Knesset passes law allowing funding cuts for schools supporting terror acts

Israel’s coalition passed into law a controversial bill proposal early Tuesday morning that gives the Education Ministry the power to remove funding from private schools deemed to be supportive of acts of terror, as well as fire individual teachers who expressed support for terror.

The bill passed after a 14-hour filibuster by the opposition that began on Monday evening and continued until approximately 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday as part of an attempt to force the coalition to delay other controversial laws expected to reach the Knesset plenum later this week.

MK's believe the law supports national security

The bill’s authors, MKs Zvika Fogel (Otzma Yehudit) and Amit Halevi (Likud), as well as Knesset Education Committee chairman MK Yosef Taieb (Shas), argued during the debate that the new law would prevent schools in the Jewish state from encouraging their students to participate in acts of terror and therefore contributes to national security.

The law’s explanatory section specifically mentions schools in east Jerusalem, which allegedly “incite minors against the state of Israel,” which translates into “many minors who are residents of east Jerusalem committing or attempting to commit acts of terror.”

The law requires that the institutions or individual teachers in question be allowed to present arguments in their defense prior to the actions against them.

However, the bill’s detractors, including Israeli-Arab MKs and other members of the opposition, argued that the bill gives disproportionate power to the Education Ministry to act in ways that could cause a chilling effect on freedom of speech and that it serves as a tool to target Arab schools without real justification or judicial oversight.