JERUSALEM, August 24, 2017 (WAFA)- The European Union (EU) Representative and the EU Heads of Mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah Thursday expressed strong concern over recent Israeli demolition of Palestinian schools stressing that every child has a right to education.

“The EU missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah express strong concern about the recent confiscations of Palestinian school structures undertaken by Israel in Bedouin communities in the occupied West Bank,” the missions said in a statement. “Solar panels in Abu Nuwar and a kindergarten in Jabal el Baba have been confiscated, and an elementary school in the village of Jub al-Deeb close to Bethlehem has been dismantled, just at the start of the new school year.”

They said: “Every child has the right to safe access to education and States have an obligation to protect, respect and fulfil this right, by ensuring that schools are inviolable safe spaces for children.”

The missions called on Israel “to halt demolitions and confiscations of Palestinian houses and property in accordance with its obligations as an occupying power under international humanitarian law, and to cease the policy of settlement construction and expansion, of designating land for exclusive Israeli use and of denying Palestinian development.”

They also called on Israel to return the confiscated equipment and structures.

M.K.