On Tuesday, the Chairman of the Knesset’s Education Committee, Zvi Sukkot of the far-right Religious Zionist Party, made a “surprise visit” to a Palestinian school in East Jerusalem — his second in two weeks. He did not come to evaluate pedagogy or conditions, but to smash the school’s entrance sign featuring a Palestinian flag and publicly pledge to shut it down.

This storming of the school was more than a publicity stunt ahead of Israel’s October 2026 elections. It embodied a sweeping state campaign targeting Palestinian education in unlawfully occupied and annexed East Jerusalem. Sukkot is using his position to physically police Palestinian schools, complementing the Knesset’s aggressive legislative campaign.

A law passed in January 2026 bars graduates of Palestinian universities in the West Bank from working as teachers in Israel and East Jerusalem. Based on racist ideology, it claims these graduates are inherently dangerous and morally unfit to be educators. During deliberations, MKs advocated for the “Israelisation” of the education system.

The “Silencing Law” of November 2024 gives the Israeli Ministry of Education full discretion to suspend or dismiss teachers through a fast-track process for speech deemed “incitement to terrorism,” based on vague clauses of the Counter-Terrorism Law. It also allows revoking school funding, potentially leading to closures.

In 2025, six schools in East Jerusalem and its outskirts were closed, leaving 800 Palestinian children without formal education. These closures resulted from anti-UNRWA laws passed by the Knesset.

Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel – is challenging these laws in the Israeli Supreme Court. However, the assault on Palestinian education will not stop without genuine international pressure on the Israeli regime to cease its violations of Palestinian rights, including the right to education and dignity.

Source: www.aljazeera.com