Israeli law and Ministry of Education regulations guarantee every child the right to enroll in educational institutions from the age of three, with both the Ministry of Education and local authorities responsible for ensuring this placement. This right applies to all children residing in Israel, regardless of their origin, legal status, or registration in the population registry. Despite this, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) frequently receives requests from parents, particularly Palestinians, who face refusals from local authorities when trying to enroll their children due to issues with legal status.
For example, the Lod municipality denied enrollment to two girls whose father is a permanent resident and their mother is stateless. The family has lived in Lod for over a decade, is known to local welfare authorities, and has three older children currently attending school in the city. Despite this, the municipal registration department harassed the family for weeks, demanding irrelevant documents and ultimately refusing to place the girls in educational institutions on the grounds of missing identity cards.
In another case, the Be'er Sheva municipality refused to admit two Israeli citizen brothers who have lived in the city since birth. The family is well-known to the city's education and welfare departments, and the children had been attending local kindergartens and schools. Their enrollment was canceled, seemingly because their father lives elsewhere, despite the children’s sole custody by their mother and residence in Be'er Sheva. The municipality did not reverse its decision even after it was clearly established that the children lived with their mother. Repeated appeals to the Education Department were unsuccessful, with the Registration Department continuing to demand documents that the mother could not provide.
Attorneys Tal Hassin and Reut Shaer of ACRI sent legal correspondence to the two municipalities and the Ministry of Education regarding these families. They clarified the legal situation and the municipalities' obligation to register the children, discussed the violation of children's rights to education and equality, and demanded that the children be placed in educational institutions immediately.
ACRI legal correspondence to the Lod Municipality and the Ministry of Education, August 18, 2024 (Hebrew)
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