israeli education

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks before the UN General Assembly (Kobi Gideon, GPO)

Netanyahu at the UN: Frozen bodies, blatant lies, and imaginary children

Netanyahu didn’t need the Mufti or a bomb diagram at this year’s UN General Assembly. Just a few kind words about a Palestinian victim of Jewish terror, branding Israel as an economic powerhouse, and kissing up to the Americans. 1. Stealing the president’s lines “Ahmed was the victim of a horrible terrorist act perpetrated by Jews……

By Samah Salaime September 24, 2016

Yitzhak Epstein.

The Zionist educator we should have listened to

At a time when Israel’s education minister sees only Jews as moral, it is worth remembering a prominent Zionist educator who taught us that things could have turned out differently. By Gil Gertel This past week marked “Land Day,” in which we commemorate and decry the dispossession of Israel’s Arab citizens of their land. Fate…

By +972 Magazine April 2, 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

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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

Soldiers in an IDF honor guard hold their weapons during the funeral for a soldier killed in Gaza, July 20, 2014, Holon, Israel. (Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Kitsch, death and god at Israel’s Education Ministry

The Israeli education minister’s letter to the graduating class of 2014 is evidence of the fact that Israeli education is little more than an ongoing IDF preparatory course. By Avner Ben-Amos (translated from Hebrew by Miriam Erez) A letter to the high school class of 2014 published by Israeli Education Minister Shai Piron in the…

By Haokets September 15, 2014

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

Empty basketball court in Israel (photo: flickr/Vadim Lavrusik)

“Foreign” non-Jews barred from Israeli youth basketball league

An Israeli youth basketball league limits the number of non-Jewish “foreigners” who can join–excluding children who were born and raised in Israel. If a team goes over the cap, it is barred from district competition. Two Filipino boys play a one-on-one basketball game in South Tel Aviv, an area where many migrant workers and their…

By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat November 13, 2011

An educational ad captures Israel’s culture of fear

In other countries, when you say “education is our future”, you usually mean that it will determine the level of prosperity and accomplishment we can hope to achieve. In Israel, the “future” is meant quite literally, in the sense that without education, we would have no future because we would all be dead. How deep…

By Roi Maor October 1, 2011

DimiReider, DimiR

Each teen in Israel to adopt a tomb

Not kidding. According to Haaretz, the Education Ministry has found a particularly macabre way of imbibing our young ones with respect for their heritage: Each junior high to high school students will adopt “a memorial or the tomb of a soldier fallen in the War of Independence.” They will be tasked with keeping the tombs…

By Dimi Reider May 22, 2011

Oct 24: The Iraq leak – an insurance policy for Israel?

The Headlines: An Ugly Fight over Benefits to Yeshiva Students > The governing coalition is split on the issue of social benefits for Yeshiva students. The ultra-orthodox parties demand their continuation, despite a Supreme Court ruling to the contrary. Other ministers, including in Likud, are strongly opposed. Attempts to include university students in the bill…

By Roi Maor October 24, 2010

Oct 22-23: Foreign donors funded 98% of Netanyahu’s campaign

The Headlines: Brutal and Incompetent > The mess over the illegal migrant worker employed by the wife of Defense Minister Barak (Labor) is not going away. The Attorney General turned down her request to pay an administrative fine, and is considering an indictment. The immigration police is scouring the country looking for the worker, while…

By Roi Maor October 23, 2010

Between the Lines (Oct 13): US cautious about Israel’s Jewishness

The Headlines: Celebrity Politics > All the newspapers open with the rescue of miners in Chile. > The Israeli media has a love-hate relationship with Iranian President Ahmedinijad. They hate the person, but love to cover him. The reporting on his visit to Lebanon, starting today, is reminiscent of the excitement produced by the visit…

By Roi Maor October 13, 2010

Oct 12: Netanyahu: freeze in exchange for a Jewish state?

The Headlines: The “Jewish state” demand strikes back > Netanyahu offered the Palestinians an extension of the settlement freeze in return for recognizing Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. Didn’t he offer them citizenship in return for the same thing, just the other day? It seems like yesterday’s bargain was better. The…

By Roi Maor October 12, 2010