But How Did They Know?

I have but one question after reading this:

Settlers Residents: Jerusalem high school teacher took part in violent left-wing protests

Parents at Jerusalem High School for the Arts complain about teacher identified in clashes between leftists, settlers local residents at a West Bank settlement of Anatot.

A Jerusalem high school teacher was among left-wing activists who violently clashed with residents [!] of the West Bank settlement community of Anatot two weeks ago, according to a recent complaint by the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council.

...At one point, the activists began hanging Palestinian flags and defaced a slogan that read "the Land of Israel for the Jewish people ["Am Yisrael"] by changing "Israel" to "Palestine."  Dozens of Anatot residents who saw what was happening came out and attacked the group of activists, consequently wounding some 20 leftists.

A resident of Anatot, who is the mother of one of the students at Jerusalem's High School for the Arts, apparently identified the teacher among the left-wing activists and filed a complaint with the school board.   The head of education at the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council joined the mother's complaint and urged the school board to rebuke the teacher.

...The Education Administration of the Municipality of Jerusalem rejected the complaints against the teacher.  "The teacher did not use violence and it is her full right as a citizen to take part in protests, even if such a decision does not bode well with some of her students," they said.

And my question is:

how did those administrators know she did not use violence?

How did they know?

Did they ask the police?

Did they believe the teacher?

or

Were some of the administrators there and witnessed the event?

Or, maybe they were the ones who were violent and themselves threw the rocks?

^

^

Gordon Gobbledygook

When?

Monday, February 22, 2010 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Where?

Social Science Research, Tea Room
1126 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL

What?

"Israel's Occupation through the Lens of the Education System"

Who?

Neve Gordon

Been informed by Israel Academia Monitor.

Unbelievable how academia has perverted itself:


Abstract of presentation -

Over the past four decades Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem has changed dramatically. Using the Palestinian education system as a case study, Neve Gordon argues that these changes were triggered by a series of contradictions and excesses emanating from the structure of Israel's occupation, and not from the policy choices of military or political leaders.

He shows how during the occupation's first two decades Israel attempted to mold the dispositions of the Palestinian students and teachers so as to normalize the occupation. The education system, in other words, became a prime site of management and control (and resistance). Next, he briefly focuses on the Palestinian universities in order to show how Israel's forms of control produced excesses and contradictions that precipitated social unrest and political crisis, leading Israel to change its policies and forms of management in the territories.

Finally, he discusses Israel's current approach towards the Palestinian education system. Focusing, once again on the universities, he illustrates how Israel is no longer interested in influencing the aspirations, views and attitudes of the students and teachers, which suggests that the population is no longer conceived as an object that needs to be managed. This does not mean that Israel is no longer interested in continuing the colonization project, but rather that Israel no longer considers the management of the population as a necessary component of the colonizing mission.

If Israel has so much power and control, why couldn't they 'educate' for peace? Could she not have altered the affects of Najah and Bir Zeit educational institutions? And why has the sole driving agenda item for the Pal. education system, now fully under its own control for 17 years (!), been hate, terror and denial of any Jewish element?

Neve is capable of a 40 year case study?

Neve is such a nut.

Or a sieve.

Such Creative Imagination

Study Ball, the gadget for students

It’s the ideal gadget for students who have trouble concentrating. This prison-style ball and chain with built-in timer will help you study.

VAT included price.
85,45€
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Honesty

This statement is unexpectedly honest:

“In Palestinian schools, students are taught the so-called right answer to every question,” Mukhles Sowwan, who runs the Nanotechnology Research Laboratory at Al Quds University, said. “But real education is more about questions than answers. We need to teach our students how to think creatively and critically, and I hope Bard will help us with that.”

Here's the whole story on the attempt by Bard College and Al Quds University deciding to join forces at injecting American educational values and expertise into Palestinian society.

Sari Nusseibeh is quoted thus:

Mr. Nusseibeh is the scion of one of the most distinguished Palestinian families...A Palestinian nationalist, he speaks Hebrew and enjoys the company of Israelis, and he called Jewish roots in Jerusalem “existential and umbilical.”

