education ministry

An Arab choir sings at Independence Day celebrations, held in Umm al-Fahm, April 29, 1958 (Moshe Pridan/GPO)

Revealed: Shin Bet controlled Arab schools for decades

Classified documents reveal how, for years, Israel’s internal security service meddled in Arab society’s education system, firing teachers deemed ‘threats’ and employing Shin Bet agents in the Education Ministry. It has long been known that the Shin Bet, Israel’s shadowy internal security service, has been involved in surveillance over the country’s Arab population. Since the very…

By Edo Konrad January 21, 2018

Education Minister Naftali Bennett speaks to students at Bar Ilan University on January 01, 2013. (Flash90)

Is it ‘unethical’ to oppose the occupation in academia?

A new ‘code of ethics’ commissioned by Israel’s education minister seems to target left-wing politics in universities. The Israeli Education Ministry, headed by far-right politician Naftali Bennett, recently commissioned an ethical code for political conduct in higher education in Israel. The resulting document (Hebrew) is a highly invasive set of political thought controls portrayed as…

By Dahlia Scheindlin June 12, 2017

A pair of glasses resting on a worksheet used to teach Arabic to Israeli students, during an Arabic class at the Branco Weiss School. (Flash90)

Teaching our children Arabic should be elementary

A new study shows that Jewish Israeli teens who studied Arabic in elementary school have a better appreciation for Arab society later on. As the government continues its attacks on Arabic, it is imperative that teachers and parents fight to ensure children learn the language. By Gil Gertel The so-called nation-state bill, which passed its…

By +972 Magazine May 16, 2017

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Education Minister Naftali Bennett, welcomes students on their first day of school, Raanana, September 1, 2015. (Sasson Tiram/Flash90)

In Israel’s education system, ‘democracy’ is a dirty word

The Education Ministry seems to be doing all it can to give teachers the feeling that deep, honest conversations about democracy and equality are not welcome in school. By Gil Gertel The director-general of the Education Ministry published an amendment to its “Educational Discourse on Controversial Issues” guidelines last week. The reason? To impose restrictions on guest lecturers who come and…

By +972 Magazine December 18, 2016

Israeli soldiers in battle with the Arab village of Sassa in the upper Galilee, October 1, 1948. (GPO)

Using education to normalize horrific acts of violence

This is how the Israeli education system makes it possible for generation after generation of Israelis to accept the most brutal forms of state violence. By Gil Gertel October provides Israelis a number of opportunities for self examination, one of which happened just a week ago, on October 14. On that night in 1953, 600 Israeli soldiers — half…

By +972 Magazine October 23, 2016

Illustrative photo of children in a library. (photo: Shutterstock.com)

No room for occupation in Israel’s civics curriculum

Students who open up the Education Ministry’s new civics textbook won’t find a word about military rule or discrimination against 20 percent of the population. There’s a reason for that. By Gil Gertel Education Minister Naftali Bennett has managed to make some changes in Israel’s civic education curriculum: it is now more religious and less humanistic.…

By +972 Magazine January 16, 2016

Illustrative photo of children in a library. (photo: Shutterstock.com)

The uncomfortable context of Israel’s book ban

The decision to prevent high schools from teaching a Jewish-Palestinian love story might sound like an innocent attempt at promoting Jewish continuity. In fact, it’s the sound of Israel’s extreme right going mainstream. Israel’s Education Ministry announced Wednesday that it would ban Israeli high schools from teaching a novel about a love affair between a…

By Edo Konrad December 31, 2015

Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett campaigning. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

Bennett as education minister: Less science, more Judaism

Bennett’s party website lists promoting ‘love for land and [Jewish] people’ as a top priority; the Education Ministry already announced that fewer classroom hours will be devoted to core subjects like math, language and history. Along with the announcement that Netanyahu finally formed a governing coalition Wednesday night came the anticipated news that Israel’s next…

By Natasha Roth-Rowland May 7, 2015

Holocaust survivors return to Libya from Bergen Belsen concentration camp, 1945. (Yad Vashem)

We can no longer deny the Holocaust of Libya’s Jews

I wanted to believe that my mother’s cries, who for years woke up in the middle of the night, crying in a mix of Arabic and Italian, were not heard by a single writer of Israeli history. By Yossi Sucary I wanted the believe that the Nazis’ bullets, which struck the heads of my mother’s…

By +972 Magazine April 16, 2015

Illustrative photo of school children and a teacher in class (Photo by Shutterstock.com)

Education Ministry’s website revamped – without Arabic

The Ministry of Education has promised to add Arabic to its new website ‘within days’ for over a month. Since the Israeli school year began on September 1, the Education Ministry’s official website, which was recently revamped, has failed to provide its new look in Arabic – which is (still) an official language in Israel.…

By Mairav Zonszein October 5, 2014

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on April 9, 2013. (photo: State Department photo/ Public Domain)

When ‘buying time’ means one thing: More occupation

The lie about an alleged peace process does not end in Israeli schools or in the minds of Israeli soldiers in the occupation’s army; it is the pillar of international diplomacy, especially that of the United States. That is its true greatness. By Noam Chayat On June 6, exactly 46 years after Israel conquered the…

By +972 Magazine July 6, 2013

Yair Lapid with "Yesh Atid" activists (photo: Yotam Ronen / activestills.org)

The one good thing the next government could accomplish

If Yair Lapid’s party takes over the Education Ministry, it could bring an end to the Greater-Israelization of the country’s schools and universities. After 45 years of occupation and no end in sight, it would be better for Israel to have a completely right-wing/ultra-Orthodox government than a right-wing/centrist one with Yair Lapid, Kadima and possible…

By Larry Derfner January 28, 2013

Protest against the boycott Law, Tel Aviv, June 12 2011 (photo: Oren Ziv/activestills)

No, democracy isn’t the right of the majority to squelch dissent

By Naomi Paiss To some, the controversy over the firing of Adar Cohen, the Education Ministry bureaucrat in charge of civics education, may be no more than a footnote in the cultural and political wars roiling Israel. In my professional position, running communications for the New Israel Fund, I might agree. My job requires me…

By +972 Magazine August 22, 2012