Beyond Hasbara to Indoctrination for Israel’s school students
Published
by
Leah Levane
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. Read the original here.
Israel's Education Ministry Wants to Erase All Traces of the Hostages in Gaza
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Zionists, like all ideologues don’t truly believe that people are real or that they have value in themselves. For Zionists, people, alive or dead, are simply machines for making more Zionism.
The history of Israel is a tragedy hidden from its own citizens. Children are taught a heroic myth about their country’s birth and its resoundingly moral and triumphant struggles. In every society, however dystopian, there are some that seek out unpalatable truths, but for any Israeli who does this it will be impossible to keep living there with an easy conscience. The damage bring done to Palestinians is tangible and obvious, but the damage Israel is doing to its own people is equally frightening.
Every nation has its myths: in Britain we are told that the empire was a civilizing force for good, and I suspect French schoolchildren are given a similar message. But it is unusual to see history being rewritten, or suppressed, quite so soon after it has happened. It is also unrealistic to assume that tech savvy kids will long be kept in ignorance of what is happening, when alternative views are available online. What is disturbing about this latest move is that it takes Israel closer to the current state of Russia, where indoctrination and militarization of their children seems to be proceeding apace.
yes Israel’s education is problematic to say the least. It is producing some absolutely ghastly people who sing songs about killing Palestinian children. Babies. It seems to be what could call brain washing. It does not allow any sort of debate or opinion’s that challenge the narrative that all Arabs are bad that they have to got rid of one way or another. Its inhumanity is beyond belief. Eventually this so called education will eventually destroy Israel as any sort of civilised nation worthy of any respect internationally. It has already done it seems exactly that. It is sad that Israel’s gov and those who support it have gone down this road because it is destroying any sort of credibility Israel had.
How many hostages were killed by Israeli tanks and helicopter gun ships on October 7th?! We’ll never know of course, but you can be absolutely certain that BN and his fascist buddies know.
Thing is that just about everyone attending the Nova Music Festival and the people living in the kibbutzim close to the Gaza border were on the left politically and would have undoubtedly despised the likes of Netanyahu, and Netanyahu and Co knew it. In other words, BN and his buddies don’t give a flying fox about the hostages, and never did.
The music festival should never have gone ahead of course. I can’t find it now (and only came across it 2/3 months ago), but Frank Gardner (the BBC journalist) posted an article on October 7th saying, in effect, that he found it inconceivable that Israel didn’t know well in advance that the attack was coming. Which was exactly my own conclusion.