Education Minister Rafi Peretz attacked the Haifa Mayor's decision not to allow Druze students to study in the city.
"The decision to exclude Druze students from Haifa schools personally hurts me. Our legacy has been and remains rooted in a fraternal alliance with the Druze community. We go shoulder-to-shoulder as a single bulwark to integrate them into the fabric of life in Israeli society.
"We have to make sure that they, who fought side by side with us, will always receive the treatment they deserve and certainly not in the way things were done. Haifa's mayor Einat Kalish must retract her decision and allow our Druze brothers to continue studying in the city, as it has been so far."