August, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said Palestinian children in the occupied territories were simply being denied education as the Israeli regime kept on with the much-blamed policy of demolishing their newly constructed schools.

Clashes erupt after Israel closes Palestinian school

Dozens of Palestinian schools in the occupied West Bank are threatened with demolition.

The NRC said some 55 schools in the West Bank, most of them built with funding from the EU member states and other donors, were threatened with demolition and stop-work orders by Israeli authorities.

The EU has already announced that some 100 structures, including homes, shelters, water networks and schools, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds have been destroyed or confiscated over the past years.

Many believe that the controversial demolition measures adopted by Tel Aviv are aimed at expelling more Palestinians from the West Bank.   

Israel demolition of Palestinian schools ‘war crime’: HRW

HRW has slammed the demolition of Palestinian schools by Israeli authorities in the West Bank.

Israel was created in 1948 after a Western-backed military seizure of vast expanses of Arab territories. In 1967, Israel occupied the entire West Bank, including East al-Quds, during full-frontal military operations. It later annexed the territories. Upon annexation, it also began propping up settlements, deemed as illegal by the international community due to their construction on occupied land.

More than 600,000 Israelis now live in over 230 settlements. Tel Aviv has defied calls to stop settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories.

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