Teachers protest in Tel Aviv over unpaid salaries

Hundreds of teachers demonstrated outside the Education Ministry in Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning over the failure to pay their full salaries in September.

Some said they received as much as NIS 3,000 (approx. $750) less than their normal salary.

The teachers directed much of their frustration toward Education Minister Naftali Bennett, brandishing signs that read: “Bennett don’t apologize, just pay.”

“This is insulting, degrading, and leaves us with the feeling that we are second-class workers,” one teacher, who identified himself as Shlomi from Ashdod, told the Ynet news website ahead of the protest. “The Education Ministry demands that we be the best and most outstanding teachers, therefore we demand from the Education Ministry excellence in its work and that it pay us on time and in full.”

“We are not requesting more than what we are entitled to,” said Tal Kanias, one of the protest’s leaders told Ynet. “We want our salaries for our hard work. This is an opportunity for the education minister to fix this historic injustice.”

According to the Education Ministry, the salaries were only partially paid due to an accounting error. In a statement in response, the Education Ministry said that “in the few cases in which teachers did not receive their full salary, the ministry has taken a series of steps: the opening of information centers, the establishment of a special working committee with the participation of teachers and principals, and the transfer of advance payments as needed.”

The protests began online, with a series of Facebook posts that drew a great deal of support and led to the protest. The teachers have received the backing of numerous politicians, including Meretz leader MK Zehava Galon, who in a Facebook post accused Bennett of spending his time “uploading instructional videos on Sukkot” to his own Facebook page and protesting the upcoming destruction of the Amona outpost rather than ensuring that the teachers receive their proper salaries.”

Zionist Union MK Ksenia Svetlova also criticized the education minister, saying that, “Bennett has a lot to apologize for to the teachers protesting here today. He has forgotten that he is the education minister and not the settlements minister.” Svetlova added that “instead of fixing this injustice that has happened to thousands of teachers, who are employees of his ministry, Bennett prefers to invest all his energy to fight against the state’s decision to evacuate Amona. This is probably more attractive and brings more headlines.”

Naftali Bennett admitted in a video response to the protests that “this is a serious problem.” The minister claimed that he had personally instructed his ministry to pay any money owed to teachers and promised both short-term and long-term solutions to the issue.

He vowed that this problem of salary payments, which has been ongoing for 20 years, will be solved during his term as education minister. “The guiding principles for me are fairness and transparency,” Bennett said. “Teachers need to know exactly what is happening, to know why they are receiving that amount and to get the correct salary.”

In an interview with Ynet, he said that “the anger of the teachers is justified” and that Israeli teachers “will receive their salaries in full, on time.”

Bennett and other officials were not at their offices in the ministry at the time of the protest because of the Sukkot holiday.