U.S. Movement to Safeguard Palestinian Schools

Since the founding of Rebuilding Alliance (RA), our team has helped U.S. constituents advocate to keep Palestinian schools safe and standing, starting with the kindergarten in Al Aqaba that we built over 20 years ago. In 2004, shortly after that school was built, the Israeli government issued demolition orders against the whole village including all the homes but two, the mosque, the medical clinic and our new, wonderful kindergarten.  We helped Al Aqaba hire a lawyer to petition the High Court to hear their case— and win. The Court declared that "for the time-being, the center of the village would remain standing." 

Thankfully, the Al Haq Kindergarten remains standing today and is planning to open again in September. Many of its students have graduated from college. What we learned during that crisis formed the basis for this program, the U.S. Movement to Save Palestinian Schools. 

Though for so many years, the Al Aqaba Village was a model of what peace could mean— we brought many Congressional Staff Delegations there for this very reason. But in April, 2026, this changed dramatically. Israeli settlers set up an outpost inside the village and though the U.S. Embassy promised to intervene, the outpost returned after each removal. It escalated this week, when the Isr. Army posted notices to expropriate vilage farm land to extend the “Crimson Thread Barrier” that will cut off the Jordan Valley from the rest of the West Bank.

Advocacy for Al Aqaba, its schools, its kindergarten, and indeed for all the West Bank and East Jerusalem schools and villages is needed now more than ever. 

Schools across the West Bank continue to face extreme challenges. Sadly, several that RA and partners have worked hard to keep standing were demolished:

• November, 2022: the Sfai School in Masafer Yatta was demolished after an Israeli judge suddenly reversed his decision lifting the injuction that would have kept the school standing
  
  
• May, 2023: despite the best efforts of RA and other advocates, the Jubb ad Dhib School, near Bethlehem, was demolished
  
  
• April, 2026: the Al Maleh School that RA had advocated for since 2021, was demolished by Israeli settlers— just a few years after intervention by a Republican congressman had saved it. This followed months of pressure from the Army and settlers that forcibly displaced most of the people living in the area

Despite these heartbreaking challenges, our advocacy team has been continuing our work to keep Palestinian schools standing. In July 2025, we began a new series of Congressional briefings aimed at raising awareness about schools facing demolition, by highlighting the Ishqara school, near Yatta. RA’s social worker who serves the Masafer Yatta area helped organize a summer camp at the Isqkara School. More than 160 students attended and we highlighted this school during our 12 Congressional briefings that summar where we also asked for Congressional intervention for the 5 schools in Masafer Yatta with demolition orders.

The education of children was also one of the themes of our 2025 International Peace Day trip to Washington, D.C. last September. While this year, U.S. visa restrictions prevented students and colleagues from Palestine from flying-in to speak, our partners and staff in Gaza and the West Bank were able to bring forward ‘Pinwheels for Peace’.

Teachers in Gaza asked if they could do this with us, gathering their students in safe spaces, tents, and even in one of the only schools left standing in Gaza City. The children made pinwheels for peace, bringing forward their visions of peace, which were tangible, simple, and heartbreaking, in a time of war. Teachers and students in the West Bank villages of Umm Al Kheir, Al Aqaba, and Susiya also joined in this project and created pinwheels to show what peace meant to them. Our briefings with Congress showed short video interviews (one linked below) with the voices and dreams of children in Palestine.

As we look to Peace Day 2026, we seek ways to overcome threats to education in the West Bank and Gaza:

• In the West Bank, settler and Army attacks on schools have been increasingly common. In April, a child and a parent who ran to rescue were shot and killed at al-Mughayyer Boy’s School; Also in April, settlers set the Girl’s School in Madama, near Nablus, on fire.
  
  
• In Umm al Kheir, settlers from Carmel settlement placed extremely dangerous coils of concertina wire to blocking the children’s path to their school— it has remained inaccessible since April 12th. Our team has briefed Congressional Offices about this crisis, and will continue to press for children in Umm al Kheir and throughout the West Bank to be able to attend school in safety.
  
  
• Meanwhile in Gaza, after nearly 3 years of war, around 97% of all schools in Gaza are either damaged or destroyed. Remarkably, children continue to learn even among the worst conditions, as makeshift schools in tents and even outdoors, have been set up throughout Gaza. Children deserve to return to their classrooms to resume their education, and to be assured of their safety— and our team is submitting a proposal to the World Food Programme to provide nutritious snacks to 200 Temporary Learning Sites.

We would like to thank you and all of our incredible donors for your wonderful support of the U.S. Movement to Safeguard Palestinian Schools. Your donations, encouragement, and constituent action makes it possible for us to to press Congress to do more to keep these schools standing. With your support, we will continue to advocate for Palestinian children’s right to an education, to press for their safe access to schools, and hold on to their dreams of a peaceful and just future. 

With gratitude,

Nisreen, Matthew, Layla, Alexis, Nejmah, Adam, and Donna
Rebuilding Alliance's Advocacy Team

P.S. This isn't about legislation, this is not lobbying— it is about asking elected representatives to personally intervene on your behalf as their constituent to save Palestinian schools.  

Links:

• Urge Congress to Safeguard Palestinian Schoolchildren
• Urge Congress to remove razor wire blocking Umm Al Kheir School
• Hear Gaza's Children Speak for Peace (Sep 2025)