B'Tselem spoke at Haifa school despite education minister's ban
Last week, B'Tselem called Israel an apartheid state for the first time since it was founded 31 years ago.
By TZVI JOFFREHagai El-Ad, Executive Director of B'Tselem, a leading Israeli human rights organisation, in his office in Jerusalem(photo credit: AMMAR AWAD/REUTERS)
B’Tselem director-general Hagai El-Ad spoke at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa on Monday despite a ban on B’Tselem lectures ordered by Education Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday, according to KAN news.Gallant issued the ban to block the entry of groups that “contradict the goals of the education system, including calling Israel false disparaging names; opposing Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state; discouraging meaningful service in the IDF; or acting to harm or degrade IDF soldiers during or after their service,” in a letter issued to the director-general of the Education Ministry.A law passed by the Knesset in 2018 allows the education minister to issue such bans, according to the NGO Im Tirtzu.Last week, B’Tselem called Israel an apartheid state for the first time since the group was founded 31 years ago.“Israel is not a democracy that has a temporary occupation attached to it – it is one regime from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and we must look at the full picture and see it for what it is: apartheid,” El-Ad said in explaining the policy change.Created in 1989 during the first intifada, B’Tselem documents human-rights abuses in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza.“For many years we’ve exposed our students to a broad variety of opinions from across Israel’s political spectrum,” said the Hebrew Reali School in a statement on Sunday, according to Im Tirtzu. “We respect the students’ right to express their opinion and are proud of their involvement in issues at the heart of Israeli society. We hold respectful dialogues and intend to continue this tradition.”“The education minister, who instructed the school not to give a stage to an organization that makes a living from spreading lies and encouraging international pressure on Israel, did well,” the NGO said in a statement on Monday. “The difference between a monitoring organization and a false propaganda organization is like the difference between east and west – and if the Reali School principal does not differentiate between them, then the problem is with him and not with anyone else.”“Profiting from the distribution of blood libels against the people of Israel is indeed one of the oldest professions in the world, but it really should not be adopted,” added Im Tirtzu. “We call on the education minister to expand the ‘Breaking the Silence Law’ so that propaganda organizations working against Israel cannot enter schools.”Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.
