Parents are concerned about what they call the “curse” of having their children’s education disrupted by Israeli authorities.
Children in the occupied West Bank have been forced to walk across the Jordan River in order to attend schools in Israel, which is not recognized as a state.
The Israeli government maintains that all children in the territories are entitled to the same educational opportunities as the Israeli children, including access to public transportation, health care and other services.
The situation has caused friction with Palestinians, who have called for a boycott of Israeli products in order not to be affected by the disruption.
Israeli officials say they are simply enforcing the law.
However, Palestinians have alleged that this law is a “war on children” that is being used to prevent Palestinian students from attending the same schools as Israelis.
A number of children from the West Bank are also being held by Israeli security forces in the West Jerusalem detention facility.
The children have also been accused of spying and resisting arrest.
In the summer of 2014, the Palestinian Authority called on the UN Security Council to condemn Israel’s detention of children in a “disturbing and discriminatory manner” and urged the Palestinian authorities to “refrain from taking action against the children involved.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also called on Israel to release Palestinian children held by the Israeli authorities in the summer, citing the “distress and pain” caused by the “persecution and detention of Palestinian children.”
Palestinian rights groups have also criticized the treatment of Palestinian students in Israeli schools.
The American Civil Liberties Union said that Israeli law “has been applied to children without due process, depriving them of due process in a manner that amounts to torture.”