Israel shuts UN Schools for Palestinian refugees

[HelenHen]

In heartbreaking scenes reminiscent of the taliban, Israel forces UN schools for Palestinian refugee children to shut, sending home hundreds of children.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqxej00w3wno

It was known this was going to happen. They were given 30 days notice. Why were the children sent when it was known the schools would be shut down? More photo ops for ‘heartbreaking scenes’? How cruel to use children in that way!

It’s absolutely despicable that the UN allowed its organisation to be used as cover for the terrorists not only in Gaza but in the West Bank too, who not only terrorised Israelis but Palestinians as well. Palestinian children are again suffering for that choice.

UNWRA’s offices in Jerusalem were closed down in January.

UNWRA has been outlawed by Israel for good reason IMO.

Hopefully future generations of Palestinian children will be taught peace not hate, and not by teachers with part time terrorist as a side hustle, and their schools not used as terrorist bases and munitions stores.

To compare it to women and girls being prevented from accessing education by the Taliban in Afghanistan is disingenuous and quite disgusting IMO.

If UNWRA had not compromised itself with Hamas, and Hamas had not committed the barbaric atrocities of Oct 7th, this would not have happened.

Put the blame where it belongs.

So just because Israel give notice to do something, it's OK?

Absolutely not! And yes it's just like the taliban, except it's not just the girls they're sending home.

Your attempt at making Israel look like the victim in this situation is unbelievable. Israel are constantly telling Palestinians where they can and can't go... and that was the case long before 7/10

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/22/israel-unrwa-staff-terrorist-links-yet-to-provide-evidence-colonna-report

Just because Israel says something does not mean it is true. I wonder why they would possibly want rid of an aid agency that supports Palestine refugees and their right to return under UN Resolution 194.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz tweeted “We have been warning for years that UNRWA perpetuates the refugee issue.”

So is it about Hamas (9 may have been involved in October 7th out of a staff of 13, 000 ) or is it a long held belief that the agency needs to be destroyed by Israeli officials.
@HelenHen I think your comparison with Taliban is very apt

Palestinians’ - the ‘camel riders’ according to the rabbi in the Louis Theroux programme - have a high level of education considering the difficulties they live under.

How repulsive this Israeli government is to turn the army into thugs doing this sort of work.

Hopefully future generations of Israeli children will be taught what their elders did to the Palestinians people and not some rewritten version of what has happened in Gaza.

It's outrageous. Not to mention how terrifying it must have been for the children having an army that has being committing atrocities against their people surrounding the school. There was absolutely no need for them to behave in such a manner. Those poor children will be traumatised after this.

Israel really doesn't seem to like the fact that Palestinians value education so highly and have systematically destroyed places of learning. Palestinians having some of the highest literacy rates and highest per capita PhD rates in the world is a testimony to the great work Unwra have done over the decades.

UNRWA has been supporting terrorism for years. The Israelis were right to shut them down, enough is enough. We’ve all seen the violence and racism they teach in those schools anyway. They should have been closed long ago - life won’t improve for Palestinians until they can get deradicalisd

I think Israel should look at the racism being taught in their own schools before sending armed men to throw 5 year old children out of their schools. The fact you support armed men throwing reception aged children out of school is really shocking tbh and makes me wonder what you have been taught about Palestinians if you think this is an acceptable way to treat young children.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/07/israeli-school-racism-claim

It’s unbelievable you don’t think Israel is a victim in situation and very telling tbh. Are you really not aware of the decades, long before 7/10, of Palestinian terrorism against Israelis. I mean it has its own Wiki page just for that.

The Palestinians could have gone where they wanted decades ago if they had got on with building their own State (like Israel did) and wanted to make true peace with Israel, instead of building an aid economy based on perpetual victim and refugee status necessary for the billions of $s in aid and ‘donations’ to continue pouring in.

Going back to Arafat and the Hamas leaders today.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-10069255.html

https://nypost.com/2023/11/07/news/hamas-leaders-worth-11bn-live-luxury-lives-in-qatar/

How have those 3 Hamas leaders amassed billion $ fortunes while governing a poverty stricken ‘open air’ prison.

The whole Palestinian ‘cause’ is a massive money making scheme for the leaders while ordinary Palestinians suffer.

Can we assume you’re dismissing the actual atrocities of 7/10 which led to these current operations if you don’t think Israel is a victim?

