Minister of Education vs. Bereaved Families Forum

The Parents Circle-Families Forum (PCFF) is an organization made up of hundreds of Palestinians and Israelis who have lost an immediate family member in the conflict. One of the organization’s major activities is Dialogue Meetings, in which an Israeli and a Palestinian tell their personal stories of bereavement and why they have chosen dialogue instead of revenge. For many Israeli students, this program is their first opportunity to hear from and speak with a Palestinian before their army service. Beginning in 2023 and as part of the judicial overhaul, the Ministry of Education has continuously attempted to ensure that this program would not be permitted in schools. Below is the legal saga to ensure that Dialogue Meetings can be invited to schools, presented in chronological order; for the latest updates, scroll to the bottom. For the full list of legal documents (all in Hebrew) related to this case, see here.  

Illustrative. A 2023 Dialogue Meeting. Photo: © Rndmst | Dreamstime.com

First Petition 

In August 2023, the Ministry of Education removed the Parents Circle–Families Forum’s “Dialogue Encounters” program from the GEFEN database (the database of external programs from which school principals may choose to invite for special school programs). On September 27, 2023, ACRI and the Clinic for Education Law and Policy at the University of Haifa filed a petition with the Jerusalem District Court demanding the revocation of the decision to disqualify the program. 

The petition argued that the State Education Law provides no legal basis whatsoever for disqualifying the “Dialogue Encounters” program—in fact, quite the opposite. Among the law’s stated objectives are strengthening students’ critical judgment and capacity for independent evaluation; fostering intellectual curiosity, independent thought, initiative, and the pursuit of social justice, peace, and tolerance among individuals and peoples; and developing respect for human rights, democratic values, and the cultures and views of others. The program is fully consistent with these objectives, as well as with the Ministry’s Director General Circular, which encourages discussion of controversial issues. 

The petition further argued that the decision to disqualify the program was based on improper and irrelevant considerations and was driven by the worldview of politicians within the Ministry. The decision relied on biased and misleading claims promoted by extremist and anti-democratic groups whose positions bear no relation to education. The decision also violated students’ rights to education, freedom of expression, and intellectual pluralism. 

On February 12, 2024, the District Court granted the petitioners’ request for an interim order and instructed the Ministry of Education to allow the Parents Circle–Families Forum to register in the Ministry’s external programs database for the following school year. Registration in the database does not constitute approval of a program; it merely allows the program to be entered into the database and recognized by the Ministry of Education. 

On April 22, 2024, the Court granted the petition and ruled that the Parents Circle–Families Forum program would not be removed from the GEFEN database for the 2023–2024 school year. The Court held that the Ministry of Education’s decision to remove the program had not been based on a meaningful factual foundation. 

On May 6, 2024, we filed an urgent motion under the Contempt of Court Ordinance against the Minister of Education and the Ministry of Education after they failed to comply with the judgment and the “Dialogue Encounters” program was not restored to the database. Following the filing of the motion, the Ministry restored the program to the database. 

Administrative Petition 56993-09-23, Parents Circle–Families Forum v. Director of External Programs and Partnership Promotion, Ministry of Education  

Attorneys: Tal Hassin (ACRI), Haran Reichman (Clinic for Education Law and Policy, University of Haifa) 

The petition, September 27, 2023 (Heb) 

The ruling, April 22, 2024 (Heb) 

Urgent contempt of court motion, May 6, 2024 (Heb) 

Second Petition 

On the first day of the 2024-2025 school year, the Ministry of Education informed the Parents Circle–Families Forum that its “Dialogue Encounters” program had been suspended in the external programs database (GEFEN), thereby preventing school principles from selecting this program to invite to schools. The suspension was imposed despite the District Court’s ruling and despite the Ministry’s commitment to keep programs approved for the 2023–2024 school year in the database during the 2024–2025 school year as well. 

On September 11, 2024, ACRI, together with PCFF filed a second petition with the Jerusalem District Court against the Minister of Education and Ministry officials, again demanding that the program be restored to the database. We argued that the decision to suspend the program had not been made through the proper administrative process, and was made unjustifiably and without giving PCFF an opportunity to present its arguments. The conduct of the Ministry of Education constituted another attempt to circumvent the Court’s ruling and was a direct continuation of the Minister of Education’s campaign against the Parents Circle–Families Forum by means of the improper use of governmental authority and power. Together with the petition, we submitted a motion for an interim order requesting that the Court direct the Ministry of Education to revoke the program’s suspension pending a decision on the petition. 

On June 30, 2025, in light of the end of the school year, we requested that the petition be withdrawn while preserving our claims for the next time that the Minister of Education would decide to exclude the “Dialogue Encounters” program from the Ministry’s external programs database without any evidentiary basis. The petition was dismissed, “without any party ... withdrawing its claims.” 

Administrative Petition 32169-09-24, Parents Circle–Families Forum v. Minister of Education 

Attorney: Tal Hassin 

The petition, September 11, 2024 (Heb) 

Response from the Minister of Education and the Ministry of Education, September 2024 (Heb) 

Petitioners’ motion to withdraw the petition, June 30, 2025 (Heb) 

The decision (dismissal of the petition), July 2, 2025 (Heb) 

Third Petition 

On December 4, 2025, ACRI filed a third petition in the Jerusalem District Court on behalf of the Parents Circle–Families Forum against the Minister of Education and the Ministry of Education after the Ministry once again disqualified the Forum’s “Dialogue Encounters” program for the 2025–2026 school year. The petition cited statements by Minister of Education Yoav Kisch, who described the Forum as a “hostile organization” comprised of “terrorists’ families” and instructed the Ministry’s tenders committee to bar it from entering educational institutions. 

Since the program was first disqualified, the evidence continued to mount that its repeated disqualification was not based on professional, pedagogical considerations but rather on irrelevant, inappropriate, and political considerations in order to serve the Minister of Education’s ideological and political worldview. Once again we noted that the “Dialogue Encounters” program is fully aligned with the objectives of the State Education Law, which include strengthening students’ critical judgment and evaluation skills; fostering intellectual curiosity, independent thought, initiative, and the pursuit of social justice, peace, and tolerance among individuals and peoples; and promoting respect for human rights, democratic values, and the culture and views of others. 

On June 14, 2026, the Jerusalem District Court granted our petition and overturned the Ministry of Education’s decision to remove the “Dialogue Encounters” program from the GEFEN database. The Court ruled that the Ministry failed to present an adequate factual and legal basis for disqualifying the program and had not demonstrated that the program contravened the objectives of the education system or contained any pedagogical deficiency that would justify its removal from the database. 

The judgment emphasized that addressing complex and controversial issues is part of the job of the educational system, and that the fact that a program gives rise to controversy or presents the human suffering experienced on both sides of the conflict does not justify disqualifying it. The Court also criticized the Ministry of Education’s decision-making process regarding the program’s disqualification. 

Following the judgment, the program was restored to the GEFEN database. 

Administrative Petition 17025-12-25, Parents Circle–Families Forum v. Minister of Education  

Attorney: Tal Hassin 

The petition, December 4, 2025 (Heb) 

Notice on behalf of the Ministry of Education (additional decision to disqualify the program), January 2026 (Heb) 

Petitioners’ response, February 2026 (Heb) 

Response on behalf of the Ministry of Education, February 2026 (Heb) 

The decision, June 14, 2026 (Heb)