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Published on 19 Jul 2026
On Tuesday, the Chairman of the Knesset Education Committee, Zvi Sukkot of the far-right Zionist Party, arrived at a Palestinian school in East Jerusalem for a “surprise visit” – the second in two weeks. They did not come to assess the curriculum or classroom conditions or needs. Instead, he broken the sign at the entrance to the school because it had a Palestinian flag and publicly promised to close the school.
The destruction of the school was not just a political rallying cry ahead of Israel’s October 2026 elections. It was the epitome of a wider government campaign targeting Palestinian education in illegally occupied East Jerusalem.
Sukkot is using his position to hold the Palestinian police schools. The move comes on top of an aggressive Knesset campaign to destroy Palestinian education in East Jerusalem that lawmakers have pushed for in recent years.
One such law, passed in January 2026, prohibits graduates of Palestinian universities in the West Bank from working as teachers in Israel and East Jerusalem. This law is based on discriminatory principles and the extreme claim that graduates of these universities are inherently dangerous and should not become teachers.
The goals of the law’s supporters were clear in the Knesset debate: to advance what several MKs called the “Israelization” of education and students, even at the expense of education. In the Education Committee session of May 2025, one Likud MK said that the law is needed if the teachers who graduate from Palestinian universities “do not expand Israel” among their students.
The decree was passed regardless of the dire consequences it would have on the already weak and troubled Palestinian education system in East Jerusalem. The system relies heavily on graduates from West Bank universities – who are overwhelmingly women – and already has a severe shortage of teachers and classrooms.
Another law, passed in November 2024, called the “Silence Law”, gives Israel’s Ministry of Education full discretion to suspend or fire teachers through expedited procedures. It targets speech that the ministry deems to be “promoting terrorism”, based on vague and ambiguous clauses in Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Law, which has become a comprehensive measure to restrict Palestinian speech.
The 2024 law also gives the ministry the right to defund schools for the same reasons, which could lead to their closure.
Here again, the Knesset Committee’s deliberations on the law clearly revealed the perspective of Palestinian education in East Jerusalem and the view of lawmakers that the plan is a security problem that must be addressed. As the Likud MK said at the beginning of the discussion of the Education Committee in 2024 on the law: “It is very important that he be a Zionist… If I were an Arab from East Jerusalem, the first thing I would have is a Zionist. Above all”.
MK Sukkot’s promise to close the school he fought against is not just a threat. It follows the closure of six schools in East Jerusalem and outside of 2025, leaving 800 Palestinian children suddenly without access to higher education. The closure was the latest result of the anti-UNRWA laws of 2024 and 2025 passed by the Knesset.
The law and the physical destruction of MK Sukkot in a Palestinian school shows the government’s attempt to force “Israelisation” on young Palestinian students who are living on the ground, and remove any knowledge of Palestinian education, even at the cost of suppressing any legitimate educational needs along the way.
Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel – is currently challenging all of these laws before Israel’s Supreme Court, pending appeals banning Palestinian university graduates, “The Law of Silence” political orientation of teachers, and laws against UNRWA.
We will continue to do everything in our power to legally reject the work of opposing Palestinian education. But the attacks on Palestinian schools will not stop until there is real international pressure on the Israeli government to stop violating the basic rights of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, including the right to education and the right to dignity.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect Al Jazeera’s influence.
