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Israel's education minister takes on role of political censor

Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett is promoting a law barring representatives of any anti-occupation organizations from entering high schools, effectively censoring students from information that contradicts the state's narrative.
Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, speaks during a briefing to members of the foreign press association, in Jerusalem November 14, 2016. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun  - RTX2TLQB
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The Israeli press revealed this week that the police suspect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of cutting a deal with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes for favorable media treatment. But even as the storm was raging over the illicit contacts that would have made Netanyahu the censor of the nation’s most powerful media outlet, a small news item reported that Education Minister Naftali Bennett was on his way to becoming the chief censor of the school system. Under a unanimous Jan. 8 decision by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, “The minister of education will set out rules to prevent any activity in schools by any external person or organization whose activity severely and significantly contradicts the aims of the national education system.”

According to the proposed bill, the minister is empowered to keep away from schools people and elements whose activity outside Israel raises “concern that soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces would be put on trial in international courts and foreign countries for actions they took in the course of their military service.” The main target is the veterans’ organization Breaking the Silence, which documents and publishes — in Israel and abroad — testimony by IDF soldiers of human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories.

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