Israel's Christian schools demand equality with Jewish schools
Christian schools in Israel do not receive the same financial support as their Jewish counterparts, burdening parents with higher tuition costs.
Students graduating from church-run schools in the Holy Land are among the best performing and successful. Some of these educational institutions recently received worldwide visibility with the canonization of two Palestinian nuns whose selfless efforts were instrumental in raising the level of education in what is now Palestine and Israel.
Christian schools in Israel, however, are facing severe financial difficulties, leading to an unprecedented demonstration in Jerusalem on May 27.
While the financial crisis in schools is not new, funding inequalities have recently became more clear. Haaretz reported May 15 that as part of the recent coalition negotiations, United Torah Judaism won financial equality between Heredi (Jewish Orthodox) and state education systems.
As a multiparty parliamentary system, Israeli governments are regularly created as a result of painstaking coalitions in which Cabinet portfolios, policy issues and financial disbursements are carrots used to convince small parties to keep the government in power.
