Palestinians say UNRWA planning to rename schools named after ‘martyrs'

“We are revising the names of all our institutions, not only schools,” Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for UNRWA in the Gaza Strip, told the 'Post.'

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
An UNRWA-run school in Rafah, Gaza (photo credit: FLICKR)
An UNRWA-run school in Rafah, Gaza
(photo credit: FLICKR)
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) on Saturday denied Palestinian claims that it is planning to rename schools already named after Palestinians and Arabs killed while carrying out attacks against Israel.  
Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for UNRWA in the Gaza Strip, told The Jerusalem Post that reports suggesting that the agency is considering changing the names of more than 50 schools were untrue.
Abu Hasna clarified, however, that UNRWA is currently studying the possibility of changing the names of some of its institutions, but denied that the move was related to names of “martyrs.”
“We are revising the names of all our institutions, not only schools,” Abu Hasna told the Post.
“But the matter is related only to the location of the institutions. For example, in the Zeitoun suburb of the Gaza Strip, we have three schools named Zeitoun School. We are seeking to give names to institutions on the basis of their location. We anyway don’t name our institutions after martyrs. We don’t have a school named after [Hamas founder] Ahmed Yassin. We are not Hamas or Fatah. We abide by the rules of the UN, even concerning the names of our institutions.”
The spokesman noted that even if there is an institution named after the famed Muslim warrior Saladin, that does not constitute a violation of UN rules.
“The main street in East Jerusalem is named after Salah Eddin al-Ayoubi [Saladin],” he said, referring to the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty who led the Muslim military campaign against the Crusader states in the Levant in 1187. “That does not mean the street has to be renamed.”
Despite the denial, several Palestinian groups have criticized UNRWA’s alleged intention to remove the names of “martyrs” from schools in the Gaza Strip.
Sources in the coastal enclave claimed that UNRWA has set up a special committee to devise a plan for urgently renaming 53 schools named after Palestinian and Arab “martyrs” and “symbols.”
The move came in response to Israeli and American “pressure” and in the context of efforts to “liquidate the right of return” for refugees and their descendants to their former homes in Israel, the sources said.
“The subjective and unconsidered plan to change the names of a large number of schools is inconsistent with the aspirations of the Palestinian refugees,” the Palestinian Refugee Rights Organization said in a statement.
A number of Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip urged UNRWA to reconsider its position and warned the agency against “submission to external dictates aimed at liquidating the Palestinian national cause, first and foremost, the right of return for refugees.”
The factions called on Palestinians to exert pressure on UNRWA by staging widespread protests “to force it to retract its decision.”
The Fatah-affiliated Democratic Reform Movement said that UNRWA’s purported move “disregards all Palestinian national values” and comes at a time when the agency continues to reduce its services to refugees.
“The UNRWA management has formed a committee of senior employees whose goal is to devise an urgent plan to change the names of 53 schools in the Gaza Strip that are named after national and religious figures,” the movement claimed.
“The goal is to remove national and historical awareness from the minds of students. This new crisis will spark protests. We believe this move is consistent with [US President Donald Trump’s] Deal of the Century.”


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