Summary
A place in the northern Gaza Strip whose agricultural training school was the site of a 1959/60 conflict between UNRWA and the Egyptian Administration over the purpose of refugee education (Governing Gaza, PDF p.231 / printed p.214).
Details
- UNRWA, having operated the agricultural training school at Beit Hanoun for a number of years, decided to terminate its support on the grounds that, because agricultural lands were very limited in Gaza and no local work was available for graduates, the school did not conform to the agency’s policy of funding “useful” projects (PDF p.231 / printed p.214).
- The Administration countered that UNRWA’s responsibility was to improve refugees’ educational standards to prepare them for a future in their homes, not to settle (tawtin) them where they were living: its goal was that they should be “good citizens [muwatinin salahin] when they return to their country” (PDF p.231 / printed p.214).