Jerusalem Court Orders Palestinian-Israeli Bereaved Families Forum Back Into Schools

The Jerusalem District Court has ordered the Education Ministry to restore the Palestinian-Israeli Bereaved Families Forum’s program, “Dialogue Meetings, From Pain to Hope,” to the Gafn database used by schools. The ruling comes despite years of controversy over whether the program is educational dialogue or political messaging. The court said the ministry had not proven that the program contradicts the goals of state education.

Judge Aharon Rubin ruled that the decision to remove the program could not stand. He wrote that the court must examine the program itself, not the public positions attributed to the organization that runs it, and added that state education is supposed to expose students to a range of views while encouraging independent thinking, judgment and criticism. The forum’s program brings high school students together with bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families to discuss pain, loss and reconciliation.

Education Minister Yoav Kisch and right-wing groups sharply condemned the ruling. Kisch said, “The court wants to force the Education Ministry to bring an organization of families of terrorists into our children’s classrooms,” calling the ruling “scandalous and disgraceful.” He said he has opposed the group’s entry into schools since taking office and vowed, “I will fight with all my strength to keep them out of the education system.” The Education Ministry said it is still advancing new regulations for outside groups in schools, but they have not yet been approved by legal authorities.

The organization B’Tsalmo and the group B’Choose Life also denounced the decision, arguing that the forum creates a false symmetry between terror victims and the families of terrorists. They said that in some activities soldiers are portrayed negatively and that such messages are aimed at teenagers shortly before enlistment. The dispute had included a previous recusal by Rubin over conflict-of-interest claims, but the Supreme Court later overturned that recusal and returned the case to him.