According to an article which appeared in Haaretz on August 23, 2016, Palestinian Arab pupils in occupied East Jerusalem get less than half the funding of their Jewish counterparts. The source of this differential is in the Jerusalem municipality, which transfers less to occupied East Jerusalem schools than the budget provided by the Education Ministry. Haaretz reported that 11 of 17 Palestinian schools in the eastern part of the city received a budget that was smaller – sometimes by millions of shekels – than what the government had allocated for them. The situation was reversed in the western, Jewish part of the city, where 17 of 18 schools received a higher municipal budget from what the ministry had earmarked, meaning the municipality provided funds in addition to the government money.

On August 8, WAFA, the Palestinian News & Information Agency, reported that Israel’s plan to lure Palestinian East Jerusalem schools into teaching the Israeli curricula as a pre-condition for receiving funds for renovation purposes hit the front page headlines in Palestinian daily newspapers. The Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry is expected to provide special funding in excess of 20 million shekels ($5.2 million), but only for the small minority of Palestinian schools that teach the Israeli curriculum in East Jerusalem (19 schools out of 180).  In Palestinian areas of the city there are 180 schools that are either government institutions or private schools that receive Israeli Education Ministry funding. Last year only 10 of those schools offered classes geared toward the Israeli matriculation exam. That number is expected to rise to 14 this year, but at most of these schools only some of the pupils study for the Israeli exam, representing only about 3% percent of the overall number.

In response, Attorney Nisreen Alyan, an attorney for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel’s (ACRI) East Jerusalem Project said that funding schools is a basic obligation for Israeli Authorities and should not to be used as a political device. There should be no connection between funding priorities and whether the Israeli curriculum is taught, noting that the Palestinian curriculum was used with Israeli approval. “Pupils in East Jerusalem deserve to learn in adequate structures because it’s their right,” Alyan told Haaretz. “The enormous shortage in classrooms (2000), budgets, personnel and educational programming constitutes a serious violation of the right to education of tens of thousands of Palestinian schoolchildren in Jerusalem for decades. The authorities are well aware that they have failed to meet their obligations but there should be no connection between funding priorities and whether the Israeli curriculum is taught, noting that the Palestinian curriculum was used with Israeli approval,” said Attorney Alyan.