The Education, Culture, and Sports Committee, chaired by MK Tzvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism), held on Tuesday a heated debate on the integration of Arab teachers into the Hebrew education system.
A representative from the Knesset Research and Information Center presented data from the Central Bureau of Statistics: The number of Arab teachers in Hebrew education and their share of all Hebrew-education teachers has doubled in the last five years. Last year, nearly 4,000 female Arab teachers were employed in Hebrew education (4% of all teachers).
The data also show that almost half of the schools in the Hebrew state education system employed at least one Arab teacher in 2025. Haifa is the leading city in employing Arab teachers in Hebrew education. Most Arab teachers (1,821) work in elementary schools, 1,169 in middle schools, 1,091 in high schools, and 214 in kindergartens.
A breakdown of where teachers received their academic degrees shows that in 2025, of 286 Arab teachers in the Hebrew education system who obtained their degrees abroad, 120 received their education in the Palestinian Authority.
During the debate, a heated confrontation took place between Committee Chair MK Sukkot and committee member MK Sameer Bin Said (Hadash-Ta’al). Committee Chair MK Sukkot asked whether Hamas is a terrorist organization, but MK Bin Said initially did not answer and responded angrily: “You are not going to test me every time. You are not an investigator. I am an Israeli living here in coexistence.” Later, he added: “I am against any terrorist organization.”
Committee Chair MK Sukkot said: “If you, the leaders of the Arab public in the Knesset, are not willing to declare Hamas a terrorist organization – that’s a problem. Hamas massacred Israeli civilians, and we saw here data on teachers who studied at a Hamas university. A teacher who marks Nakba Day will find it very difficult to celebrate Independence Day. A teacher who studied at a Hamas university will struggle facing children whose parents are currently fighting Hamas, and may try to blur the Jewish identity of the state, and we are here to prevent these gaps. [MKs] Ahmad Tibi (Hadash-Ta’al) and Ayman Odeh (Hadash-Ta’al) will not teach in schools.”
Committee Chair MK Sukkot added: “There are significant cultural differences between communities in Israel; there are 150 years of hostility between the leadership of the Arab society in Israel and the people sitting in Zion.”
Eti Sasi, Deputy Director of the Teaching Staff Administration at the Ministry of Education, said, “When a school principal considers hiring a teacher, it occurs without regard to their religious identity.”
MK Moshe Turpaz (Yesh Atid) said, “In the 21st century, pupils need to be prepared for a different and changing world. Cultural dominance has its place, but there is an enormous educational benefit when children are exposed to teachers from other communities. Separate systems that expose pupils to only one subpopulation – that is a huge loss.”
Dorit Itzhak, CEO of the Meirim organization, said, “Arab female teachers teach language and [written/oral] expression, and worst of all – they teach Bible. Dozens of associations funded by foreign countries, as well as radical left-wing organizations, have found a way to enter the education system. They ensured the decentralization of the Ministry of Education’s authority and integrated teachers into the system – turning the state from a Jewish state into a bi-national state. The Ministry of Education funds Merchavim.”
Sasi rejected the claims, saying, “This is not true. Due to allegations that were made regarding the Merchavim Institute – that it harms the Jewish identity – the Minister of Education instructed a review of the institute, to determine whether it educates against Jewish identity.”
Kamal Aggbriyah, head of Arab Teacher Integration at the Merchavim Institute, called for integrating more teachers from the Arab community: “From the circle of unemployment in the Arab public, the best are selected and integrated as teachers in Hebrew education. They are highly professional teachers, much better than some Jewish teachers I know. Just a week ago, during our selection process, two physicians came and said they were considering a career change to teaching.”
– Source: The Knesset Website.
