Israeli law, as well as the policies laid out by the Ministry of Education, states that every child starting from the age of three has the right to register for educational institutions and also outlines the shared responsibility of the Ministry of Education and the local municipalities to place children appropriately. The right to education, and the authorities' obligation to provide it, applies to every child living in Israel, regardless of their origin, their legal status in the country, their parents' status, or their registration in the population registry. Nevertheless, at the beginning of each school year, the Association for Civil Rights receives inquiries from parents, mainly Palestinians, who are themselves or whose children are stateless, and whom local authorities refuse to register in educational institutions.
On October 17, 2023, we filed an administrative petition (26892-10-23) regarding the Beer Sheva Municipality's refusal to admit three siblings, children of a permanent resident, who are not registered in the population registry and so do not have ID numbers. Despite the children being born and raised in Israel and their mother being a permanent resident, the Beer Sheva Municipality insisted on treating them as "territory residents" because their father lives in the West Bank, and claimed that the obligation to register children without status does not apply to children classified as "territory residents".
Following a petition to the court, the children were registered for schools after being required to present their birth certificates. The municipality's declared position, claiming children without status are not necessarily entitled to educational services in Israel, was labeled as a mistake made in good faith.
Nevertheless, additional inquiries received by ACRI indicated that the refusal to register stateless children in schools had not only continued, it seemed to be getting worse. We continued corresponding with the municipality, and some cases were resolved after our intervention. At the end of November 2024, we filed two additional petitions together with Itach-Maaki on behalf of two families after the municipality persisted in its refusal to register them in schools. One petition was filed on behalf of a family with three children, one of whom with special needs. The children had been studying in Beer Sheva schools until their schooling was suddenly discontinued in September 2024 on the grounds that their mother has no legal status in Israel. The second was filed on behalf of a family with four children. The municipality refused to register the youngest for kindergarten, despite the fact that their siblings were studying in schools in the city, and then stopped the siblings' studies.
In the petitions, we argued that the number of cases of the municipality refusing to provide schooling to children without status, or with parents without status, indicates that the municipality is acting illegally, and not that it is making a particular mistake. We argued that the Ministry of Education, as the responsible and supervising entity in education and registration matters, must intervene and instruct the municipality to return the children to schools and register the young child in kindergarten.
Following our petitions, the court ordered the Beer Sheva Municipality to register the petitioning children in schools. The ruling highlighted the municipality's obligation to respect the Ministry of Education's guidelines and register every child residing in the city, regardless of their legal status or their parents' status.
Administrative Petition 26892-10-23 Anonymous (Minor) v. Education Administration Director, Beer Sheva Municipality
Lawyer: Reut Shaer