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Photo: Ohad Avidan

Protest in Petah Tikva: Let Ethiopians attend other schools

Parents’ associations of three major state religious schools in Petah Tikva announce school closings next week to protest fact Ethiopian immigrants are only sent to their schools

Four months after harrowing accounts of discrimination against Ethiopian students, Ynet has reported that the parents’ associations of the three largest state religious schools in Petah Tikva plan to shut down these aforementioned institutions next week to protest what they call “outright discrimination by private schools in the city as well as the Petah Tikva municipality.” Other state religious schools might also join in this boycott.

 

On Sunday, the school day at the city’s three major state religious schools will begin at 10am, and starting Tuesday, the Petah Tikva Parents’ Association has announced that it would suspend studies indefinitely to protest the fact that religious private schools in the city are not accepting their fair share of Ethiopian pupils. The boycott will affect the Morasha School, Ma'alot Chaim school, and the Kfar Ganim School which have a total combined number of 2,000 pupils.

 

This protest might also very well spread to the city’s six other state religious schools, which have thousands of additional students. The parents’ association is demanding that the city’s municipality commit to the integration of Ethiopian pupils in all of Petah Tikva’s religious schools, especially those that are privately run. This, in light of the anticipated arrival of 100 Ethiopian immigrant families in the city following the Passover holiday.

 

The parents’ association “action committee”, especially convened to handle this emergent situation, sent a message to parents Friday which read as follows: “For more than two years, private religious schools have refused to accept Ethiopian students, and the municipality does little to remedy this situation. State religious schools, conversely have absorbed over 800 Ethiopian students into their ranks out of a sense of love and national duty.”

 

Ideology at students' expense

The action committee furthermore accused Petah Tikva Mayor Yitzhak Ohayon of steering Ethiopian immigrants towards state religious school alone , though they receive funding which is a mere fraction to their privately funded counterparts.

 

Action committee Chairman and Chairman of the Morasha School’s Parents’ Association, Attorney Nir Orbach, stated that “after Education Minister Yuli Tamir’s visit to the city and the Lamerchav Elementary School incident, we were assured that a more egalitarian distribution of Ethiopian students would take place. State religious schools have, unfortunately, had to bear this burden alone, and now we want assurance from the mayor and the principals of the city’s religious schools that a more egalitarian arrangement will take place.”

 

Orbach further noted that “Ethiopians are our brothers and it is a mitzvah to welcome them to Israel. That is why we want everyone to chip in and not act in such a racist manner. There is no need to exempt private schools from this responsibility. The distribution of Ethiopian students today is entirely disproportionate.”

 

Petah Tikva Municipal Spokesman, Hezi Hakak, has stated that the mayor’s office has reached a decision Thursday to distribute Ethiopian students among all of the city’s religious schools beginning next year. “I am shocked that these religious institutions let ideology and bickering hamper the lives of Ethiopian pupils,” he noted. 

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.04.08, 16:47
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