Israeli religious schools found to discriminate based on race

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by Saed Bannoura
August 30, 2009

The Israeli Education Ministry announced Sunday that it would cut funding to three state-funded religious schools because they refused to enroll Ethiopian Jews simply because they were black.

The state had tried to compromise with the schools, saying that they only had to allow a few Ethiopian Jewish students in, as a token measure, but the schools refused.

Ethiopian Jews who have immigrated to Israel face multiple forms of discrimination within Israeli society, some of which are inscribed into law.

In this case, the state-funded religious schools argued that since private religious schools in Israel are allowed to discriminate against Ethiopians, then they should be allowed to discriminate too. They had asked that the heads of private religious schools be included in their conversations with the Israeli government on the matter.

But the Israeli Education Ministry replied that the schools in question should be held to a different standard than private schools because they are state-funded.

Regardless of the outcome in the case of the three publicly-funded institutions, private religious schools in Israel will be allowed to continue discriminating against students based on race.

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