Activist group Breaking the Silence, which solicits testimonies of IDF misdeeds, will no longer be allowed access to public schools in Israel, under instructions issued Tuesday by Education Minister Naftali Bennett. The decision came days after Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon banned the group from participating in IDF events because the group was "part of the attempts to delegitimize [Israel]." Bennett made the decision after holding an emergency meeting with education professionals. He subsequently instructed the Education Ministry's director general and other officials to adjust current rules to specify that organizations that incite against IDF soldiers, like Breaking the Silence, will not be permitted to enter schools. "Our children are sent to school to learn about mutual responsibility, not about going after IDF soldiers," Bennett said Tuesday. "Breaking the Silence's activism has led to anti-Israel libel in the world. They have made it their mission to hurt their brothers -- the ones who defend us all. We will not have lies and incitement in our schools." Prior to announcing the decision, Bennett was contacted on the matter by Sarah Haetzni-Cohen, chairwoman of the My Israel Zionist movement, which Bennett founded. Breaking the Silence, whose spokesman, Avihai Stollar, says his organization exposes "the daily moral price of a prolonged military occupation," condemned the decision shortly after it was announced. "Bennett is sacrificing the Israeli school system on the altar of occupation and settlement," the group said in a written response. Breaking the Silence called on "educators who care about Israeli democracy to speak up." Also on Tuesday, right-wing Zionist organization Im Tirzu issued a video accusing left-wing groups in Israel of aiding and abetting terrorists. The clip claimed that the activity of these groups helped terrorists after they committed attacks. Im Tirzu referred these groups as "plants" and portrayed them as the agents of foreign governments and organizations, specifically an unnamed Palestinian organization, a claim Breaking the Silence denies. Im Tirzu produced the clip after Likud MK Yoav Kisch submitted a bill proposing that nongovernmental organizations operating in Israel while receiving the majority of their funding from foreign governments be labeled as "plants" or "agents" of the governments funding them.
