Is the Ministry of Education in such a deep financial crisis that it must solicit donations from every student in the Kingdom? How can the authorities demand donations from students? Even from private school students who must deposit SR100,000 when they enrol? Couldn’t the officials in the Ministry of Education think of a better way of raising money for the Palestinians than by forcing the students to buy T-shirts with the words: “Jerusalem is in our hearts”?
A donation is something made voluntarily. It is not something one is forced to do.
The Ministry of Education has reportedly signed a contract with a firm to import the T-shirts. Will the contract meet the same end as the ministry’s contract for school canteens with some private companies not long ago? Several students who bought food from the canteens developed food poisoning.
No doubt it was naive of me to expect that the Ministry of Education would distribute the T-shirts free of charge. After all, this is the very ministry which got the lion’s share of this year’s public budget. Of course my expectations were belied. The ministry began selling the T-shirts to students for SR15 each. The sad part of the story is that SR1 from the proceeds was given to a school representative and SR2 went to a school fund with the regional education department taking SR1 from each T-shirt sale. Such nonsense should be stopped at once! The money taken by pressuring poor students should be refunded. I am afraid that most students had no choice but to buy the T-shirts in order to avoid the wrath of the school authorities. The students feared that if they did not buy the T-shirts they would receive poor marks at the end of the year. The ministry should understand that the real place for Jerusalem is in our hearts, not emblazoned on T-shirts.
The map of ‘Occupied Palestine’ should always be in our books, with nothing in them called ‘Israel’. We should teach our children the stories of the past and present martyrs of Jerusalem. We should teach them that they should never hesitate to make sacrifices for their religion and nation. We should teach them the valiant way in which the warriors of intifada fight with stones and empty bottles. The Ministry of Education should also make sure our students know the true history of Jerusalem and discredit the false versions propagated by Israel.
Despite the present crisis, I am not pessimistic about the future of Jerusalem. The Palestinians have now been forced down by the strength of their heavily armed enemy. I am, however, confident that another Saladdin will emerge on the scene to liberate Palestine.
I fear that the officials of the Ministry of Education have virtually accepted Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel. That is why they want to preserve Jerusalem on the T-shirts. I can only hope that another ministry official does not come up with a proposal to import the Palestinian headdress to sell to students as another symbolic support for the Palestinian cause.
The official may justify this proposal by pointing out that the kaffiyeh conforms to Arab culture more than the T-shirt does. I am also afraid that the Presidency of Girls Education will be moved by similar sentiments and begin soliciting donations from girl students. Instead of T-shirts they will import abayas carrying the slogan, “Jerusalem in our hearts.”
Let’s hope the officials in the Ministry of Education will refrain from inventing new projects that are only a burden on the people.