Occupied Jerusalem- The Education Committee approved in Knesset The Israeli, in the second and third readings, on a controversial draft law that prevents the employment of male and female teachers who have academic certificates from Palestinian universities.
This law aims, upon its permanent approval at the Knesset General Authority, about 10 Palestinian universities bWest BankAnd threatens the future of thousands of Palestinian students from East Jerusalem And inside Green Line Those who chose Palestinian universities an alternative academic path due to limited opportunities in Israeli academic institutions.
Representatives are submitted by deputies for my party.Likud“And”Contamination“They are based on what they described as the increasing number of Israeli students (the Palestinians of 48 Israeli identity campaign) who study in Palestinian higher education institutions, and then join the education corps inside Israel.
Under the pretext of incitement
They justified the law with allegations of “anti -Semitic content” in the curricula of Palestinian universities, and “incitement to Israel”, claiming that this poses a threat to educational values in the occupying state.
According to the amended text, any person who holds an academic certificate from a high education institution in the West Bank is automatically unqualified to work as a teacher in Israel, unless he gets a teaching certificate from an Israeli institution within two years. However, the law will not be applied to workers currently in the educational system.
According to Palestinian research centers, about 5 thousand students – at the study seats currently – will receive certificates that qualify them to work in the education corps, out of more than 20 thousand male and female students from Jerusalem andThe Palestinian interior They receive their education in Palestinian universities in the West Bank, and this reflects the volume of the potential impact of the new law on their academic and vocational future.
According to the data of the Research and Information Center in the Knesset, more than 30 thousand teachers and teachers of the Arab Education Authority joined the Green Line in the last decade, 11% of them obtained their certificates from Palestinian universities.
The direct impact of the law in the city of Jerusalem highlights, as 60% of the teachers there are graduates of Palestinian academic institutions.
In the current academic year, about 6,700 teachers in the eastern part of Jerusalem, at least 60% of them are graduates and graduates of Palestinian academic institutions.
Among the claims of security and the concerns of racism, this law opens a wide door for political, educational and legal discussions, where issues of education, identity, and equality intersect, within a scene that is complicated than merely organizing the qualifications of teachers.
It seems that the fate of thousands of Palestinian students and teachers will be dependent on the extent of the political and diplomatic confrontation of this legislation, which threatens one of the last bridges between the two sides of the Green Line.
racism
The director of the “Masar” Institute for Social and Educational Research, Professor Khaled Abu League, believes that the law has an explicit racist character, and targets the demonization of Palestinian academic institutions and cut off academic communication between the Palestinians within the Green Line and the West Bank.
Abu League explained, to Al -Jazeera Net, that the students from Jerusalem and the inside have become accustomed since the occupation of the West Bank in Palestinian universities and the engagement in the education corps, and no systematic indicators appeared on the educational incitement claimed by Israel, adding that individual cases cannot be circulated to tens of thousands of graduates.
It is believed that the law aims to cut all forms of academic communication between the Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line, which will push the interior students to search for external options, especially in JordanBecause of the difficulty of accepting them in Israeli educational institutions.
Abu League referred to structural discrimination in the distribution of colleges of teacher preparation, where there is only one Arab college for 37 colleges in the Jewish center, while it needs Interior Palestinians To at least 7 colleges to meet the increasing demand. He warned that the absence of alternatives pushes students to go to Palestinian colleges, and with the legislation of this law, this possibility will be brought before them.
He also denied allegations that graduates of Palestinian universities are cultivating hatred, explaining that the reality experienced by students daily is what justifies their awareness, not only the teacher, as education is not exclusive to the school, but also forms via the Internet and social media sites.
Abu League does not rule out that the law extends to include other university specialties, such as medical professions, given the large number of students who study them in the West Bank, due to the incapable conditions in Israeli universities.
His goals
For his part, Palestinian human rights lawyer Moeen Odeh, to Al -Jazeera Net, confirms that the law carries multiple goals, most notably:
- The consolidation of the project to divide the Palestinian people into isolated segments, and says that Palestinian universities have formed for decades a meeting place for various groups of Palestinians from within, the West Bank and Jerusalem, in which they meet their common issues and concerns. This law comes to cut that link, and prevent large segments of Palestinians from meeting within one academic environment, which removes the Palestinian educational experience unit.
- Exercising financial pressure on Palestinian academic institutions, by reducing the numbers of their students gradually, in preparation for weakening or even collapsing.
- Repeating the Israeli account of the conflict, by influencing the composition of the educational system and directing new teachers towards adopting a purely Israeli narrative.
More repercussions
But the lawyer Awda rejects this proposal, and confirms that the Palestinian teacher, whether from Jerusalem or from within, remains the son of his environment and his reality, and it cannot be easily domesticated or removed from his community.
He adds that the Palestinians in Jerusalem are originally suffering from a suffocating crisis in the educational infrastructure, from a lack of classrooms and teachers, which makes any new legislation more severe on this segment.
He pointed out that the current law may only be a prelude to a broader series of legislation that targets the entire Palestinian education system, especially in vital areas such as medicine, science, and rights.
Therefore, the Palestinian response – in the opinion of the human rights return – must be multi -level, including the legal and diplomatic confrontation on the international scene, considering that Israel is moving towards a complete academic separation between the Palestinians within the Green Line and their peers in the West Bank.