Palestinian Prisoners in Israel - Education Programs

Education Programs

In 1967, Palestinian prisoners were initially denied pencils and paper. In the wake of prisoner protests, access was granted to pens, pencils, paper, books, newspapers and monitored radio broadcasting. Libraries were established in every prison, and literacy and language courses were organized. Young prisoners were offered classes to prepare for the General Secondary Examination. Thousands of Palestinian prisoners have learned Hebrew in Israeli prisons.

In the 1980s, according to Maya Rosenfeld, the option of armed resistance was completely blocked and prisons became a "sanctuary". Her research among Palestinian refugees in the Dheisheh camp in Bethlehem found that the politicization process of young men from the camp underwent a qualitative transformation during their period of imprisonment, which she attributes to the internal organization practices of Palestinian prisoners and the central role of studies and education.

Eventually, Palestinian prisoners were allowed to take online courses from the Open University of Israel, and to complete academic degrees. Under the program, education for the prisoners was free, with prison authorities paying their university tuition. In 2009, there were 250 Palestinian prisoners studying at Israel's Open University.

In June 2011, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced, in response to a halt in the peace talks, that Palestinian prisoners would no longer be granted the right to pursue academic degrees in prison. In late 2012, three prisoners appealed the decision the Israeli Supreme Court, which rejected their appeal. In their ruling, the judges stated that the right to free university education does not apply to those convicted of terror offenses. The ruling did, however, call on prison authorities to be "considerate" in deciding the cases of prisoners already in the midst of academic programs.