Israel Law Would Block Anti-Occupation Group From Speaking in Schools
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett proposed legislation that would prevent the left-wing group Breaking the Silence from entering Israelis schools.
Bennett, the head of the right wing Jewish Home Party, proposed an amendment to the State Education Law that would prevent speakers from a school if “there is concern that their activity could lead to Israeli soldiers’ persecution in international forums and foreign countries for actions carried out as part of their military duty.”
The amendment has the support of Yair Lapid, chairman of the centrist Yesh Atid party.
Breaking the Silence has often come under fire from the political right and center for collecting former soldiers’ testimonies, some published anonymously, that accuse the Israeli military of excessive force against Palestinians.
Lapid said on Tuesday that he supports the legislation because he is concerned that the school talks will lower the motivation of students to serve in the Israel Defense Forces. “These organizations put soldiers at risk of being made to stand trial, and they hurt Israel’s international standing by spreading crude lies. This has to be stopped,” Lapid said, according to Haaretz.
The legislation has support in the governing coalition and from the opposition and is expected to pass the Ministerial Committee on Legislation in the next two weeks, Haaretz reported.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO