Knesset passes law to immediately fire teachers with terror sympathies

(JNS) — An Israeli law that will allow Jerusalem’s Education Ministry to dismiss teachers who carry out or publicly support acts of terrorism, as well as cut off funding for educational institutions that glorify terror, passed its third and final reading in parliament, the Knesset said on Tuesday.

The law, called the Bill for Prohibition on Employment of Teaching Personnel and Withholding Budget from Educational Institutions due to Identification with Act of Terrorism or with Terrorist Organization, passed with a vote of 55-45 on Tuesday, after being tabled by coalition members Amit Halevi (Likud Party) and Zvika Fogel (Otzma Yehudit).

“Terror supporters will no longer be able to serve as teachers,” Halevi stated, according to the Knesset. “And if there are schools that identify with terrorism, the minister of education will withhold their budget. The bill will ensure that Israel’s students are educated towards justice, science and compassion, and not terrorism, injustice and barbarism.”

The new legislation authorizes Education Minister Yoav Kisch to fire educators employed by state schools without prior notice if they are “convicted of a severe security offense or a terrorist offense or identified publicly with an act of terrorism or published a direct call to commit an act of terror.”

The legislation also allows for defunding state-funded schools in cases where “displays of support or identification with an act of terrorism or a terrorist organization were held in the educational institution, and the institution’s administration should have known about them.”

According to the bill’s explanatory notes, “This phenomenon largely exists in schools in eastern Jerusalem, and it constitutes incitement of minors against the State of Israel along with glorification of terrorists. Its effect is destructive and long-term, and this could, among other things, find expression in the high number of underage residents of eastern Jerusalem who commit or try to commit terrorist attacks.”

On Oct. 8, an Arab teacher employed by a school in Nazareth, northern Israel, was detained after she made a TikTok post that appeared to glorify the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 terror massacre of 1,200 people.

Knesset member Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) appealed to Kisch to fire the teacher immediately, Israel’s Maariv daily reported.

One-third of Israel’s approximately 2.095 million Arab citizens believe that Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of primarily Jewish civilians is in line with Arab, Palestinian and Islamic values, according to a 2023 survey.

Also on Tuesday, the Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee voted to advance a law that would deny Israeli government benefits to non-residents of the Jewish state who are convicted on terror charges.

Close to 30 Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria receive benefits from Israel’s National Insurance Institute, according to intelligence information made public by the Israel Hayom newspaper.

Last week, Knesset House Committee members voted 9-2 to advance a bill seeking to deport families of terrorists living in Israel under certain circumstances. The proposed law is meant as a deterrent to terrorism.

The proposed legislation, which still needs to be voted on by the Knesset plenum, only applies to first-degree relatives—parents, siblings, spouses—who either knew about the planned terror attack and didn’t inform the authorities, expressed support for or incited to similar acts of terror.