Education Minister Yoav Kisch is not a member of the security cabinet and is therefore not directly involved in the decision-making regarding the ongoing hostage deal with Hamas.
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post this week, he declined to discuss the crisis regarding the number of hostages that Hamas is to release on Saturday but he stressed that Israel is determined to effect the release as many hostages as possible, indicating that the deal with Hamas would continue even if the terrorist group fails to meet US President Donald Trump’s demand to release all remaining hostages on Saturday.
Kisch mentioned that he had met United States Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff in Poland at a ceremony commemorating 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The difference between the previous and current administrations is “dramatic,” Kisch said. He gave as examples the willingness to “think outside the box” regarding removing civilians from the Gaza Strip; the cessation of delays in weapons transfers; and the commitment to the destruction of Hamas.
Kisch said that he supports enabling Gazans to leave the Strip if they wish during the period of rehabilitation, and said that they should be allowed to return as long as they “did not have a murderous ideology regarding Jews.”
Lessons from October 7
Following October 7, Israel has learned two things, Kisch said. First, it cannot accept Hamas’s existence on its border, and second, that after 16 months of war, many areas in Gaza are no longer appropriate for living and would need to undergo a long period of rehabilitation, he said.
Kisch rejected Palestinian Authority rule in Gaza on the “day after” the war, since it “educated to hate Jews and supported murderers of Jews.” He supports local leadership backed by moderate international actors, but did not elaborate.
Kisch added that he believes there will be another invasion of Gaza in order to topple Hamas, and that there will be “no way to avoid it.”
He defended the government’s decision this week not to form a State Commission of Inquiry into October 7, and to hold the next discussion on the issue in 90 days. The members of such a commission would be appointed by the president of the Supreme Court, and Kisch argued that public distrust in the court’s newly selected president, Isaac Amit, means that large parts of the public would not trust the commission’s conclusions.
Kisch said that he supports a makeup of a commission of inquiry that would be agreed upon by all sides. He added that the war is not over, and that the commission of inquiry should not start its work during the war, in order not to disrupt decision-making processes.
He said that the 2025 budget must pass no matter the political issues on the table. This includes haredi objections to government attempts to increase numbers of haredim in the IDF, and other threats to condition support of the budget on other issues. Kisch said he is confident that the budget will pass and that the coalition party leaders will understand that Israel cannot afford to enter a six-month “spiral” of an election during a war and without a budget.
Kisch said that Israel should not forget that the main national security threat remains Iran. The Trump administration has indicated that it prefers a diplomatic solution to block Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. However, if necessary, Israel, with US support, has the means to act militarily.
Education in the Israel-Hamas War
KISCH ALSO discussed a number of education-related matters currently on the table.
The government decided that the education system will return to full capacity in the North beginning on March 1. This requires a number of preparatory measures, Kisch said. The first is preparing the schools physically – including renovations of schools that were damaged, cleaning them, and more. This will cost approximately NIS 200 million, Kisch said.
The full functioning of the schools involves two components – the return of both students and pedagogic staff to the North, he added. Already, many families have returned to the area, and students are studying in “rear areas” away from the northern border. Evacuated families who decided to stay put until the end of the school year can continue sending their children to local schools in the places they are residing. However, other than a few exemptions, temporary schools set up specially for evacuees will close.
The week of March 2 to March 9 will be an “organization week” in order to enable the transition.
The ministry also invested NIS 50m. in informal education, including in resilience and mental health support. Beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, the ministry will enter a five-year plan similar to the plan developed in the Gaza border area, Kisch said.
In a statement on Wednesday, Kisch said that the plan is contingent on a government decision, and that if the security situation in the North worsens, the plan would need to be amended accordingly.
He said that after a “complicated struggle,” he succeeded in opening three medical schools, which will provide approximately 200 slots for Israeli medical students per year – 80 at Reichman University, 40-50 at the Weizman Institute of Science, and 60 at the University of Haifa. Reichman is set to begin in the upcoming spring semester, and Weizmann and Haifa are set to begin in the fall semester. The move will enable more Israelis to study in Israel instead of in Europe, Kisch said.
The education minister also praised a recent initiative, which he said was “groundbreaking,” to give teachers and students basic tools to use artificial intelligence. The move was developed in cooperation with tech companies, including Microsoft and Google. The ministry also developed a bot that can instruct teachers and students how to use artificial intelligence productively. This includes knowing the correct prompts in order to achieve desired results, Kisch explained.
Kisch commended the increase of 50% in the public-haredi school system, which currently numbers approximately 26,000 students.
However, these numbers pale in comparison to the two large haredi school systems, which together number approximately 180,000 students – Hinuch Atzmai, which is affiliated with the Degel Hatorah Party, and Bnei Yosef, which is affiliated with Shas. Both systems receive 100% funding from the state, yet are run privately.
These two systems have been increasingly criticized in recent years for bad financial management, as well as for not meeting Education Ministry standards regarding “core curriculum” studies. The Finance Ministry is currently examining whether to declare the two systems bankrupt.
The two systems have also been criticized for alleged violation of workers’ rights – there are currently over 80 ongoing civil suits by employees against the systems, as well as eight class action lawsuits.
Kisch admitted that there were problems in oversight of the systems which stemmed from the fact that the law, which was upheld by the High Court of Justice, permitted the anomaly of state-funded yet privately run systems, only in these two cases.
Financial oversight was conducted by the Finance Ministry independently of the Education Ministry, and Kisch argued that improvements had been made regarding pedagogical oversight. He gave as examples the fact that the two systems are for the first time participating in national evaluation tests called Tnufa, and that for the first time the systems were required to provide the Education Ministry with a detailed list of all of the teachers they employ.