I’m sure the families of IDF soldiers who have had to go to war and lost their lives or suffered life changing injuries consider them victims too.

I’ll never forget what happened to 19 year old Sgt Adir Tahar. No soldier fighting for his country deserves what the Palestinians did to him.

That doesn’t take away from the Palestinian civilian casualties in this war.

The situation in UNWRA schools in East Jerusalem has been known about for a long time. See article:

https://cbn.com/news/news/report-israel-shutdown-unrwa-schools-jerusalem-often-used-terror-base

https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/AHRC47NGO145_150621.pdf

https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/116769/witnesses/HMTG-118-FA17-Wstate-NeuerH-20240130.pdf

https://allisrael.com/ready-to-carry-out-suicide-attacks-shocking-footage-from-east-jerusalem-unrwa-school

You probably won’t like the last two sources at least but unless you have evidence to refute them, there’s not really much to debate about.

The school would have known they were being closed down, why involve the children for political point scoring? 5 year olds? Disgusting.

The daughter of the lady, who is the subject of that article, was murdered in a Palestinian suicide bombing at 13 years old. Must be impossible to come to terms with.

I can’t see anything evidencing what she is claiming although I have no doubt that there is a negative bias towards Palestinians from some Israelis considering all the terrorist attacks going over decades and the well voiced wish of their leaders to annihilate Israel and kill all the Jews.

I can’t imagine what I’d think of my neighbours if they made those intentions and wishes clear, can you?

Israeli civilians did not invade Gaza, go on a rampage of killing and injuring thousands of Palestinians in a frenzy of gang rape, torture, murder, burning and kidnapping babies, children and elderly people in the space of a few hours though did they?

Or drag half/naked bodies of dead Palestinians through the streets on pick up trucks and motorbikes to cheering crowds so they could spit on them?

Can you hear yourself? They are innocent 5 year old children, just like my children or yours and you are defending armed men who have been accused of rape, torture, starvation, murder, a whole list of crimes against humanity being sent to remove them from school. These children are guilty of nothing but toddling off to school wanting to learn and play with their friends.

From the article in the op
The British consulate in Jerusalem said the UK, EU, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and Japan strongly opposed the closure orders issued against the Unrwa schools and stood "in solidarity with students, parents, and teachers".

"Unrwa has operated in East Jerusalem under its UN General Assembly mandate since 1950. Israel is obliged under international humanitarian law to facilitate the proper working of all institutions devoted to the education of children," they added.

Its very clear that yet again Israel are breaking International Law. Multiple countries including the UK are condemning Israel for this choice to put two fingers up to the laws that make every one of us and our children safer. There is no whataboutery to be had here, the law is clear and Israel are breaking it and choosing to traumatise young children in the process.

Education is such a flexible word.

The tide is turning - OpEd in the New York Times

https://archive.ph/D45vU

On the Middle East, you have some good independent instincts, Mr. President. Follow them. Otherwise you need to prepare yourself for this looming reality: Your Jewish grandchildren will be the first generation of Jewish children who will grow up in a world where the Jewish state is a pariah state.

I will leave you with the words of the May 7 Haaretz editorial:
“On Tuesday, the Israel Air Force killed nine children, between the ages of 3 and 14. …The Israeli military said that the target was a ‘Hamas command and control center’ and that ‘steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming uninvolved civilians.’… We can continue to ignore the number of Palestinians in the Strip who have been killed — more than 52,000, including around 18,000 children; to question the credibility of the figures, to use all of the mechanisms of repression, denial, apathy, distancing, normalization and justification. None of this will change the bitter fact: Israel killed them. Our hands did this. We must not avert our eyes. We must wake up and cry out loudly: Stop the war.”

Thomas L. Friedman is the foreign affairs Opinion columnist. He joined the paper in 1981 and has won three Pulitzer Prizes. He is the author of seven books, including “From Beirut to Jerusalem,” which won the National Book Awar

British MP Mark Pritchard, who supported Israel for 20 years "pretty much at all costs," yesterday condemned Israel's crimes against Palestinians, including children, in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank during a speech in the House of Commons.

He stated, “The life of a Palestinian child is as precious as a life of a Jewish child.”

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iB374EXabik

And the FT Editorial BoarD....

