Shai Piron should reinstate school visits to Hebron
The education minister from Yesh Atid has been urged to fully reinstate what he dropped when coming into office:
Education Minister Shai Piron (Yesh Atid) is being urged to reinstate the Ministry’s program meant at encouraging school visits to Hevron.Precisely. This should not be a politicized situation at all.
On Thursday, MKs Yoni Chetboun (Bayit Yehudi) and Shimon Ohayon (Likud-Yisrael Beytenu), both members of the Knesset’s Education Committee, sent a letter to Piron urging him to reinstate the program.
The initiative was started by Piron’s predecessor Gideon Saar and has the Ministry of Education funding transportation and programming for students at the Cave of the Patriarchs. Piron several months ago decided to cancel it and instead has put together a new list of recommended sites for school trips.
In their letter to Piron, MKs Chetboun and Ohayon wrote, "Visiting Hevron is a Jewish Zionist value, it is unthinkable that a Ministry responsible for the education of the children of Israel will not give this value an expression." They stressed that "it is precisely during times when Zionism is a dirty word in some circles, that the Ministry of Education should encourage student tours to Hevron."
MK Chetboun noted on Thursday that “the connection between the Jewish people and Hevron is not a question of right or left, it’s a Zionist value. It would be very appropriate for the Ministry of Education to foster this relationship, just as it fosters the Jewish relationship to the Golan, the Galilee and the Negev.”
