In Arab society, students return to classrooms in the shadow of crime: "It is hard to expect them to study as if nothing is happening"
Crime is affecting their functioning and achievements, causing some of them not to show up at school. A document from the Center for the Advancement of Safety in Arab Society warns of severe damage to youth and educational staff in the sector, and claims there is no comprehensive policy on the issue: "Protecting the children and the staff is a condition for the system's ability to protect them." Ministry of Education: "There is a plan to strengthen safety."
Not feeling safe even in the classroom: hundreds of thousands of students and staff in Arab society will return tomorrow (Tuesday) to their schools after another year in which crime and violence continued to shape their daily lives. For many of them, the return takes place in the shadow of the loss of a loved one, injury, witnessing a serious incident, or living under threat.
"Ilaf", the Center for the Advancement of Safety in Arab Society, warns: the crime wave does not stop at the school gate and it causes much damage to students. 339,000 students study in the Arab education system, and including Druze, Bedouins, and Circassians, their number reaches 587,000. In a special position paper issued by "Ilaf" ahead of the return to school, it is claimed:
"Crime affects attendance, concentration, emotional and social functioning, achievements, and the sense of safety, and may deepen hidden dropout. It may also erode trust in the school and public institutions. Teachers, principals, counselors, psychologists, and other educational workers also live in the same localities and are sometimes harmed, while at the same time they are required to support students and maintain the study routine."
According to "Ilaf" data, in the first half of 2026, 147 people were murdered in Arab society, compared to 131 in the same period last year. Nine of the murdered were minors. In the years 2019–2024, 71 children and teenagers under the age of 18 were murdered. The center's CEO, Adv. Rawiya Handaklu, said:
"Protecting students and staff is not just a matter of employee welfare, but a condition for the system's ability to protect its students. When a child has witnessed a murder, lost a loved one, or lives under threat, it is impossible to expect him to return to class the next day as if nothing happened."
Handaklu also claims that there is no structured plan to deal with the problem. According to her, there is no uniform definition of target populations, a dedicated budget, monitoring, or outcome indicators, and therefore the response sometimes depends on local initiatives of principals and educators. The center divides those affected into circles and requests a needs assessment and a specific response for each of them.
"Ilaf" staff ask the Ministry of Education to recognize educational workers who are in the circles of harm as a target population in need of protection, accompaniment, and systemic backing, to develop a response to the school and community circle of harm, and to set a budget framework and strengthen the professional capacity of educational teams. The authors of the document recommend that the Ministry of Education establish a protected infrastructure for mapping, locating, and tracking students and staff in the circles of harm.
The Ministry of Education responded:
"The ministry sees strengthening the resilience and safety of students and educational teams in Arab and Bedouin society as a central goal, and during the last year it formulated for this purpose 'Resilience Circles' - a systemic, dedicated, and multi-year move defined as one of the ministry's ten flagship moves. The move is intended to strengthen safety and belonging and prevent violence of all kinds, alongside accompaniment, support, and providing responses to the circles of harm according to the emerging needs. The move is backed by resources, including an instruction to schools to allocate 4% of the school-level Gafen budget for programs and responses in the field."