Sheep to Shawl

This explains a new educational initiative here in Israel and it's called "Sheep to Shawl".

And here's the come-on:

Have you even seen angora rabbit fur get spun into a spool of Angora yarn?
Did you ever read Aishet Chayil and wonder what are a "kishor" and "palech".
You'll find out, at Sheep to Shawl! Come and "shear" a sheep. Throw a shuttle. Move the batei nirin. And much more.

WHEN, WHERE, WHAT

Thursday, Dec. 25
Sheep to Shawl: 10am, noon, 2pm. (1 1/2 - 2 hrs) plus
Tekhelet Dyeing: 10am, noon, 2pm (1 hr)
Ptil Tekhelet factory (Kfar Adumim, 15 min. east of Yerushalayim)

DATES: Sunday or Monday, Dec. 28-29
Sheep to Shawl: 10am, noon, 2pm (1-1.5 hrs) plus
Animals of the Torah Tour: 11:30am, 1:30pm
Eretz HaAyalim (Deer Land), Gush Etzion, across from Kfar Etzion entrance

Other dates and locations available upon request. We can come to you!

Cost: 39NIS/person first 4 family members; rest are 27 NIS/person. Children 2 and under are free unless screaming, in which case they cost double. Price includes entry to Ptil Tekhelet or Eretz HaAyalim and 12 NIS materials fee.

Note: Minimum number of advanced reservations required to run Sheep to Shawl. Please come 15 minutes ahead to pay and receive your workshop materials. For more information or reservations, please email: jacobsladderfarm@gmail.com or call:
Sara-Malka 02 535 2994 or 054 594 5826 and leave message.

Moshe Rabeinu in Jericho

How about spending some quality time in Jericho?

Get ready, then. The above poster invites you to a celebration of Moshe Rabeinu's yahrtzeit on 7th of Adar II, which is on March 13th, a Thursday, between 6 and 10 PM.

Rav Dov Lior, Rav Gidi Ben-Zimrah, Rav Dr. Hagi Ben-Artzi, Daniella Weiss and neriah Ofan. Entertainment provided by Sinai Tor and you can spend the Shabbat there (in a tent).

Who, Me? Patriotic?

Finally, Israel's academics have taught England a lesson (I am being sarcastic here):

Patriotism should be avoided in school lessons because British history is “morally ambiguous”, a leading educational body recommends.

History and citizenship lessons should stick to the bare facts rather than encouraging loyalty to Britain when covering subjects such as the Second World War or the British Empire, the Institute of Education researchers said. Teachers should not instill pride in what they consider great moments of British history, as more shameful episodes could be downplayed or excluded.

The slave trade, imperialism and 20th century wars should be taught as controversial issues while students are deciding how they feel about their country, the report says.

Three quarters of teachers felt obliged to tell students about the danger of patriotism. The survey suggested neither pupils nor teachers wanted patriotism endorsed by schools.

Historians said last night, however, that it was impossible to teach the subject without patriotism or a recognition that British values were rooted in the past.

The report criticises the current drive to use citizenship lessons as a way of promoting pride in being British and developing a sense of belonging. It said: “To love what is corrupt is itself corrupting, not least because it inclines us to ignore, forget, forgive or excuse the corruption. And there’s the rub for patriotism.

“Countries are morally ambiguous entities: they are what they are by virtue of their histories.”

The authors added: “It is hard to think of a national history free from the blights of warmongering, imperialism, tyranny, injustice, slavery and subjugation, or a national identity forged without recourse to exclusionary and xenophobic stereotypes.”

Alan Johnson, the former Education Secretary, announced last year that pupils aged 11 to 16 would have compulsory lessons in British history. Ethnicity, religion, race and national identity will be taught, through studying immigration, the Commonwealth, the Empire and devolution, extending the popular vote and women’s rights.

Gordon Brown said at the time: “There is a golden thread that intertwines the unshakeable British commitment to liberty with another very British idea: that of duty and social responsibility.”

