From the Liveblog of
Thursday, January 1, 2026
High Court orders state to defend law allowing for firing of teachers who identify with terror
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
The High Court of Justice issues a conditional ruling ordering the state to explain why a November 2024 law authorizing the Education Ministry to fire teachers who publicly identify with an act of terrorism should not be repealed.
The ruling, in response to petitions by a group of teachers and the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee, gives the government until the end of April to defend the legislation, whose passage drew condemnation from human rights advocates.
According to the Israel Hayom daily, the petitioners argued that the law violates the right to due process and grants “exclusive powers of investigation, examination, trial and punishment to political entities.”
Co-sponsored by MKs Zvika Fogel (Otzma Yehudit) and Amit Halevi (Likud), the law grants the director general of the Education Ministry the authority to fire, without prior notice, teachers who have either been convicted of a security or terror offense or have “published a direct call to carry out an act of terrorism or published words of praise, sympathy or encouragement for an act of terrorism [or] support for or identification with it.”
It also allows the ministry to cut or reduce funding for schools in which such expressions have been found, if it has been determined that “the management of the educational institution knew or should have known about their existence.”
In a statement, recently appointed Knesset Education Committee chairman Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism) says that his panel will hold an urgent hearing on the ruling, claiming that the court is “endangering the future of the state.”
“It is imperative to state things clearly: Those who identify with terrorism cannot and are not allowed to teach students. The High Court that insists on protecting teachers who support terrorism is disconnecting itself from the security reality and from the basic responsibility for the safety and education of Israeli children,” says Sukkot.
The Education Committee will convene to “to ensure that budgets are denied to educational institutions that identify with terrorist organizations.”
The Times of Israel Community.