In a revised reality, a teacher who receives a salary from the Ministry of Education should not go against the state - and certainly not set fire precisely when Israel is on fire.
But four teachers at the Hilmi Shafi'i ORT High School in Acre acted differently: Adel Ryan, Adam Kashasha, Janan Moslemani and Kholod Fawdi posted war-mongering posts during and after the riots in Acre, instead of calming the atmosphere as expected of the people. Education, they actually made sure to stir it up.
For example, Adel Ryan, a citizenship teacher and coordinator of the profession, who has been teaching at ORT since 2009, wrote on Facebook on February 10, 2001:
Allah, keep the Al-Aqsa Mosque "and also:" God is greater than any oppressor. Allah, protect the Muslim youth, give us victory over those who have wronged us. "
In addition, he shared a post with a video of stone-throwing, rioting and arrests on the Temple Mount, with the caption: "The detainees are defending the nation's honor in the face of large-scale invasion of al-Aqsa by the occupation forces. Jerusalem is revolting."
The next day, he added the Palestinian flag and the Al-Aqsa Mosque to his profile picture.
Ryan, according to many photos he posted on his Facebook page, often visits the Temple Mount.
But it is not only al-Aqsa's situation that bothers him - the victory of the Muslims over their enemies, as he wrote: "O Allah, grant victory to the people of Muhammad", and "Allah, grant victory to the Muslims over their enemies".
The education for this good citizenship was written by the citizenship teacher while two police stations and a hotel were already burning in the streets of Acre, and lynching was carried out on five Jews.
A., resident of Acre: "I do not approach the Old City because it is not pleasant to be sent hateful looks. Even in the city center, residents who walk around with Jewish symbols, such as a kippah and a tassel, absorb obscene curses and movements as a matter of routine."
Educators for coexistence. "ORT Hilmi High School,
Punishment for collaborators
Adam Kasha, a music teacher who has been working in high school and middle school since 2014, wrote a post with an exhilarating melody on Facebook on 12.05.21:
I can not understand those who just talk, what did you gain from it?
You will learn in the near future, all the youth are going to be arrested, all the respect to the patriots! ''
On May 18, 2001, he threatened collaborators, citing an example from a scene in a Syrian series that depicts the capture of collaborators with the French when they ruled Syria. "Didn't you see what happened to him (to the character who was a collaborator in the series; 11)?" Kashasha writes.
"Allah will act against any agent who acts against his country and homeland." On June 6, Kashasha goes on to write: '.
And it goes on: Janan Muslimani, a high school physical education teacher since 2012, shared during Operation Wall Guard a post in support of a strike of solidarity with residents of the Gaza Strip and against the "Gaza massacres," the language of the post.
Later and throughout the year, a Muslim wrote several more posts expressing support for the terrorists sitting in jail.
For example, in August 2021, she posted two posts in support of the release of the pregnant terrorist Anhar a-Dik, who was arrested in an attempt to stab her.
"If our interest is women in general, then oppressed women become our private interest," shared a post demanding the release of the terrorist.
In September 21, she expressed support for the terrorists who escaped from Gilboa Prison, and most recently, on April 22, she expressed support for the release of the terrorist Ahmad Mansara, who at the age of 13 participated in a severe stabbing attack in Pisgat Ze'ev.
Faudi, a high school English teacher since 2012, published three posts during May 21 with the following quotes: "Allah, we are defeated so give us a victory."
"Whoever wants to harm the Muslims - his punishment is slaughter." In any case, these words do not seem to have fallen on deaf ears: schoolchildren, like many of the city's young people, took part in the demonstrations.
The ruins of Uri Buri Restaurant in Acre, May 2021,
Empty synagogues
Since Operation The Wall Guard, peace has not returned to Acre.
The city is surrounded by a tense and fragile silence, violated by storm surges that strike in this beautiful and bleeding coastal city.
Acre continues to suffer nationalist violence from young Arabs who harm Jews.
The person who is following the events is Makor Rishon journalist Yair Kraus, who revealed the following cases: in October 2021, two young Arabs, who rode electric bicycles, pushed and knocked down a Jewish girl;
In November 2021, two minorities tried to stab two students of the pre-military preparatory school with a pocket knife;
Later, two more Jewish children were knocked to the ground by Arab cyclists;
On May 12, 2022, dozens of Arab youths violently attacked, with planks, knives and brazil, wounding two young Jews fishing in the port of Acre;
Last week, on June 15, six minors were arrested shortly after throwing stones at trainees at a school for naval officers in Acre, who were training at the beach in the afternoon.
The depressing atmosphere in Acre and the feeling of insecurity on the city streets is described by A., a resident of the city for many years.
"I do not approach the Old City at all because I have nothing to do there, and it is not pleasant to go for a walk or visit places where you are hated. Even in the streets of the city, residents who walk around with Jewish symbols, such as a kippah and a tassel, absorb obscene curses and movements." .
