Knesset passes law banning graduates of PA universities from teaching in Israel |
The Knesset passed a law on Wednesday to restrict people with academic degrees from Palestinian Authority universities from teaching in Israeli schools unless they also possess an Israeli accreditation, with 31 votes in favor and 10 against.
While proponents hailed the law as an effort to keep incitement against Israel out of schools, Arab Israeli lawmakers said it was another discriminatory act of legislation targeting the minority community, many of whom study in PA institutions.
The legislation — sponsored by Likud MK Amit Halevi and Avichay Buaron, among others — allows the Education Ministry’s director general to withhold accreditation from teachers with a degree from an institution within the Palestinian Authority, “provided that such a degree is required for his work as an education worker.”
The law says 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 safeguard the educational values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”
“Studies at these institutions include, in many cases, antisemitic content and indoctrination whose purpose is to deny the existence of the state of Israel and to seriously incite against it,” the bill states — calling it inappropriate for such people to “expose helpless children” to such viewpoints.
According to the law, teachers who studied at a Palestinian institution but hold a degree from an Israeli university can be employed at Israeli schools........