Children at Bnei Brak school find gates welded shut; mother: ‘They won’t accept a mixed school for girls and boys’

Children at a school in Bnei Brak arrived this morning to find the gates welded shut, with parents accusing the municipality of indifference toward an educational institution that has boys and girls studying together.

Parents of children at the Afikim school tell the Ynet news site that the school suffers from harassment at the hands of the municipality and residents and that there have been problems ever since the school’s original building was damaged in an Iranian missile attack.

“The most frustrating and infuriating thing was to discover that our original building, the one we begged to be renovated for the children, was finally renovated, but for someone else,” a mother says.

“Only a month ago, after all this back and forth, they finally moved us to a new building, but the harassment just doesn’t stop,” she says.

“It seems that there are people around us who are not willing to accept that we are a mixed school for boys and girls. At first, the municipality didn’t even bother to put a sign at the entrance, and little children on the first day of school didn’t know where to go. Then they put up a sign that was only for girls,” she says.

The mother says that this morning, children arrived to find the gates welded shut, and the police had to be called to break in.

In a statement, the municipality tells Ynet that there are a number of educational institutions at the same site and “out of responsibility and a desire to prevent friction and unpleasantness, the municipality invested resources and prepared designated, separate entrances for the educational institution and the Afikim school within them.”

טוביה יגלניק: אירוע מופרע הבוקר בבני ברק: הכניסה לבית הספר הממלכתי-דתי נחסמה כי אין בו הפרדה מגדרית בין הילדים. קיצונים חרדים הלחימו וריתכו את שער הכניסה לביהס הממלכתי- דתי בשכונת פרדס כ״ץ המעורבת, כדי שהתלמידים, רבים מהם ילדי חינוך מיוחד, לא יוכלו להיכנס. בתמונה: אחרי פריצת השער pic.twitter.com/sM460ENpF9

— listein (@Lihistein) September 7, 2026