The Israeli accusation is clear: UNRWA is blocking a school project in Kafr Aqab. Israel wants to build a new education and community campus for the Arab population on a large site, but the UN agency is opposing the takeover of the area. In the district in northern Jerusalem, there is a shortage of school places. UNRWA is fighting to retain its training centre there and is invoking the special protection afforded to UN facilities. This is no longer just about education, but also about influence, control and UNRWA’s institutional survival.

The conflict concerns a site of around 88,000 square metres, where UNRWA has operated the Kalandia Training Centre for decades. According to an UNRWA media briefing dated 4 August 2026, around 270 teenagers and young adults in 16 vocational fields are currently being trained there. Israel intends to use the site much more broadly in future for schools and municipal facilities.

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Israel MFA 25.08.2026 · 09:34 Uhr The Jerusalem Municipality began renovation work today on a new educational and community complex in Jerusalem’s Kafr Aqab neighborhood, for the benefit of thousands… Israel MFA 17.09.2026 · 16:00 Uhr Schulbücher können die Zukunft eines Kindes prägen. Eine Rakete ist nicht immer die gefährlichste Waffe. Bildung, die Hass lehrt, kann ebenso gefährlich sein. Die… Israel MFA 27.08.2026 · 18:29 Uhr Your facts are wrong, you are supporting an organization that is a hotbed of terrorism, and you would rather make baseless attacks against Israel…

The Israeli accusation: UNRWA is blocking the school project despite the shortage of school places

According to Israeli officials, a new school and community complex for Kafr Aqab’s Arab population is to be built on the site. The first school is already expected to admit students for the coming school year. More than 140 boys in grades seven through ten are said to have already enrolled, with the offer later to be extended through grade twelve.

In the long term, according to the Israeli presentation, the entire campus is to benefit around 22,000 residents in the surrounding area . For years, the densely built-up neighbourhood has had a considerable need for schools close to home and municipal infrastructure.

This shortage is not an argument discovered only with the current dispute. As early as 2012, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing local community representatives, on a serious deficit: In an area with around 15,000 Arab pupils, there were only two public schools at the time. In August 2026, Israeli officials told the New York Post, some children were travelling two to three hours each way because of the lack of classrooms close to home.

This creates a contradiction that UNRWA can hardly explain: An organisation that regularly invokes the right of Palestinian children and young people to education is opposing the takeover of a site on which Israel wants to create additional school places for precisely this population.

The site is being used, but only by a few hundred people

The Kalandia Training Centre is not an abandoned site. UNRWA continues to provide vocational training, accommodation and other services there. This is part of the full truth and must not be omitted.

But it does not answer the crucial question: Why should around 88,000 square metres remain permanently reserved almost exclusively for a UN organisation when regular schools and municipal facilities are urgently needed immediately next door?

Israel wants to make the site accessible to a much larger segment of the population. UNRWA wants to preserve its existing facility. The issue is therefore not education versus education, but the question of which model will benefit the residents of Kafr Aqab more in the long term and how existing vocational training can be secured in the process.

ℹ️ The crucial difference

UNRWA does in fact operate a vocational training centre on the site. Israel, however, is planning a much larger education and community complex for the local Arab population there. Anyone who describes the conflict merely as an attack on an educational institution leaves out this crucial difference.

Ownership and UN immunity are two different questions

The legal status of the property is particularly disputed. Israel expressly denies that the site is owned by the United Nations. According to the Israeli account, the property was already acquired by the Jewish National Fund in 1937 during the British Mandate. Jordan merely allowed UNRWA to operate a training centre there after 1948, according to this account. Ownership was not transferred to the United Nations.

The New York Post reports that it reviewed the original 1937 purchase deed.

In the publicly accessible statements reviewed for this article, UNRWA does not present a land-register extract or comparable proof of ownership for the property. Instead, the organisation primarily argues from a different legal position: It describes the Kalandia Training Centre as a UN facility and invokes the privileges and immunities of the United Nations.

