Data received by the Socioeconomic Unit at the Mossawa Center reveals that the city of Nazareth suffers from a severe shortage in educational infrastructure, requiring no fewer than 191 additional classrooms, including 8 kindergartens and 36 classrooms for the elementary level, in addition to addressing the significant lack of fortified rooms and shelters in most of the city’s schools.

According to the Mossawa Center, the Ministry of Housing has rejected several requests submitted by the Nazareth Municipality to complete a multi-purpose building in the Khillet al-Deir neighborhood and a daycare center in the Jaleel neighborhood, citing the municipality’s inability to provide its required financial share. Although the ministry allocated 99 million NIS to the city, only 25% of that sum has been utilized so far.

The Nazareth Education Department is also calling on the Ministry of Education to fund essential infrastructure, including new kindergartens, additional classrooms, the completion of school construction projects, renovation of existing schools, and the establishment of fortified rooms—at an estimated cost of 20 million NIS.

Jaafar Farah, Director of the Mossawa Center, stated that Minister Mai Golan’s efforts to take control of development budgets intended for the Arab community and redirect them to the police “threaten the future of cities such as Nazareth, which suffers from a dangerous structural deficit.”

These issues were presented directly on Friday during a workshop organized by the Mossawa Center in cooperation with the Equality Enhancement Unit in the Workers’ Union, held at the Industrial Park – Givat HaMifratz. The workshop brought together elected officials, experts, and representatives of civil society and the private sector to discuss Nazareth’s needs in the fields of education, housing, health, infrastructure, welfare, culture, and tourism. Specialized working groups will prepare a short-term plan for 2025–2026 and lay the groundwork for a long-term program for 2027–2031.

The Mossawa Center stresses that this meeting constitutes a fundamental step toward building a broad local partnership and creating real leverage on government ministries to ensure the transfer of the city’s entitled budgets, thereby placing Nazareth on a path of genuine and equitable development.