Israel: Budget Discriminates Against Children of Arab Citizens

August 11, 2004‏  
 
Director General Ronit Tirosh  
Minister of Education  
39 Shivtei Yisrael Street  
Jerusalem 91911  
Israel  
 
Dear Director General Tirosh:  

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Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned that your Ministry has thus far done little to rectify systematic discrimination against Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel in the public education system. We urge you to ensure that allocations for education in the FY2005 budget and actual Ministry of Education spending clearly reflects Israel’s obligation to promote the right to education on a nondiscriminatory basis for all Israeli children.  
 
As you know, in December 2001 Human Rights Watch provided you with detailed evidence of endemic discrimination against Palestinian Arab children (Second Class: Discrimination against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel’s School). At the time, you agreed with many of our findings, and promised that some of the largest disparities in treatment between Jewish and Arab education would be addressed within a year. Yet the pattern of discrimination we identified continues: the Ministry still allocates less funding per Palestinian Arab student than per Jewish student, and as a result Palestinian Arab children attend schools with larger classes and fewer teachers than Jewish children.1 Palestinian Arab children get far fewer enrichment and remedial programs—even though they need them more—in part because the Ministry uses a different scale to assess need for Jewish children. Building of new classrooms in Palestinian Arab communities has been largely frozen since 2003, despite a shortage of an estimated 1,500 classrooms. Existing schools are often in poor repair, and lack basic learning facilities like libraries, computers, science laboratories and recreational space. Many Arab communities still lack kindergartens for three and four-year-olds, although almost all children in the Jewish public education system are enrolled in such kindergartens by age three. Palestinian Arab children with disabilities and the Bedouin from the Negev Desert are particularly disadvantaged and receive significantly less funding and fewer services.  
 
Israel has a fundamental duty to provide education without discrimination to all of its citizens, including those who are Palestinian Arab. This includes ensuring that overall funding for education is sufficient to create parity between the Jewish and Arab school systems, and adopting policies that remedy past and end current discrimination against Palestinian Arab students.  
 
We urge you to fulfill your duty to protect the rights of all of Israel’s children by taking immediate action to:  
 
• Create parity between Jewish and Arab education in all areas, with special priority given to the provision of kindergartens, libraries, recreation and other facilities; the availability and physical condition of schools; special education; and vocational education and teacher training,  
• Adopt and implement a written policy of equality that explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity or gender;  
• Restructure the Ministry of Education's resource allocations to fund Jewish and Arab schools on a transparent, nondiscriminatory basis.  
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sincerely yours,   Lois Whitman   Executive Director   Children's Rights Division

Sarah Leah Whitson   Executive Director   Middle East and North Africa Division

 
 
cc: Minister Limor Livnat  
 
(1)For example, in 2003-2004, although 23.6 percent of children enrolled in primary through secondary schools were Palestinian Arab, the Ministry allotted only 20.6 percent of its total teaching hours to them. Per student, Jewish students received an average of 1.97 teaching hours per week, while Palestinian Arab students received 1.63 teaching hours per week. The Ministry also allocates, on average, more teachers per capita to Jewish schools than to Arab schools, providing, for example, the equivalent of one full-time teacher for every 16.0 children in Jewish primary schools as compared to one full-time teacher for every 19.7 children in Arab primary schools in 2003-2004.