Repeal the Law Disqualifying Teachers with Degrees from the Palestinian Authority

Illustrative. East Jerusalem school. Photo: Ronit Sela, ACRI

On February 24, 2026, ACRI filed a petition with the Supreme Court demanding the repeal of the Law Preventing the Employment of an Educator Holding an Academic Degree from an Institution in the Palestinian Authority. We also requested that the court issue an interim order preventing the law from entering into force until a decision is rendered on the petition. The law, which amends the State Education Law and the Supervision of Schools Law, imposes a sweeping ban on employing as teachers, and on granting teaching licenses to, graduates of academic institutions of higher education in the Palestinian Authority. According to the law’s initiators, the rationale is that anyone with a degree from the Palestinian Authority is allegedly thoroughly imbued, “from foundation to rooftop,” with neo-Nazi ideology and “jihadist thinking,” and has internalized a “Palestinization that is, as is well known, entirely about the destruction of Israel.” 

ACRI's petition argues that no factual basis was presented for the racist and nationalist assumptions underlying the law. The law infringes on a range of human rights: the right to freedom of occupation, the right to access higher education, the right to education, the right to culture, the right to equality, and the right to dignity. 

Our main arguments against the law include: 

• The law’s underlying assumption has no factual basis. There is no evidence to support the premise that every graduate of an academic institution in the Palestinian Authority has been saturated with anti-Israeli indoctrination and would therefore have a harmful influence on students. Tens of thousands of education professionals who studied in the Palestinian Authority have been integrated into Israel’s education system over the years. The educational institutions that they work in are supervised, and their curricula are examined by the Ministry of Education, which also monitors teaching quality. If teachers with degrees from the Palestinian Authority posed ideological dangers to students, there should be years of research and evidence available. Yet the committee that discussed the bill was not presented with a single report, study, position paper, or even a minor data point indicating that teachers who are graduates of Palestinian Authority institutions are a harmful influence on their students. The Israel Security Agency has even determined (in discussions about a different bill) that Arab teachers, and teachers from East Jerusalem in particular, are not a risk population. 

• Even if there were grounds for concern, a legislative amendment is not necessary. The State Education Law and the Supervision of Schools Law already include a range of measures that the Director General of the Ministry of Education may take if it is determined that a person seeking to enter the education system may have a harmful influence on students. This includes: refusing to grant approval for employment as an educator; revoking an approval that had previously been granted; and authorizing the dismissal of a person due to ties to terrorism or for incitement. The Ministry of Education also already examines institutions of higher education in the Palestinian Authority as a condition for recognizing degrees earned there and accordingly, not every degree obtained in the West Bank is recognized in Israel. 

• The law is disproportionate. It is sweeping, and does not allow the Director General of the Ministry of Education to ascertain the facts or exercise discretion in individual cases. There are more appropriate potential solutions to the concerns that underpinned the law, such as designated training courses and professional development programs for graduates of degrees obtained abroad, particularly in the Palestinian Authority, who seek to work in education in Israel. Moreover, the harm inherent in the law, blocking of thousands of people from access to academic education and integration into the labor market, far outweighs the alleged benefit, which, as noted, was neither examined nor proven. 

• The law ignores structural barriers facing Arab students in Israel. The law overlooks the barriers faced by Arab youth in accessing institutions of higher education in Israel: language, economics, and gaps in academic preparedness. These factors lead thousands of Arab students each year to enroll in academic institutions in the West Bank. The law also ignores the fact that the integration of Arab society into the economy is one of the main drivers of growth and a major tool for reducing inequality. 

• The law will exacerbate the existing shortage of teachers. Israeli schools, and Arab schools in East Jerusalem in the Negev in particular, are already suffering from teacher shortages. According to official data, approximately 60% of teachers in the East Jerusalem education system and about 30% of teachers in the Negev earned their bachelor’s degrees in the West Bank. The law would significantly reduce the pool of qualified teachers. 

HCJ 79746-02-26 The Follow-Up Committee on Arab Education v. The Knesset 

Attorneys: Tal Hassin, Hila Sharon, Abir Jubran 

The petition, February 24, 2026 (Heb) 

For articles and previous comments from ACRI to the Knesset's Education Commitee about this issue, see here (Heb).