"Gideon Saar ceased to be the minister of education, and turned into Israel's minister of propaganda, with the purpose of instilling an extreme right-wing ideology into the Israeli education system," said former Knesset member Uri Avnery in response to the minister's plan to send pupils to 'travel' in Hebron at heavy cost for the Ministry of Education.

"Israel's education system is in the process of collapse, international tests revealing the low level of our pupils, but the minister in charge is engaged in bigotry, wasting the education budget on visits to the stronghold of the most violent, racists settlers.

Every year we hear the heart rendering stories of pupils whose parents can't afford the fee required, and therefore can't participate in the school trips with their classmates, and feel ashamed and humiliated. Instead of helping these cases, Minister Saar opens wide the public treasury to finance 'trips' which are nothing but a political provocation in the service of the settlers. .

Fortunately, it is not the minister's sole authority to send pupils on trips as he pleases. Required is also the consent of their parents. It is to be doubted whether most parents and teachers in Israel would be enthusiastic about sending their children to such a dubious adventure in the Hebron lion's den; it is also doubtful whether the army would be happy with such a huge, complicated and sensitive security task which the minister wants to impose on the IDF. Saar's remarks on "hundreds of thousands of pupils" who will visit Hebron, are very premature and not based in reality.

Contact: Adam Keller, Gush Shalom spokesperson 054-2340749