By New York Post (World News) | Created at 2026-08-07 21:40:50 | Updated at 2026-08-07 22:17:31
1 hour ago
WASHINGTON — The United Nations is trying to block the construction of a much-needed school for desperate Palestinian kids at an empty UNRWA compound, according to Israeli officials — who are accusing the organization of putting politics ahead of children.
Crews are expected to move into a 22-acre site in the densely populated east Jerusalem neighborhood of Kafr Aqab in the coming days to start construction of the campus, so it can welcome students when the school year begins on Sept. 1, Israeli officials told The Post.
However, the officials say the UN is preparing to condemn the Jewish state for removing UNRWA — the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees — from the property.
The officials believe the UN is fighting Israel’s 2025 decision to expel UNRWA from the country after allegations that workers for the mission in Gaza participated in the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks — even if that means opposing a project they say will benefit Palestinian children.
“They’re choosing politics over Palestinian children,” one Israeli official told The Post, arguing that the UN is more interested in preserving UNRWA’s footprint in Israel than allowing new schools to be built for Arab students.
“When politics comes before children, the UN has lost sight of its most basic responsibility. The UN should be opening doors for children, not keeping school gates closed for political reasons,” the person added
More than 140 boys are already enrolled for grades seven through 10, with the school expected to expand through grade 12 in future years. Officials say the broader educational campus and planned community center will eventually serve roughly 22,000 local residents.
The project is aimed at one of Jerusalem’s most overcrowded Arab neighborhoods, where Israeli officials say many children spend two to three hours commuting each way because there aren’t enough classrooms nearby.
The sprawling compound sits like a giant green island in the middle of one of Jerusalem’s most crowded Arab neighborhoods, surrounded by rows of high-rise apartment buildings.
Despite this, officials say it has remained largely unused except for a small vocational training center operated by UNRWA.
Supporters of the project point to the striking contrast between the crowded neighborhood and the largely closed-off compound.
“You have this hugely densely populated area,” one source in Jerusalem said. “Then you see this huge blocked-off land that can’t be used by the local residents.
“At the end of the day, children had to drive hours to school every morning because the UN kept this huge compound for itself.”
The warning signs that the UN is planning its next diplomatic broadside against the Jewish state have already appeared.
On July 27, UNRWA accused Israeli municipal officials of “forcibly” entering the facility — known as the Kalandia Training Center — for the second time in less than a month, calling the compound “a United Nations property” protected under international law and warning that it remains under threat of what it described as an “unlawful seizure” by Israel.
The agency argued that losing the site would deprive hundreds of Palestinian refugees of vocational education and cited an International Court of Justice advisory opinion that it says obligates Israel to protect UN property.
UNRWA urged Israel to “refrain from any further interference” with its facilities, staff and beneficiaries.
Israeli officials say that statement — filled with incorrect information about the land that Israel owns — previewed the broader international backlash they expect once renovation work begins.
“The UN will do a big outcry that Israel is going into UN property,” the official said. “But that’s a big lie because it’s absolutely not UN property.
“The UN is more interested in attacking Israel than in helping Palestinian children in Jerusalem. The hypocrisy is astonishing even by the UN’s own standards,” the person added.
Israeli officials say the property has become a symbol of what they view as the UN’s determination to preserve UNRWA’s presence in Israel, even after the Jewish state formally banned the agency from operating in the country following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
They contend that while UNRWA has maintained only a small vocational center on the site, it has blocked repeated efforts since 2022 to redevelop the property into schools despite the severe shortage of educational facilities in Kafr Aqab.
Israeli officials also dispute UNRWA’s claim that the compound is UN property.
They say the land was purchased in 1937 by the Jewish National Fund during the British Mandate and that Jordan merely granted UNRWA permission to operate a vocational training center there after 1948 without ever transferring ownership. The Post has reviewed the original deed of sale.
Israeli officials say the municipality of east Jerusalem is now reclaiming the land that has always remained under Israeli ownership rather than seizing UN property.
If renovations begin as planned this week, Israeli sources said they expect the diplomatic battle to erupt almost immediately — with the UN protesting Israel’s removal of UNRWA from the compound even as workers prepare classrooms for Palestinian students to arrive in less than a month.
The United Nations did not immediate respond to a request for comment.
