By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, Jan 23 (Reuters) – A training centre for hundreds of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank could be closed within days by Israeli authorities, jeopardising the education of students, the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency said on Friday.
The Kalandia Training Centre, which teaches 350 young male students from across the West Bank skills such as plumbing and vehicle maintenance, could be shut, as the land it sits on is at risk of expropriation by Israeli authorities, UNRWA said.
“If the centre were to be forcibly closed – and we do fear that this could happen within days – there is no educational alternative for these students. So you’re depriving a large cohort of Palestine Refugees of economic opportunities,” Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA’s spokesperson, told reporters in Geneva speaking via video link from Amman, Jordan.
“The right to education would be under attack there…The international community needs to wake up,” he added.
A spokesperson for the Israeli government accused UNRWA of having links to the Hamas militant group, a charge the agency denies.
UNRWA has functioned for decades as the main international agency providing for the welfare of millions of Palestinian descendants of those who fled or were driven from homes during the war around Israel’s founding.
Israel accuses UNRWA of bias, and Israel’s parliament passed a law in October 2024 banning the agency from operating in the country and prohibiting officials from having contact with it.
Israel demolished structures inside the agency’s East Jerusalem compound on Tuesday, a site it seized last year.
The agency’s chief Philippe Lazzarini said the demolition was the latest in a series of Israeli actions against UNRWA, including a raid on a medical clinic this month and a plan to cut power and water to UNRWA facilities in the coming weeks.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, additional reporting Pesha Magid in JerusalemEditing by Peter Graff)
Comments