Israeli Education Minister: Groups that call Israel ‘apartheid state’ barred from schools
Israeli Education Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday banned groups that call ‘Israel’ “apartheid state” from entering the schools.
“The Education Ministry under my leadership has engraved on its banner the promotion of Zionist, Jewish and democratic values, and it acts accordingly, among other things to encourage graduates of the education system to have a meaningful service in the IDF, which is Israel’s protective tool and a key condition for its existence,” Gallant wrote to members of his ministry.
He added, “We will not allow organizations that call the State of Israel an apartheid state to lecture to students who are about to be drafted into the IDF.”
This comes after Israeli human rights group B’Tselem described ‘Israel’ as an “apartheid” regime, a term long seen as taboo for ‘Israel’ and its supporters, the first time it has done so in its 31-year history.
In a report released last Tuesday, B’Tselem said that while Palestinians live under different forms of Israeli control in the occupied West Bank, blockaded Gaza, annexed east Jerusalem and within ‘Israel’ itself, they have fewer rights than Jews in the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
“One of the key points in our analysis is that this is a single geopolitical area ruled by one government,” said B’Tselem director Hagai El-Ad. “This is not democracy plus occupation. This is apartheid between the river and the sea.”
The International Criminal Court defines apartheid as an “institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group.”
However, ‘Israel’ rejects the term, claiming the restrictions it imposes in Gaza and the West Bank are temporary measures needed for security.
B’Tselem, as it describes itself, is an “Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories strives to end Israel’s occupation, recognizing that this is the only way to achieve a future that ensures human rights, democracy, liberty and equality to all people, Palestinian and Israeli alike, living on the bit of land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.”
