EU condemns Israeli demolition of Palestinian schools

JERUSALEM: The European Union on Thursday condemned Israeli measures against three Palestinian schools in the occupied West Bank days before classes restart following the summer holidays.
On Monday, a kindergarten structure in a Bedouin Arab community in the eastern West Bank was confiscated, while overnight Tuesday a small primary school was demolished in the southern West Bank.
Solar panels used to power another school were also removed.
Some Palestinian children returned to school this week, while others are due to return in the coming days.
Israeli officials say the structures did not have proper permits.
Many such projects are built by European NGOs with funding from the European Union.
The EU, in a statement, expressed “strong concern about the recent confiscations of Palestinian school structures undertaken by Israel in Bedouin communities in the occupied West Bank.”
“Every child has the right to safe access to education and states have an obligation to protect, respect and fulfil this right, by ensuring that schools are inviolable safe spaces for children.”
Palestinian premier Rami Hamdallah said the confiscations were “a deliberate policy of the Israeli authorities to pressure Palestinian communities to leave, in order to confiscate their land and build additional settlements.”
COGAT, the Israeli agency that oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, told AFP that the buildings were built without the necessary permits.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and has built settlements, considered illegal by the international community, for hundreds of thousands of Israelis.