Adalah Urges Rejection of New Bill Relating to Financing of Private Jewish Religious Schools that Discriminates against Private Arab Christian and Muslim Schools and Educational Institutions

In its meeting held on 28 June 2009, the Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs approved a draft bill which aims to impose an obligation on both the Ministry of Education (MOE) and local education authorities to finance private Jewish religious (Haredi) educational institutions. According to the bill put forward by Member of Knesset Moshe Gafni from the United Torah Judaism party, the local education authorities will have to fund the Haredi religious educational institutions that are within the independent educational system or the religious education network (Ma’ayan Hahinoch Hatorani), in equal measure as they provide funding to regular educational institutions that operate under the Compulsory Education Law – 1949 and the State Education Law – 1953.

On 27 June 2009, Adalah sent an urgent letter to the Prime Minister, the Chairman of the Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs and the Education Minister demanding that they reject the bill as it discriminates against Arab educational institutions. In the letter, Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher argued that under the bill, only Haredi educational institutions will receive joint funding from the MOE and local education authorities, while certified private educational institutions run by Arab Christian and Muslim groups will not obtain similar funding.

The bill also stipulates that the proposed new funding will not affect or supplant the basic source of funding from the government and the MOE that is already allocated to Haredi educational institutions. Attorney Zaher stressed that Haredi educational institutions will therefore receive a double budget from the state: once in accordance with the Compulsory Education Law and again in the form of the budget support proposed under the bill.

As a result, the bill discriminates against private Arab Christian and Muslim educational institutions. As Adalah stated in the letter , “This [bill] greatly affects the Arab educational system, especially as a significant proportion of Arab schools are private schools.” Adalah further argued that 26% of students in the Israeli educational system are Arabs, of whom 10% study in Arab Christian and Muslim educational institutions; in some towns, the percentage of Arab students who learn in private schools is much higher. For example, the percentage of Arab students in Haifa who study in private schools is 60%, as five of the eleven Arabic-language schools in the city are church-affiliated schools. In the city of Jaffa, five of the eleven schools are church-affiliated, and in Nazareth, 13 of 36 schools are run by churches. The situation is similar in the cities of Led (Lod), Shefa’amr and other Arab towns and villages in Israel.

Attorney Zaher argued that the MOE’s budget should be distributed equally among all the educational institutions. Since the purpose of the bill is to provide budgets for private educational institutions, it should apply to all these institutions, including private Christian and Muslim institutions. The MOE has the responsibility to set clear and equal standards and criteria for the distribution of state budgets among the various educational institutions that operate in Israel. Accordingly, Adalah demanded that the relevant parties reject the bill as it is currently written or alternatively alter the text of the bill to include all certified private educational institutions on an equal basis.