Israel is instilling mob values in its children
Zilberman High School in Be’er Sheva.
The Haaretz lead editorial on 25 September 2024:
Imagine dozens of students at a school surrounding a 7th-grade, 12-year-old Arab girl and loudly singing ‘your village should burn.’ That’s what happened at the Zilberman School in Be’er Sheva last week, after the girl dared to express sympathy for the children of Gaza during a class discussion (Haaretz, September 24).
And what did the school do in response? It suspended her. And the Education Ministry? It supported the suspension. And the parents of the other students at the school? They demanded in a WhatApp group that she be kept out of class. And the municipality? Well, the deputy mayor proposed stripping her entire family’s citizenship.
The girl told Haaretz that in the classroom discussion, she said that children were suffering from hunger and dying in Gaza. When the lesson ended, the other students in the class began attacking her, accusing her of supporting Hamas, cursing at her and singing “your village should burn.” This mob culture is well-established: Videos from the school were posted on social media and the responses inciting violence did the trick.
The girl’s father recounted that “very quickly, students began gathering around her” and that “the teacher simply walked away and let the girl fend for herself against the students until another teacher came, saw the situation and took her to the principal.” For her part, the principal alerted the father and informed him that his daughter would be suspended for several days “to understand where the winds were blowing” and to protect his daughter from attacks and harassment. The father decided to also keep his second daughter at home, out of concern that she would be harassed, and he said that other Arab students at the school did the same. The Education Ministry reported that it was decided to keep the girl away from the school due to her conduct, until the matter is fully clarified, and to avoid friction between her and the other students.
The incident at the Zilberman school is additional evidence of disturbing developments occurring in society and in the country and that the war has only helped accelerate them. Every link in the chain of events and all of those involved – both adults and children and including those at the private, institutional, educational, municipal and national levels – are all tainted by it. A 12-year-old girl expressed her opinion during class discussion. She’s abandoned to group bullying and when adults are so kind as to intervene, they find it appropriate to suspend her.
The school resoundingly failed to defend the girl, and in its decision to suspend her, it’s actually supporting bullying behavior the other students displayed and is instilling values in support of political persecution, shunning, Jewish supremacy (that the Jewish children are purportedly allowed to say anything about Arabs while the Arabs are not allowed to express themselves politically), group bullying and mob attacks.
In a properly run country, the proper address for rectifying this wrong would have been the education minister. In Israel, that’s Yoav Kisch, a proven political predator and part of a racist, nationalistic government. One would hope that someone at the Education Ministry, the municipality or the school would come to their senses and protect this student.
This article is reproduced in its entirety