State hoping court will keep Foreign Ministry strike from nixing Poland trip
2,000 high school students may not attend March of the Living Holocaust education trip because of delayed documents for security personnel
The state on Tuesday announced it will appeal a ruling allowing foreign ministry employees to continue not issuing diplomatic passports for Shin Bet security guards set to accompany youth delegations to Poland.
On Sunday the Jerusalem District Labor Court rejected a request from the Education Ministry to force the union to issue the necessary passports, which are needed to allow thousands students to make the yearly heritage trips.
Foreign Ministry workers have imposed gradual labor sanctions over the last months, refusing to issue visas or plan official trips abroad in protest for higher wages.
A total of 2,000 students are scheduled to leave for Poland to participate in some 20 delegations that will visit Holocaust sites as part of the March of the Living program. The trips are scheduled to leave over the next two weeks, but the visits will be canceled if they cannot be provided with security personnel.
Should the missions be aborted, the Education Ministry, which organizes the missions for 11th- and 12th-graders, will not be able to refund parents the average of NIS 6,000 ($1,680) that they paid for each participating pupil, Ynet reported on Monday.
The chairman of the Association of High School Principals, Aryeh Loker, told Ynet that if the trips are canceled, the high schools will sue the workers’ union for damages.
“It is not right that we should have to bear such heavy financial losses because of these sanctions,” he said.
Among those also caught in the deadlock is Israel’s new ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer, who will not receive his diplomatic passport or any other paperwork. Requests to US authorities for special ambassadorial permits have not been made and Dermer has not received the usual preparation courses required before taking up his new position, the daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported earlier this month. He has also not been able to meet with staff from the North American offices who are to prepare him for the job.
As a result, Dermer will likely be forced to delay his arrival in Washington beyond the scheduled target date for next month, Yedioth said.