The Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) hosted, on September 19, 2024, a Conference on the State of Children’s Education in the City of Al-Quds.
The Conference was inaugurated by H.E. Dr. Mohamed Ould Amar, Director-General of ALECSO, in the presence of H.E. Dr. Amjad Barham, Minister of Education and Higher Education of the State of Palestine; H.E. Dr. Ashraf Al-Awar, Minister of Jerusalem Affairs of the State of Palestine; H.E. Mr. Noureddine Nouri, Minister of Education of thye Republic of Tunisia; and Dr. Mohamed Salem Cherkaoui, Director of Bayt Mal Al-Quds Al-Sharif Agency. Members of the Arab League’s General Secretariat delegation, Mr. Hael Al-Fahoum, Ambassador of the State of Palestine to Tunisia, and other Arab ambassadors accredited in Tunisia, were also in attendance.
In his opening remarks, the Director-General reiterated his heartfelt condolences to the Palestinian people and commended their steadfastness in the face of the brutal war that has devastated schools, universities, places of worship, and Palestine’s rich cultural heritage. The Conference, he added, reflects ALECSO’s continued commitment to its historical role towards the Palestinian Cause, in coordination and partnership with the Palestinian National Commission for Education, Culture and Science. It supports Palestinian efforts for the benefit of the City of Al-Quds, in the face of the occupation authorities’ targeting of education in the City, and their attempt to undermine the Palestinian curriculum, Israelize education, falsify history, and alter the character of Arab and Islamic antiquities.
The Director-General reaffirmed ALECSO's unwavering commitment to continue supporting the Palestinian people in building their independent State. He recalled that the Conference is part of a series of efforts undertaken by ALECSO for the benefit of Palestine, including the annual support provided for various educational, cultural, and scientific projects and activities in coordination with relevant ministries and national institutions. These include, in particular, the “Youth Network”, the “Mathematics Forums”, the project of updating the Tentative List of World Heritage in Palestine, and the project entitled “Names and Places Do Not Fade with Time”. ALECSO also annually celebrates Al-Quds as permanent capital of Arab culture.
For his part, the Tunisian Education Minister expressed his delight at participating in this important event, and thanked ALECSO, the Arab House of expertise, for providing this opportunity. “We consider Palestine to be our prime Cause, and we unreservedly support the Palestinian right, and consider any concession or laxity in defending the Palestinian right to be an act of treason,” he stressed. “It is a unified position of the Tunisian people expressed by H.E. Mr. Kaïs Saïed, President of the Republic of Tunisia, on all occasions, without hesitation or calculation”, he added.
The Palestinian Minister of Education and Higher Education thanked ALECSO for organizing this event amidst “a fierce campaign waged by the occupation against the City, targeting its social, heritage, and cultural identity, in total disregard of all international agreements and instruments affirming the right of peoples to self-determination”. He also addressed the occupation’s plans to “Israelize” education in Al-Quds, targeting students, teachers and curriculum, alongside efforts to empty the Old City of schools, seize its historic buildings, close schools that teach Palestinian curricula and replace them with schools teaching Israeli curricula, all amid daily systematic violations, including obstructing students’ access to their schools, humiliating them and detaining them without justification, in addition to threatening to close UNRWA schools.
