JVL Introduction
Ssssshhh, don’t mention the hostages! One year on from October 7th, the Israeli government has issued a memo to schools about what they can and cannot discuss. Surprisingly this even includes restrictions on discussing the situation of the Israeli hostages and anything else that could be construed as “the failures of the government and the military”, which is “deliberate, a forgetting meant to mold the memory of Israel’s children”. The Educational system has always worked to promote a particular narrative of Israeli heroism in the face of those people who “rose up to destroy us”.
There are, of course, plans to commemorate October 7th, which unquestionably had a deep impact on everyone in Israel but the list of themes excludes the hostages, let alone any mention of the context that led to the Hamas attack or the pulverisation of Gaza that has followed supposedly “in response” nor the bombardment of Lebanon.
As the writer says, there is no room for teaching critical thinking in Israel’s education system, yet we are supposed to regard Israel as a democracy and it is doing things redolent of authoritarian regimes.
LL
This article was originally published by Ha’retz (Opinion_ on Sun 29 Sep 2024.