That is a material distinction. The claim that a facility enjoys special protection under international law does not automatically answer the question of who owns the land. Ownership and immunity are two separate legal questions.

No publicly accessible court decision conclusively clarifying the ownership title to this specific property has so far been identified. It would therefore be wrong to present the Israeli ownership position as already conclusively established in law. It would be equally wrong, however, to automatically turn the designation “UN facility” into UN ownership.

UNRWA Defends Its Status

After several Israeli entries onto the site, UNRWA stated that the inviolability of a United Nations facility had been violated. The United Nations Humanitarian Country Team and international organisations also supported this position.

On 9 August 2026 , UNRWA expressly responded to reports about the planned school project and said that false information was being spread about the Kalandia Training Centre. A closure or takeover would harm Palestinian refugees and those being trained there.

It is understandable that UNRWA wants to protect its existing students and trainees. That does not, however, automatically establish a right to retain permanent control of the site in its current form. Israel must provide a concrete answer as to whether and how the existing vocational training can be maintained, relocated or integrated into new structures as part of its project.

Conversely, it is not enough for UNRWA simply to demand that the status quo continue. In the public statements reviewed for this article, the organisation does not name a concrete alternative for creating the missing school places in Kafr Aqab. Institutional protection is not an education argument. Anyone claiming to act in the students’ interest must also explain how the interests of the far larger number of children who currently lack sufficient school space close to home are to be taken into account.

The dispute extends far beyond a single school

The conflict is part of the fundamental dispute between Israel and UNRWA. In October 2024, the Knesset passed two laws: One prohibits UNRWA activities in areas under Israeli sovereignty, while the other prohibits official contact between Israeli authorities and the organisation.

This was preceded by serious allegations against individual UNRWA employees in connection with the Hamas massacre of 7 October 2023. An investigation by the UN’s own Office of Internal Oversight Services concluded in 2024 that, for nine employees, the available information indicated possible involvement in the attacks. UNRWA subsequently terminated their employment.

Israel has also levelled considerably broader accusations against the organisation, alleging extensive infiltration of UNRWA structures in Gaza by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad personnel. UNRWA rejects the accusation that it cooperates institutionally with terrorist organisations.

I examined the background to this dispute in greater detail in the article “UNRWA Ban in Israel: Why Israel Is Restricting UNRWA and NGOs” .

Palestinian Children Become Political Pawns

In the end, one simple question remains: What benefits the people of Kafr Aqab more? The permanent preservation of a UNRWA facility for several hundred trainees, or a larger education and community campus for thousands of residents?

UNRWA is entitled to fight for existing training places. But when the organisation fights against the takeover of the site for a much larger education project, referring to its own institutional status is not enough. It must then explain what concrete alternative it offers for the missing school places of Kafr Aqab’s population.

UNRWA can invoke the protection of its facility and its existing students. But this does not create a right to preserve every existing structure permanently and unchanged. Anyone seeking to prevent a larger education project for the local population must explain how the missing school places are to be created instead.

Israel Does Not Have to Justify Building New Schools

In disputes with UNRWA, Israel’s actions are quickly portrayed internationally as an attack on humanitarian aid or Palestinian education. The fact that Israel itself wants to build new schools for Arab children on the same site does not fit easily into this picture.

The standard should therefore not be whether UNRWA retains its previous influence. The decisive question must be which solution will create more education, better infrastructure and greater opportunities for the people of Kafr Aqab in the long term.

When a UN organisation fights against the takeover of a site for a larger school campus while insisting on retaining its previous location, it is legitimate to clearly identify who is caught between the political fronts: Palestinian children themselves.

UNRWA can invoke immunity and the protection of its facility. But immunity is not proof of ownership, and institutional protection is not a solution to the shortage of school places. Anyone opposing the Israeli campus plan must present a credible alternative that secures both additional schools and the existing vocational training.