The Education Ministry has acknowledged that about 40 Jewish children from Iran are presently attending missionary schools in Israel. The Ministry said it is investigating the matter on the basis of a complaint by Likud MK Moshe Katzav, Twenty of the children are studying at a missionary institution in Jerusalem and the rest at an Anglican institution in Jaffa. The Ministry believes they were enrolled by their parents, possibly at the encouragement of missionary sources in Iran.
If the youngsters came to Israel on tourist visas, as many did during the Iranian revolution, the Education Ministry is powerless to dictate where they attend school. If they came as immigrants, however, the Israeli authorities could invoke the compulsory education law to force them to leave the missionary schools.
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