Summary
A 2026 law amending the State Education Law (1953) and the Supervision of Schools Law (1969) to bar employment as a teacher, principal or supervisor in the Israeli or East Jerusalem education systems of any person holding a degree from a Palestinian Authority higher education institution, which Adalah’s Discriminatory Laws Database presents as a categorical, ideologically driven exclusion challenged in HCJ 68074-02-26 (Discriminatory Laws Database, lines 5-75).
Details
- New State Education Law s.18B states its purpose as preventing the “harmful influence” of the Palestinian Authority and preserving the educational values of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state; a PA-degree holder is deemed not to possess the degree required for employment as teaching staff. A PA institution includes one in the West Bank (“Judea and Samaria” in the provision) or Gaza that is not an Israeli institution recognized by the Council for Higher Education, and one supervised by the PA, including a branch or extension (lines 26-42).
- The ban applies to students currently enrolled who have not yet completed their first year of studies. The only exception is approval by the Ministry of Education Director General after a second bachelor’s degree from a recognized Israeli institution and an Israeli teaching certificate, and a Director General determination that the appointment would not have a “harmful influence” (line 22).
- In the Knesset Education Committee, sponsor MK Avichay Buaron said: “We have no pedagogical intention… and no security purpose. We have a values-based [ideological] purpose.” Knesset and committee legal advisors cautioned that no factual evidence supported the blanket “harmful influence” claims (line 52).
- Adalah gives Ministry of Education data submitted to the Knesset in late 2024: approximately 58% of the 6,700 teachers in East Jerusalem schools hold PA-institution degrees, with a projected shortage of 540 teachers there over the next five years (line 62).
- Adalah’s petition, HCJ 68074-02-26, Adalah et al. v. The Minister of Education et al., was filed on 22 February 2026, arguing violations of equality, freedom of occupation, and the rights to education and culture (line 66).
Related pages
Discriminatory Laws Database, Adalah, East Jerusalem, Knesset, Israeli Supreme Court