Bennett announces: Breaking the Silence will be barred from Israeli schools

Rachel Avraham

Naftali Bennett Photo Credit: Flash 90

Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett instructed to bar members of the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence from entering schools, following a consultation with senior-level officials in the education system. Bennett: “Lies and incitement against the IDF – not in our schools.”

Following the publication earlier today (Tuesday) on Channel 2 News, Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett announced this evening that he forbids meetings between Israeli school children and representatives of the radical leftist NGO Breaking the Silence.
The decision came after an urgent discussion on this issue with representatives from the Israeli educational system. Bennett instructed to update the regulations regarding educational discussions so as to explicitly indicate that organizations that incite against IDF soldiers, such as Breaking the Silence, will not be allowed to enter school grounds.

“Our children are being sent to the education system in order to encourage them to exhibit mutual responsibility, not to harm of IDF soldiers,” Bennett claimed. “The actions of Breaking the Silence have slandered Israel in the world, as they have set as a goal for themselves to harm their brothers that protect us. Lies and incitement against the IDF – not in our schools.”

Breaking the Silence Photo Credit: Channel 2 News
According to the testimonies that led to the decision, Breaking the Silence members held both formal and informal meetings with Israeli school children, where they were given a platform to indoctrinate them.

According to NGO Monitor, Breaking the Silence is a politicized NGO with a left wing extremist agenda that often provokes riots and has a raison d’etre of criticizing the IDF. Amos Harel wrote in Haaretz, “Breaking the silence has a clear political agenda and can no longer be claimed to be a human rights organization.” In the tours they conduct with students, they teach only their political agenda and they seek to indoctrinate students to follow their political agenda, as demonstrated during a Breaking the Silence tour that was performed for students at Ben-Gurion University.

“In recent days, we received news that the Breaking the Silence appearances are controversial for high school students in the educational system,” Sarah Haetzni, CEO of My Israel, stated. “This is a very worrying phenomenon not only because it doesn’t contribute towards Israeli society holding meaningful and provocative discussions on IDF operations but also for it harms the State of Israel, the IDF, and its fighters.”