Students to protest for Pollard's release
High school kids set to protest release of Jonathan Pollard during final math exam by attaching letter to Livnat, Sharon
It's payback time: The high school math matriculation exam (Bagrut) scheduled for this week is set to pave the way for a protest calling for the release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard.
Thousands of students supporting the "Youth for Pollard" organization have announced their intention to attach to their final exam a letter of protest slamming Education Minister Limor Livnat and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
"Sharon and Livnat, you have failed the test! Abandoning a field agent - it is unacceptable," the young activists wrote on a poster hung in thousands of schools nationwide.
"As we are about to take our Bagrut examinations, the time has come to explain to the education minister and prime minister that they have failed the exam," the poster said.
The Education Ministry in response has announced its intention to turn a blind eye to the "tribute" and to refrain from punishing the students.
One hour lesson a week
Organization activists said they sent Livnat a petition with some 6,000 signatures two months ago requesting a one hour lesson each week to discuss the imprisonment of the convicted Israeli spy.
However, they said they have not yet received a reply and thus decided to stage a protest.
"We decided to focus on the mathematics exam because symbolically it is considered one of the most important matriculation examinations and the largest number of students take that exam simultaneously," one protester said.
'Punishment doesn't scare me'
High school student Oriah Levintal from Ramat Gan plans to take her math exam on Thursday and participate in the protest too.
"I'm prepared to pay the price so that things can start happening, the punishment doesn't scare me," she said.
"We are alive because of this agent, our own agent, who has suffered torture in prison for the past 20 years."
According to one senior Education Ministry official, the students participating in the protest will not be punished.
"We are busy with evaluating exams and will ignore all the scribble, drawings and comments that are not connected to the questions," she said.
