Jewish teacher of Arabic tells class to translate ‘I want to kill Jews’
This is ‘incompatible with our values,’ says Education Ministry after instructor is accused of educating for hatred
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
Jewish Israeli students have complained about a Jewish teacher of Arabic who instructed ninth-grade students to translate into Arabic phrases such as “I want to kill Jews,” “I want to free Al-Aqsa [Mosque],” “I want to be a shahid [martyr],” and “The Arabs want peace? They want war!”
Pupils at the Makif Tet High School in the coastal city of Rishon Lezion were also instructed to translate the words “attack,” “car-ramming” and “stabbing,” the Hebrew-language Walla news site reported Wednesday.
One student wrote on his Facebook page: “The teacher is known for his right-wing views. He wears a kippa — not that that really matters. You mainly see his worldview and his attempt to preach to pupils that all Arabs are terrorists who only want to murder Jews.”
He added: “A teacher in Israel who educates students to hate Arabs and doesn’t educate for love and peace, who teaches that it’s not worth overcoming the disgusting stereotypes that exist, that, in my view, is the lowest thing there is.”
MK Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin (Zionist Union) called on Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the Jewish Home Party to look into the matter and take serious steps against the teacher.
“Rather than educating for coexistence through the study of Israel’s second official language, the teacher is educating to hate Arabs,” she wrote.
“Particularly today, special emphasis should be placed on education for coexistence and prevention of any attempts by a teacher to incite students against an entire population.”
The Education Ministry’s Central District said: “The test preparation page under discussion is incompatible with the ministry’s values, and was approved neither by the coordinator of the subject nor by the pedagogical secretariat. The teacher admitted his mistake and expressed his regret.”
The chairman of the Central District’s Student and Youth Council, Yahel Kirschner, said: “We strongly condemn the teacher’s activities. The State of Israel is grounded in the values of equality and mutual respect, and there is no room for such things in any educational institution which is supposed to educate for these values.”
She continued: “We believe this is an exceptional case and hope that the Education Ministry will know how to deal with such cases.”
