High Court Approves Private School for Haredi Girls Involved in Segregation Row

The High Court of Justice on Tuesday approved the Education Ministry's decision to open a private school for ultra-Orthodox girls in the West Bank involved in a segregation row with their peers last year.

The Education Ministry late last month issues its approval of the school in the settlement of Immanuel, which will not be funded by the state.

In a High Court of Justice Ruling earlier in the year, the ultra-Orthodox network that runs the Beit Yaakov girls school in Immanuel was informed that it must pay a fine of NIS 5,000 for every day they continued to violate an August court order requiring it to eliminate any vestige of ethnic discrimination at the school.

Seventy-four girls, mostly of Ashkenazi origin, had been studying in an adjacent unauthorized school since the court, along with the Education Ministry, called on the school to stop holding separate classes for Ashkenazi and Sephardi students.

The ruling had come in response to a petition by the head of Noar Kahalacha, an organization that combats anti-Sephardi discrimination, accusing the school of contempt of court. The High Court said the school had authorized the girls' absence.
No response was available from the ultra-Orthodox education network.

The Ministry of Education, in their message to the Supreme Court, said they had come to a decision about opening the new school after weighing "the wants of the parents to educate their children in an educational framework of a religious Hassidic community." They emphasized in their letter that the school will not be funded by the state.