JERUSALEM (VINnews) — On Tuesday morning, a quiet and moving protest was held in Jerusalem, with the participation of approximately 500 students from all grade levels of the Beis Yaakov Gilo school.

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The students and their parents were protesting what they describe as the intolerable situation in which the school is split between different buildings, a condition that they say severely harms both the institution’s day-to-day functioning and the students themselves.

The controversy follows years during which the students were required to travel daily to the distant neighborhood of Bait Vegan. Although they had been promised a permanent school building within their own neighborhood, the solution ultimately implemented was a division of the school: the younger grades were moved to a building in Gilo, while the older grades remained in Bait Vegan.

For the upcoming school year, the municipality’s plan is to move the upper grades to another building within Gilo. However, this building will be completely separate from the campus used by the younger grades, a move that parents say perpetuates the division and creates further difficulties for families.

The parents’ committee argues that the split is not merely a technical issue of location but a fundamental blow to the school’s educational environment, administration, and budget. “It is impossible to run an educational institution this way,” the parents warned, emphasizing that the division is “tearing families apart.” According to them, maintaining the current situation amounts to abandoning the girls.

What has made the struggle even more intense, according to the parents, is the existence of available and nearby solutions that could unite the entire school under one roof immediately. Parent representatives claim that the only reason these solutions have not been implemented is what they describe as “unreasonable political obstruction” preventing the issue from being placed on the municipal agenda.

The parents stressed that the quiet protest was only the beginning of their campaign. They called on the Jerusalem Municipality to come to its senses and place the welfare of the girls above all other interests. “A unified permanent solution must be provided by the coming school year,” the parents’ committee concluded, warning that further protest measures would follow if their demands are not met.

The Jerusalem Municipality responded: “As part of preparations for the upcoming school year, for the first time all elementary-school girls residing in the Gilo neighborhood will study within the neighborhood itself, without needing to leave it.

In the current school year, students in grades 1–3 will study in Gilo, while students in grades 4–8 are required to study in Bait Vegan. Beginning next school year, all students will study in the Gilo neighborhood.

To implement this move, the municipality has invested millions of shekels in the construction of infrastructure and new buildings that will allow the immediate absorption of the students. At this stage, the girls will study in two separate buildings:

• Grades 1–3 will study in a significant new building constructed with an investment of millions of shekels and specifically designed for the younger grades.
• Grades 4–8 will study in a new, spacious, and advanced building built with an unprecedented budget and adapted to the students’ needs and to a high-quality learning environment.

At the same time, construction has now begun on the school’s permanent campus in the neighborhood, which is intended to house all of the school’s students under one roof. The new buildings will serve the school during the next two years until the permanent facility is completed, which is expected to occur within approximately two years.”