The Education Committee of the Israeli Knesset (the Israeli parliament) approved, in second and third readings, a bill prohibiting the employment of teachers who hold academic degrees from the Palestinian Authority.
The bill, according to a report published on the Knesset website on Friday, was submitted by Knesset members from the Likud and Shas parties. In their proposal, they noted the increase in the number of Israeli citizens and residents receiving education at academic institutions in the Palestinian Authority in recent years, and the consequent increase in the number of graduates of these institutions who join the Israeli education system.
In their proposal, the Knesset members claimed that studies at these institutions often contain anti-Semitic content aimed at denying the existence of the State of Israel and inciting against it.
According to the Knesset website, the bill's initiators explained that its purpose is to "prevent the harmful influence of the Palestinian Authority, which is hostile to the State of Israel and its values, and to preserve the educational values of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, as stipulated in the State Education Law."
4- A photo from inside Al-Quds University’s Abu Dis campus, showing it empty of students due to the current war (Al Jazeera Net)
About half of Al-Quds University's students are Jerusalemites with Israeli residency and 1948 Palestinians with Israeli passports (Al-Jazeera)
Lost academic certificate
Consequently, the law was amended to stipulate that anyone who holds an academic degree from a higher education institution in the Palestinian Authority, or from an institution affiliated with it, is deemed to lack the academic qualifications required to work as a teacher in Israel.
According to the Knesset, the new law does not apply to those already employed. Anyone who has already completed an academic degree in the Palestinian Authority, or part of it (one academic year or more), may work in the education system, provided they obtain a teaching certificate from a teacher training institution in Israel within two years.
The bill will not be effective until it is transferred to the Knesset plenum for approval in three readings.
digital data
It should be noted that according to data presented by the Knesset Research and Information Center during the deliberations, 30,339 teachers joined the Arab education system over the past decade, 11% of whom obtained academic degrees from the Palestinian Authority.
Of the 11%, 3,447 teachers, 62% teach in East Jerusalem, 29% in Bedouin education in the Negev, and 9% in other areas.
In the current academic year, approximately 6,700 teachers teach in East Jerusalem, at least 60% of whom are graduates of Palestinian academic institutions.
It's worth noting that 10 Palestinian universities in the West Bank will pay the price for this new law, with Palestinians in Jerusalem and within Israel being denied admission to certain majors, particularly in the science and arts faculties, from which teachers typically graduate.
شارك برأيك
A Knesset parliamentary committee approves a bill banning the employment of Palestinian university graduates.