Unprecedented Demonstration in Jerusalem of Christian Schools

ComeAndSee ^ | May 21, 2015 | Christian Website from Nazareth

[Mrs. Don-o]

Picture: Fr. Fahim Abdelmaseh, Bishop Giacinto-Bulos(center), and Catholic Arab students

On Wednesday, the 27th of May 2015, at 11:00 AM, an unprecedented demonstration will be held in the plaza in front of the Lev Ram building in Jerusalem (Ministry of Education headquarters) by the Christian Schools in Israel against the policy of the Ministry of Education.

Participants in the demonstration will include clergymen (Bishops, Priests, Nuns, and Pastors) in addition to parents of children in Christian schools throughout the country.

The Christian schools in the country consist of more than 30,000 students, almost equally divided between Christians and Muslims. Most of these schools began operating years before the State of Israel was established. They were built and developed through donations from abroad. They provided the general Arab community with quality education that has resulted in the high achievements of the Christian schools. This high quality education is displayed, among other things, in the number of Christian schools listed at the top of the Ministry of Education’s published categories. While achieving high academic results, they also teach their students Christian doctrine and instruct them according to the Christian values of loving others, forgiveness and tolerance.

These schools belong to the “recognized but not public” classification of schools in the Ministry of Education and receive partial funding from the Ministry. The rest of their funding comes from fees that are collected from the parents.

For years, the Ministry of Education has been consistently cutting the budget of Christian schools (35% in the last 10 years). This has forced the Christian schools to raise the service fees that are collected from the parents to a level that has become a heavy burden on the parents, especially for parents from the Arab sector where the average family income is well known to be lower than the national average.

Last year the Ministry of Education issued new regulations that even limited the ability of Christian schools to collect fees from the parents. The combination of these two things, substantial budget cuts and limiting allowable fees, is actually viewed as a death penalty for these schools.

A committee appointed by the Office of Christian Schools in Israel held negotiations for 8 months with the Ministry of Education where the Ministry proposed that the Christian schools become public schools. This proposal was seen by the owners of the schools (churches, monasteries, etc.) as the end of the Christian, value-based educational enterprise and even a critical blow to the Christian minority in the Land. In light of that, the Christian schools decided to end these negotiations.

The owners of these schools from around the world (The Vatican, Germany, England, France, Scotland, USA and others) are aware of this crisis and are watching with growing concern.

The protestors in the demonstration will be demanding that the Ministry of Education fully fund the Christian schools, just like other educational networks, and thus lift the burden from the shoulders of the parents and cancel the need for them to pay the service fees to the Christian schools.

For any further information - contact Father Fahim Abdelmasih,OFM, head of the Christian Schools’ office at 050-5376481. .

[jjotto]

Then why put restriction on the fees they can charge?

Do you have information on what those restrictions are?

[Petrosius]

Just what is reported in the article.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"I don't think you understand Israel. They have budget issues."

Explain to me how this makes sense.

Right now the parents whose 30,000 children are attending Catholic schools, pay 3x for their education: tuition + fees + taxes as well. Now the Israeli Ministry of Education wants to LIMIT the amount of fees they can charge to parents. You'd think that if they were concerned about "budget issues," they'd want the Christian schools to collect MORE fees from the parents, and use less tax money.

And then they offer as an alternative, that these should all become public schools--- which means the taxes would be paying, not just some fraction of the cost, but 100% of the cost.

Obviously, his would cost the taxpayers a whole heckuva lot more.

It doesn't look like the solution to a budget problem to me. It looks like a state takeover agenda.

[Alas Babylon!]

The Christian schools in the country consist of more than 30,000 students, almost equally divided between Christians and Muslims.

Um, shouldn't Christian schools have like, NO Muslims?

[Mrs. Don-o]

If you're for compulsory schooling but against public funding, why not abolish both public funding and public schools? Put the schools --- all of them --- on the free market, and abolish education taxes.

Or, as a kind of hybrid measure, there's vouchers, As I suggested elsewhere #15, that would be equal funding for all, parental choice for all, free market competition leading to schools more exactly matching the parents' preferences.

Or, to be more radical: abolish compulsory schooling AND the associated taxes altogether, and let the parents pay out of pocket for whatever kind of education (school or non-school) they want for their kids.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Why?

[jjotto]

Different topic entirely. Israel is not the USA, and will never be no matter how hard anyone tries.

