Hundreds of pupils from Christian schools and their parents demonstrated outside the Haifa home of Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon on Saturday evening, September 12, as their protest against budget cuts entered its third week. Over the past six years, the Ministry of Education has reduced funding to Israel’s 47 Christian schools, which are attended by some 33,000 Arab children.
Hundreds of pupils from Christian schools and their parents demonstrate near the Haifa home of Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon on Saturday evening, September 12. (Photo: Al Ittihad)
According to Al Ittihad, the daily Arabic newspaper of the Communist Party of Israel, the protesters, who claim that their schools receive less funding than Jewish schools due to systematic discrimination, wielded banners detailing the plight of 33,000 pupils from 47 schools who are still waiting to return to the classroom, two weeks after the start of the school year. Since the beginning of the strike, protests have also been held in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Ramleh, Nazareth, Shfaram and other cities throughout the country. In addition, a protest tent has been erected outside the offices of the Ministry of Education in Nazareth and Haifa, with dozens of parents and children visiting the sites each day. Last Monday, September 7, some 450,000 Arab Israeli pupils stayed away from the classroom as their schools called a strike in solidarity with Christian schools.
School officials say they receive less than one-third of the subsidies the state provides equivalent Jewish schools, and that their strike will continue until their demands are met. A meeting last week between striking school officials and the director of the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and education and finance ministry officials, failed to resolve the dispute.
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