Tens of thousands of high school students are busy at home, studying for their matriculation exam in civics scheduled for June. Education Minister Rafi Peretz has decided to take into consideration the limitations of online teaching during the lockdown imposed on most Israelis by the spread of COVID-19. In a March 20 tweet, Peretz, a representative of right-wing settlers, said he had instructed the professionals in his ministry to make this year’s matriculation exams easier for students in terms of the material to be covered and the topics from which they will be exempt. Two days later, the Education Ministry issued a list of the subjects covered by the exam. Anat Ohion, the ministry’s supervisor of civics studies, informed teachers, “Due to the emergency, only sections appearing on the focus list should be taught,” adding, “and only in this context.”

Education Ministry sources told Haaretz education affairs analyst Or Kashti that the “focus” was adapted from questions formulated prior to the novel coronavirus outbreak, calling it “a political tool in the hands of the regime that signals to students and teachers what is important and what can be skipped.” So here are some of the subjects that Israeli 12th graders and soon-to-be-armed soldiers apparently do not need to know, even though they will be eligible to vote in the next election and will determine the direction and future of their state.

• the authority or role of the Supreme Court and judicial independence;
•  the conflict between Arabs and Jews, the principle of majority decisions and preservation of minority rights (in other words, the principle of majority tyranny), civil rights (the right to vote and be elected, the right of political association) or group and cultural rights (among them the right of an ethnic minority to its own language, culture and representation);
• the commitment to obey the law (including refusal to obey the law due to conscientious, ideological-political objections or to an unlawful order);
• the separation of religion and state and the right of a democracy to protect itself against threats to the nature of the regime and character of the state.

The civics exam will, however, cover Israel's religious identity while skipping analysis of the various positions held by Arabs and Jews in regard to its national identity.

The Education Minister’s coronavirus “considerations” have not exempted students from learning by heart the chapter on the “Jewish characteristics of the state,” including a reference to the Nationality Law (2018) and to the status of Hebrew as the only official language as determined by this controversial statute. The characteristics of Israel's non-Jewish citizens, the 21% Arab minority, are known and familiar to every Israeli household. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government colleagues repeatedly label this community and its elected representatives a minority that supports a gang of terrorists.