Our report reveals that over the past 12 years, the Palestinian Authority has established 100 illegal schools in Area C, most of them with international funding.

 

About 30 of the illegal schools were built on state lands and survey lands (where full registration is yet to be completed). Seven illegal schools were built on IDF Training Grounds; four inside nature reserves; six on archeological sites; and three on private land. 19 of the schools began in Area B, but expanded illegally to adjacent land in Area C.

 

You might be thinking: ‘These schools are crucial for the education of Palestinian schoolchildren!’ But no. Our data indicates that these schools are no humanitarian necessity; they were quickly set up, without permits, in order to advance the Fayyad plan.

 

The density in PA schools (313 students on average per school) is lower than in Israeli schools (337 students on average per school) and much lower than the density in schools in Jordan (476.9 students on average).

 

An analysis of our data also proves that these new schools weren’t built to compensate for problems of long distances. All of the schools, without exception, were established between a few hundred meters to three kilometers from already-existing schools.

 

You see, the PA knows all too well that Israel is unlikely to knock down the illegal schools. If Israeli authorities enforce the law, the media pump out heartbreaking photos of underprivileged children being ‘denied’ an education.

 

If Israel turns a blind eye in order to avoid a black eye, the schools become anchors for new outposts in previously uninhabited – and generally uninhabitable – areas, and more funding pours in to alleviate the humanitarian hardships of these fabricated communities.