Liberman: No reason to have ultra-Orthodox school in Ma'aleh Adumim
"Maale Adumim is a great city with a pluralist character. The majority of its population is secular, there is absolutely no reason to estabish a Ma'ayan HaChinuch HaTorani school here."
By JEREMY SHARONHaredim (ultra-Orthodox) residents protest as Avigdor Liberman speaks in Ma'aleh Adumim(photo credit: TOVAH LAZAROFF)
There is “no reason” to establish an ultra-Orthodox (haredi) school in Ma’aleh Adumim, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman said on Sunday, and that its mayor, Benny Kashriel, had been right to refuse such a request last month.During a visit to the city on Sunday, Liberman said that he would also insist that two major haredi elementary school networks, Hinuch Atzmai of Agudat Yisrael and Ma’ayan HaChinuch HaTorani of Shas, teach core curriculum subjects such as English, math and science.Both Hinuch Atzmai and Ma’ayan HaChinuch HaTorani do actually teach the core curriculum to the full extent, although instruction in these fields is considered to be of a relatively low standard.“The first demand of Yisrael Beytenu will be to condition [the teaching] of core curriculum studies within all [educational] frameworks,” said Liberman. “We will not give government support, not to Hinuch Atzmai and not to Ma’ayan HaChinuch HaTorani, without them introducing core curriculum studies – that is English, mathematics and science – into their study programs.”Speaking about the demands of two Shas representatives on the Ma’aleh Adumim municipal council, he said that Kashriel had “acted correctly” in refusing to grant the use of a municipally owned building for the purposes of establishing a school by Ma’ayan HaChinuch HaTorani.“Ma’aleh Adumim is a great city with a pluralist character,” said Liberman. “The majority of its population is secular, there is absolutely no reason to establish a Ma’ayan HaChinuch HaTorani school here.”Liberman also clarified his position on the so-called “Cameras Law” to allow political parties to set up cameras in polling stations, saying he did support the bill, although he alleged that there was a conspiracy between Likud and the Arab parties – against whom the bill is aimed – to promote the bill in order to boost the motivation of their mutual electoral bases.The Yisrael Beytenu leader said that he was also demanding a new law to make voting in a general election obligatory.Liberman’s intentions through this law is to boost the mediocre turnout among the general population, and in doing so, nullify the haredi parties’ traditional advantage of a high voter turnout at the directive of their religious leadership.“There is absolutely no reason that those people that get a day off on Election Day do not fulfil their civic duty,” he said. “This [obligatory voting] is customary in many countries such as Australia and Belgium, and we want to implement the Australian law ‘copy-paste’ here for the State of Israel.”