But Dr Hand, the co-author of the report, said: “Gordon Brown and David Cameron have both called for a history curriculum that fosters attachment and loyalty to Britain, but the case for promoting patriotism in schools is weak.

“Are countries really appropriate objects of love? Loving things can be bad for us, for example when the things we love are morally corrupt. Since all national histories are at best morally ambiguous, it’s an open question whether citizens should love their countries.”

Source

Maybe This is an Option for Israel

The English lead:-

Bad teachers 'have to be axed to save weak schools'

Incompetent teachers should be sacked to revive failing comprehensives, headmasters were told yesterday.

The drastic move was among a number of hardline measures recommended in a report drawn up by educational leaders.

They also said disruptive pupils should face immediate action to help staff restore discipline.

The report was produced by Robert Hill, who was an adviser to Tony Blair, in conjunction with the Association of School and College Leaders.

Drawing on Government research and guidance, the study said that top-performing schools can help to transform standards by taking over weak comprehensives.

The study said that staff from the lead school should "saturate" the weaker school and enforce changes in the first days of a takeover.

"The lead school will conduct a short analysis and confront the partner school with the realities of the situation and the underlying problems that have been ducked," the report said.

"They will identify staff who are in effect hardened blockers of progress and deal with them.

"In some cases individuals in the underperforming school will recognise that the increased expectations and pace are too much for them and leave without the need for formal procedures.

"But others may have to be persuaded or required to go - though the number of 'casualties' in terms of staff (and students) is often relatively small."

The researchers described the takeover process as "wiping the memory of the partner school and reprogramming it".

One State; One Population or a Catastrophe

As the NYT reports,

The education minister, Yuli Tamir, of the left-leaning Labor Party, told Israel Radio that there were two populations in Israel, Jewish and Arab, and that “the Arab public deserves to be allowed to express its feelings.”

How to express?

Israel’s Education Ministry announced Sunday that it had approved a textbook for use in the state’s Arab schools that for the first time described Israel’s 1948 war of independence as a “catastrophe” for the Arab population

Well, Professor Yuli, the problem with you is that there should be only one population, one that includes everybody who wants to be Israeli. Following my mentor, Jabotinsky, one needn't necessarily be Jewish to be Israeli (although it helps) but we are not talking about a bi-national state. Jabo didn't approve of that as he wrote:

In our case it means: should we Jews be condemned forever to remain a minority in Palestine, even a minority protected by the best imaginable kind of bi-national constitution, when Palestine will eventually become in its entirety an Arab national state, gradually but inevitably obliterating all the essential expression of our own Jewish individuality?

If, on the contrary, we Jews become the majority in Palestine (in which case, no doubt, it will be a matter of pride for us to endow our country with the most perfect of all bi-national constitutions), the tendency will be in the opposite direction, towards a Jewish national State ever more pronounced and complete ; and with every oncoming year that tendency will grow stronger because a Jewish majority will mean an open door for further Jewish immigration.

True, the "national" prospect for the Arabs under a Jewish majority would be much brighter than the "national" prospect for the Jews in an Arab majority state. The reason is obvious: Palestine is situated in the middle of several countries whose civilisation is, and will remain, Arabian. The Arabs of Palestine will always enjoy the advantage of easily accessible Arab influences across the border; not so the Jews.

Furthermore: should Palestine be allowed to crystallise as a state with an Arab majority , that would only be the beginning of further Arabisation. The next step would be for that state to join an Arab or pan-Arab federation; which would mean that the Jews, even if they formed a "considerable" minority within Palestine as such, would sink to the status of a very small percentage within the greater state.

To sum up the bi-national state trick is worthless. The crux of the problem remains the same old one: Jewish majority or Arab majority. For the Jews to agree to a minority status under the aegis of a bi-national regime would be suicidal. Nor can Arab nationalism be expected to welcome the opposite prospect.

That was written in 1930. And Yuli Tamir is stuck back in some visionary idyllic "peace".

And where will Israel be with this educational program?

A catastrophe.