[Mrs. Don-o]

LOL! What I described at #25 is not the USA! It was my idea of a free country!

[robowombat]

‘They are doing the same to Jewish schools. This isn’t mentioned because it interferes with their persecution complex and desire for leftist help.
So an attempt to economically squeeze Jewish schools too in order to be taken over by the state justifies the same attempt against Christian schools? Christians should just keep quiet and let the state close down their schools? ‘

This is fascinating. Is what is going on here a salami slice campaign by the Israeli version of DOE to strangle denominational schools and force students to get their education from a very secular-liberal state system? The only exceptions are the Orthodox Jews because they band together and wield enough electoral clout that the secularists have to play nice with them to make them potential or actual partners in some coalition government or another.

I know I have read that the Israeli educrats detest ‘settlers and their settlements’ because most ‘settlements’ have their own self governing schools.

[jjotto]

National Religious orthodox are in the state-controlled system, it is the Haredi orthodox that are the target. Anyone else is just collateral damage. There are now a Haredi Nationalist (Hardal) schools that the Education Ministry is trying to quietly promote.

Much stranger and more involved than this thread indicates.

[SunkenCiv]

Looks like another propaganda piece -- there's a great deal of outside funding for "Palestinian" schools, even the Christian ones; Israel's gov't funds non-secular non-gov't schools as well as the public schools, and appears to balance funding based on the amount of other support they get, and presumably the level of other expenditures (teacher pay is likely a factor). It should be interesting to note that Haredi schools get the least, and in this chart from 2013, 3000 less per student than the Arab schools.

[snip] An analysis by TheMarker shows they get an average of NIS 27,000 a year per student, while Arab students receive NIS 21,000, and Haredim NIS 18,700. [/snip] [Lior Dattel | Jul. 19, 2013]

[Mrs. Don-o]

Interesting chart, and strange. Why the discrepancy between the amounts of funding for different faith-related schools? How do the educrats justify that? Some complicated formula?

Of course, here in the USA the faith-related schools get zilch. When I was in parochial school, we didn't even get a subsidy for the busfare.

[SunkenCiv]

There’s a core curriculum; schools pick and choose what they’ll teach, and get paid based on each module. Also, as I said, the non-secular schools get outside support, even the Christian ones do, from foreign Arab sources.

[Alas Babylon!]

Sorry I am late replying...

Well, if they had Muslims they’d be Muslim schools—or at least not 100% Christian, no?

I could see a Christian school having Muslim children in it, but they would be getting a Christian education, which would be seriously objected to by their more fundamental cousins in say, Iran or ISIS.

[UnwashedPeasant]

"And you put 'Christians' in scare quotes? Do you mean to suggest they are not Christians?"

You cannot be both a Christian and an anti-Semite.

[UnwashedPeasant]

"Most of these schools began operating years before the State of Israel was established."

The Arab writer is saying "We were here first." How is his statement relevant to the article except as an implicit claim to seniority?

It is also curious that the Arab writer says "years before the State of Israel was established" -- not centuries before. The schools formed when the area flourished due to a flood of Zionist Jews returning to their ancestral home. Arabs moved to the area because of the economic boom. Before the Zionist Renaissance, the area was a wasteland.

The writer should be grateful to live in Israel instead of Syria or Iraq, or wherever his ancestors came from mere decades ago.

If you are not aware of the anti-Semitism among many self-described Arab Christians, here is a recent story for illustration:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3202955/posts

There are certainly real Arab Christians in Israel, but there are many counterfeits.

[UnwashedPeasant]

The website the article comes from is clearly pro-Hamas and anti-Semitic. Not a good source for posting on FR, in my opinion.

In this article, for example, the website equates the imprisonment of Hamas terrorists with the imprisonment of Jewish and Christian figures in the Bible. It is disgusting.

[UnwashedPeasant]

Sorry, let me add: In no way whatsoever do I question the good intentions behind this article being posted on FR.

[Mrs. Don-o]

They themselves are both Chrisians and Semites.

[Petrosius]

So any criticism of the State of Israel is anti-Semitism? This on a website that regularly criticizes the actions of our own state. I would also remind you that although Israel is a Jewish state it is most definitely a secular one. This knee-jerk defense of every action that the State of Israel takes is not helpful in building up support. Despite its vast superiority over its neighboring Arab states, Israel is not perfect and should be open to legitimate criticism.