Bnei Brak Religious-Nationalist School Gates Welded Shut Amid Tensions
Students at the Afikim state-religious school in Bnei Brak found their gates welded shut on Monday, sparking police intervention and exposing deep tensions over co-education in the ultra-Orthodox city.
Iron Gates Welded Shut
Students arriving at the "Afikim" state-religious school in Bnei Brak on Monday morning were shocked to find the school's iron gates welded shut and locked. The incident required police intervention to cut open the locks so that children, some as young as six and seven, could enter their classrooms.
Parents of the students claim this is the latest escalation in a systematic campaign of harassment by the ultra-Orthodox municipality and local residents who object to a co-educational state-religious (Mamlachti-Dati) school operating in the city.
A History of Displacement
According to parents, the school's troubles began early in the war when a rocket struck nearby, shattering the building's windows.
One mother, Sarit, described the subsequent year as a nightmare:
"The municipality used the rocket strike as an excuse to throw us into a temporary structure inside a high school yeshiva at the edge of town. For an entire year, our young children in first and second grade had to study in deplorable conditions—without air conditioning, without proper toilets, with recurring sewage floods and power outages."
Sarit added that while parents were repeatedly promised they would return after the holidays, the original school building was fully renovated and handed over to another educational institution.
Only a month ago, the school was moved to a new building, but parents report that harassment has continued. Initially, the municipality failed to install a sign at the entrance, leaving young children confused on their first day. Later, a sign was installed that addressed only girls, despite the school being co-educational.
Police Intervention and Conflicting Accounts
Following the discovery of the welded gates on Monday morning, the school principal filed an official complaint with the Israel Police, who arrived with cutting tools to force open the gates.
While teachers and parents accuse the municipality of locking the gates to signal that the state-religious school is unwelcome, the Bnei Brak municipality denied any involvement in the welding, blaming a "radical neighbor" instead.
The Municipality's Response
The Bnei Brak municipality issued a statement claiming that the complex houses several educational institutions from different sectors. To prevent friction, the city said it invested hundreds of thousands of shekels to prepare separate, designated entrances for each institution, including "Afikim."
According to the municipality:
"To our great regret, the school administration chose to ignore these prior agreements. Instead of entering through the designated gate prepared for them, students and staff arrived at another gate this morning, and in an unnecessary populist move, refused to use the regulated entrance and stood outside until the gate was breached."
The city dismissed the parents' claims of discrimination as "completely baseless," stating that it has invested heavily in alternative structures for the school following the rocket damage, in accordance with Ministry of Education guidelines.
However, a teacher at the school disputed this account, asserting that the municipality had locked all gates to push them out. Parents also noted that the alternative rear gate was locked because the Ministry of Education had deemed it unregulated and unsafe. They claim the separation was demanded because a neighboring ultra-Orthodox kindergarten objected to religious-nationalist boys and girls, including special education classes, sharing the same entrance.