Trump is snubbing Netanhayu on his Gulf trip reportedly beleiveing that he is playing him like a 'chump'.

https://archive.ph/X6Rtz#selection-2237.0-2253.206

But Israel is also paying a price for his actions. The expanded offensive would imperil the lives of the hostages, further undermine Israel’s tarnished standing and deepen domestic divisions.

Israel has briefed that the expanded operation would not begin until after Trump’s visit to the Gulf next week, saying there is a “window” for Hamas to release hostages in return for a temporary truce. Arab leaders are infuriated by Netanyahu’s relentless pursuit of conflict in Gaza yet they will fete Trump at lavish ceremonies with promises of multibillion-dollar investments and arms deals.

Trump will put the onus on Hamas when speaking to his Gulf hosts. The group’s murderous October 7 attack is what triggered the Israeli offensive. Gulf states agree that its continued stranglehold on Gaza is a factor prolonging the war. But they must stand up to Trump and convince him to pressure Netanyahu to end the killing, lift the siege and return to talks.

The global tumult triggered by Trump has already distracted attention from the catastrophe in Gaza. Yet the longer it goes on, the more those who remain silent or cowed from speaking out will be complicit.

How dare you say I'm dismissing 7/10. Not once, EVER, have I dismissed it.

I said Israel are not the victim in THIS particular situation where they are sending armed men to remove children from schools. Notice or no notice, they have no right to stop children from receiving an education.

Your attempt to roll it back to 7/10 is ridiculous. Is there a particular death figure or extreme atrocity where you would no longer reply 'but 7/10'? To continue to act vengefully instead of working towards peace will never bring an end to the bloodshed.

'Unless you have evidence to refute them , there's not really much to debate about'

But that's not how facts work, you know. You can't say what you want and demand it stands as fact until somebody provides evidence otherwise.

These two Jewish "nice" boys podcasters - last year said the quiet bit out loud and they are still unrepentant and claim that this is how the Israelis feel.

“If you gave me a button to just erase Gaza, every single living being in Gaza would no longer be living tomorrow. I would press it in a second.”

“No one actually gives a shit [about the genocide in Gaza]. Zero people in Israel … Do you care if this baby in Gaza gets polio? They’ll be like, ‘I don’t’ [indistinguishable]. There will be like 20 people who care … Fuck them.”

“You can’t help but think that it’s nice to know that you are dancing in a concert while hundreds of thousands of Gazans are homeless … It makes it even better … more enjoyable concert … ”

https://twitter.com/Kahlissee/status/1907435707783598273

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/06/israeli-podcasters-laughing-gaza-genocide-two-nice-jewish-boys

It's been a while since I've seen that vile khalissee account posted on here.

No idea who she is I googled the video and this result came top in X so I went with it ,besides which my point was the truly vile comments of these jokers.

She's a Hamas supporterwho a depressing number of people seem to use as a source of information.

Fair dos I will be more careful in choosing my sources in future.

The burned babies again?

Israel has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. And burned a lot of children.

Wow! You are that dismissing that Palestinian, including civilians, tied people together, including babies and children and burnt them alive? There were lots of burned bodies from Oct 7th. I remember the burned body of a woman who’d obviously been sexually tortured and her body burnt.

Are you conflating the IDF with Israeli civilians in your last comment?

Sadly in a war, civilians are killed.

My comment was in relation to @Mylegishangingoff’s post about Israeli children being indoctrinated in the same way as Palestinian children stating quite clearly that Israeli civilians have never behaved the way Palestinian civilians did on Oct 7th so there’s no comparison.

You said ‘burning and kidnapping babies’

The eight burned babies story was debunked.

How many babies died on Oct 7?
How many 1000 Palestinian babies have died since then?
Neither is all right.

Israeli treatment of Palestinians did not justify Oct 7.

Oct 7 does not justify the continuing 18 months Israeli slaughter/actions against a whole people since.

https://www.facebook.com/IsraelMFA/videos/979549694086718/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

Oct 7th was the CAUSE of the WAR that the Palestinians deliberately started, causing the further needless deaths of their own children.

It didn’t happen in a vacuum and the WAR is justified after Oct 7th (even forgetting about decades of Palestinian terrorism and rocket attacks against Israelis).

What is not justified is the Palestinians sacrificing their children as collateral damage in a war they know they cannot win militarily.