Christian schools to reopen in Israel after strike over funding inequalities

Arab Christians in Palestine have threatened to close their churches in retaliation for Israel’s cutting of the budget allocated to community faith schools, which forced these schools to shut down as a result of their inability to continue providing their educational services.

The Education Ministry reiterated its assertion that there was no difference in the funding of Christian and Jewish schools of recognized, but unofficial status. They receive partial funding from the government, with the rest of their costs met by donations or tuition fees.

Under the agreement between the Christian schools council, representing 47 schools, and the Education Ministry, the schools will receive a few $12 million in state funding and a almost $3 million bonus.

The schools had been on strike since the start of the month over budget cuts officials said amounted to hundreds of millions of shekels.

“It is significant that this is only a temporary fix which appears to address the funding problem of Christian schools in Israel until next summer”, he told Christian Today.

The sides had been stuck over a demand from the Education Ministry that the schools keep from calling any more strikes until the end of the 2017 school year, while the school system would only agree to not strike until July 2016. Israel has bought itself a few time with a commitment to set up various commissions to investigate a longer-term solution to the financial crisis facing Christian schools, and it remains to be seen if these produce a settlement.

The support we got during the last month in the Government and Knesset as well as overseas in addition to the public exposure in Israeli and global media will provide a platform to implement any positive recommendations that the commission will have for Christian schools.