Education Ministry to Reexamine Recognition of Academic Degrees From PA

By Aryeh Stern

The Subcommittee on Curricula in East Yerushalayim and Their Supervision, chaired by MK Amit Halevi (Likud), conducted a follow-up debate on Tuesday on the topic of “Training teachers to work in Arab education in East Yerushalayim.” According to data revealed in the committee, over the past decade about 3,500 teachers holding a bachelor’s degree from institutions in the Palestinian Authority have begun to teach in Arab education.

A representative of the Knesset Research and Information Center presented statistics from the Central Bureau of Statistics showing that about 3,500 teachers who began to teach in Arab education between the years 2010–2023 received their bachelor’s degree from institutions in the Palestinian Authority; these constitute about 11.5% of the new teachers who started to work in the years in question. In 2023, 344 new teachers holding a bachelor’s degree from the Palestinian Authority joined the education system.

About 91% of teachers holding a bachelor’s degree from institutions in the Palestinian Authority, who started to work in Arab education between the years 2010–2023, taught in the Yerushalayim District (62%) or in the Southern District (29%). In other words, most of them taught in Arab institutions in East Yerushalayim or in Bedouin education in the Negev. Only about 30% of teachers who had studied in the PA were retrained in Israel.

Subcommittee Chairman MK Halevi said, “In a terrorist attack that took place yesterday in Maaleh Adumim, a 14-year-old boy drew a knife and was neutralized. Reports said that he studied in Abu Dis. We must fight against the terrorist infrastructure that gives rise to the terrorists. The IDF has ‘lawn-mowing’ operations, but at a certain point you come to the conclusion that the grass has to be uprooted, not just mowed at the tips. When such a rotten fruit grows, a barbaric murderer, it requires us to cleanse the infrastructure of such ideological filth. In the current situation, the PA educates to terrorism, with laws that are clearly antisemitic, and they teach delegitimization content there, the outcome of which we all saw on Oct. 7. This mechanism, of teachers that impart this content, has to stop. This recognition of their degrees should not continue.”

Sarit Spiegelstein, deputy legal counsel at the Ministry of Education, said, “We asked the Ministry of Justice whether the Lisbon Recognition Convention required us to recognize the Palestinian degrees, and the answer was that the convention doesn’t require us, because the PA is not a state and for this reason the convention is irrelevant. However, there are additional international legal aspects that are still being examined. We will check whether there are additional conventions that are binding for us. In addition, there will be an examination by the Division for Evaluation of Foreign Academic Degrees, with a focus on the PA territories and Gaza, in which incitement against Israel and Jews exists, because this has a harmful effect on students. It is possible that at the end of the examination, such an academic degree, with regard to teaching and education, will not be recognized. This examination will be conducted together with the Civil Service Commission and the Commissioner for Wages. We have already reached out to them. Along with this, the ministry will continue to expand the programs inside Israel in which an academic response is provided for Arab citizens.”

Nadav Shamir of the Council for Higher Education’s Legal Department said, “The place to regulate recognition of degrees from the PA is not in the Council for Higher Education Law, because we only have power with regard to degrees from recognized Israeli institutions. Legally speaking, the suitable law is the law on regulating licenses, that is where the change should be made.”

Batya Hekelman of the Council for Higher Education noted, “In the law, the teaching certificate does not have legal status. It is only regulated for the purpose of licensing and employment in the education system.”

Tzipi Weinberg of the Division for Evaluation of Foreign Academic Degrees said, “We evaluate degrees from abroad for the purpose of ranking and wages in the public sector.”

MK Halevi replied, “Your recognition is formal for salary purposes, but not only. After all, this is the only way a person who studied abroad can earn a living here.”

Ministry of Justice official Hadeel Younis said, “This issue is currently under a general discussion, and it raises weighty legal questions, but we can’t offer an exact conclusion, because we haven’t been asked about a specific plan.”