Is Israel discriminating against Christian schools?
Christian schools in Israel have not started the new school year, claiming that they are discriminated against and receive much smaller budgets than Jewish schools.
Thousands of parents, teachers and students from Christian schools across Israel demonstrated Sept. 6 outside the prime minister’s office. They carried signs highlighting the achievements of this unique educational network, and the dangers it now faces: “87% of [Israeli-Christian] high-tech employees are graduates of our schools” and “Schools are our roots.” One sign addressed Minister of Education Naftali Bennett directly: “Bennett, you said you’d be everyone's minister. Did you mean us too?”
But Bennett isn’t the only person to blame for the severe budgetary crisis facing Christian schools. Nor does he bear sole responsibility for the schools’ failure to open at the start of the school year Sept. 1, or for them threatening to take a series of steps that would put the State of Israel to shame. Abd el-Massih Fahim, president of the Office of Christian Schools in Israel, told Al-Monitor that the budgetary cuts began six years ago, when Gideon Saar from the Likud Party served as minister of education. During that time, the Ministry of Education’s contribution to the schools’ budgets dropped from 75% to just 29%.
“Former Education Minister Shai Piron [Yesh Atid] refused to meet with the schools’ representatives,” Massih Fahim said. “Now it’s Minister Bennett’s turn to continue the same policy, which could lead to the collapse of Christian educational institutions in Israel.”
There are 47 Christian schools in Israel, with 33,000 students and 3,000 teachers, spread out across the country. Some 60% of the students are Christian, while the remainder are Muslim Arabs and Druze. There is even a negligible percentage of Jewish students.
