Education Ministry orders special lessons against violence
Six people killed over Friday and Saturday, setting off bout of national soul-searching
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar has instructed schools across the country to schedule a special session against violence, following a weekend which saw six murders, two of them linked to teenage violence.
The discussion group will target fifth- to twelfth-graders and will be held during the course of the coming week, Maariv reported.
“We cannot be passive in the face of what is going on,” Sa’ar said. “A little bit of personal responsibility, community involvement and caring will enable all of us to have an influence on the way things should be.”
In Beersheba early Saturday morning, Gadi Vichman was killed by a group of teens after he asked them to quiet down. Less than 24 hours later, 17-year-old Orgil Muati was stabbed to death by a group of teenagers in Rehovot. The weekend also saw four other murders, in Aroer, Bat Yam, Nazareth and Rishon Lezion.
The spate of weekend killings has set off a bout of national soul searching.
At the opening of Monday’s government session Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “We know that there has been a 30% drop in murders. However, these incidents are so brutal that it makes it clear that we need to act with full force.”
Netanyahu asked Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino to provide a report on the murders, he said.
On Sunday, Aharonovitch vowed to crack down on the violence. However, the involvement of school-age kids in some of the incidents has some people looking to the education system as a first line of defense against teen violence.
The Education Ministry said the special sessions will cover taking responsibility, anger management and suggestions of what can teens do to prevent such events.
“The purpose of the session is to enable pupils share their thoughts and feelings about the recent incidents and to send a clear message about the value of life,” a ministry official told Maariv.
On Sunday night a teenage girl who is a suspect in the murder of Vichman re-enacted events for police at the scene of the crime in a Beersheba park. The girl, a minor, described how the murderer stabbed Vichman to death.
The prime suspect in the case has not confessed to the crime, although media reports say that others arrested following the murder broke down during police questioning and gave testimony against him. Some of those arrested have met with legal representatives.
