No more expat-run schools

March 20, 2014

Jeddah: Authorities are tightening the noose around expat-run foreign schools operating under the auspices of diplomatic missions as these schools are treated differently from private schools.

The Ministry of Education is trying to have greater control over these schools by amending the law governing them, which will reduce the role of foreign embassies.
The Shoura Council had passed a new draft law some 8 months ago to limit the role of missions in establishing foreign community schools. The draft law with resolution number 63/28 was passed on May 26, 2013 according to information released by the Shoura Council.
The proposed law will change the governance and establishment of such schools. The Shoura said earlier that foreign community schools under the umbrellas of embassies be discouraged and the establishment of new schools be halted.
In this context, a proposal was made to the Shoura Council to amend article 9 of the governance rules of foreign community schools, enacted in 1997.
In its much-debated session on Tuesday, sources said, the Shoura Council rejected the amendment or modification of the existing law saying it had already proposed a draft law on private schools last year, which included foreign community schools.
The body also refused to allow embassies to purchase land or buildings to establish community-run schools saying they were subject to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Two major expat community schools are currently facing an acute shortage of buildings to accommodate the growing students’ population but they are unable to initiate the process for purchasing land, said sources.

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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