Jerusalem - May 7, 1996

H.E. Mr. Shimon Peres
Prime Minister
Jerusalem

Your Excellency

After sending you a FAX-letter on March 27 regarding the teachers and employees of the private schools of Jerusalem who are coming from the West Bank and after meeting Mr. Shimon Shetreet, Minister of Religious Affairs on April 29 regarding the same matter, we have not yet received any response from you. The 1995-96 academic year is about to end and we are unable to plan for the 1996-1997 school year. We were even willing to provide round trip shuttle buses to our teachers and employees as mentioned in our FAX-letter of April 27 and verbaly repeated the matter in the meeting with Mr. Shetreet on April 29, and yet we have not received your long overdue response, neither positive nor negative answer on this matter. How long do we have to wait in such uncertainty? Shall we close our schools? Is it your intention not to give any response ro our requests? It seems that you do not trust us. Will not this state of uncertainty predict the dire consequences to come? Who will be held responsible? We are once again sending you a copy of the FAX-letter that was sent to you on March 27 and we would greatly appreciate if you could immediately respond to our request so that we would know how to proceed. It has been more than two months since our teachers and employees have not been allowed to come to work and on May 25 our school final exams will begin. Your immediate and urgent response will give us the possibility of organizing for the closure of the academic year and it will give us an idea of what to prepare for the following academic year. By your silence, it seems that the Arab students do not have a right to education and that their families do not have the right to be supported by the wotk of the breadwinners.

Fr. Halim Noujaim OFM
Director of Terra Santa Schools in the Middle East
on behalf of all Private Schools Directors in East Jerusalem

St. Saviour Monastery
POB 186, Jerusalem 91001
Tel. 2-282354/ 2-293338
Fax: 2-284717