A., 60 years old and a father of five, works in the field of education.
Many of his colleagues are Arabs, so he is not interested in identifying with his name.
Every Saturday he walks 25 minutes on foot from his home to the city center, to complete a minyan in one of the local synagogues.
Some synagogues are closed on Saturdays, and others, where 600 people prayed in the past, barely manage to scratch a minyan.
In the past, Jewish life was bustling on the main streets of Acre, but over the years the Jews have migrated further, and today most of the residents of the city center are Arabs.
"A month ago, we caught two children throwing stones at a synagogue on Derech HaArba Street," he says.
"This is a synagogue that unfortunately is closed on Saturdays because there is no quorum. On Saturday night I announced the incident to the municipal inspectorate, and I have no idea what they did with it. I did not go to the police because it means losing a day's work. Forms, and at the end you get an update that the police have closed the case out of lack of public interest. An ordinary citizen does not have the strength to deal with this thing. No one will miss a day of work on a complaint he knows will not be dealt with. "For every incident and promises to take care of it, but it is not practical. Until parents receive a NIS 30,000 fine for a child who threw stones at a synagogue, nothing will change. What do they do today? Invite the parents to a conversation and say there is nothing to do because it is a minor."
A. describes that it was precisely the Sabbaths that became the most opportune time for calamity in the city.
"On Saturdays, when there is sparse traffic of cars and people, they dare more. They are sophisticated. They know religious and ultra-Orthodox do not walk around with a phone on Saturday, and will not be able to call police. They also do it from a passing vehicle, swear or make obscene gestures and run away. "We are already used to it and have learned to live with it. We also understood that there is no point in confronting them, because it will not help either."
Are they adults or young people?
"Young people. It could be an 8-year-old boy or an 18-year-old boy. The young people grow up to hate. Today you go up in an elevator, and an 8-year-old boy signals a victory gesture to you and says, 'Itbah al-Yehud.' "It's really not everyone, there are a lot of Arabs who are nice and caring and we have good relations with them."
A. describes one of the events he experienced recently, while looking for people on the street in the city center who could complete a minyan on one of the Saturdays.
"An eight-year-old boy rides a bike and stops next to me. He pulls something out of the back pocket of his pants, and I'm already starting to worry he's about to pull out a knife, but then he pulls out a phone, stands next to me, looks at me hatefully and turns on the phone. He plays music and starts singing: "With blood and fire we will redeem Palestine" and "our Acre," and then continue to travel. What will you do to him? If you threaten or react, the police will bring you.
"Most people have just stopped coming to pray in the city center, even if they live close by. Those who come here are just brave and missionary people from the Torah nucleus, Chabad or Bnei Akiva, who understand how important it is to strengthen synagogues in the city center.
And even so, there are Saturdays that fail to achieve a quorum.
"Unfortunately, these synagogues will eventually close if this continues."
What do you think should be done?
"I really do not know. The feeling is that the country is slowly being conquered. The education department in the city is doing everything to promote coexistence. A lot of money is being invested in education in the field, but in the end hatred comes from home."
from home?
In the case of ORT High School, hatred also comes from four teachers.
When I read to A. some of the posts quoted here at the beginning, he was appalled.
"If I, as an ultra-Orthodox, had written something against the state, against the flag, I would have been thrown out the next day."
Jannan a Muslim, a physical education teacher, posted a post in support of the release of a terrorist who was arrested in an attempt to carry out a stabbing.
In '21, she expressed support for the terrorists who fled Gilboa Prison, and last April - the release of a terrorist who participated in a severe stabbing attack
Large fracture
Those who follow nationalist incitement on the Internet are activists of the "If You Will" movement, who also assisted in gathering the materials for this investigation.
"The 2001 riots proved that here, too, within the State of Israel, there is a significant danger to Israeli citizens in the cities involved," says the movement's director general, Matan Peleg.
"Closing eyes will not help here. The inciting teachers in the ORT network must receive the letter of dismissal this morning. No wonder we see extremism among young Arabs when the people who are supposed to educate them express their desire and aspirations that Israeli citizens 'receive their punishment from Allah.' "Teachers who incited, but received almost no punishment. It is necessary to refine procedures and ensure that educators in the mixed cities as well as in the Arab cities are educated for peace and coexistence, and not to harm the Jews."
We contacted the ORT network in an attempt to understand what was being done in high schools in Acre following disturbances in the city, and whether lessons had been learned.
"Our story begins even before the guardian of the walls," says Avi Aviram, director of the northern region at the ORT network.
"In Acre we have four principals of high schools, two academic high schools, one Arab and one Jewish, and two technological, one Arab and one Jewish, intended for at-risk youth. The principals wanted to get to know each other on a personal level, and meetings of the four principals began. The Walls held such a meeting with the opening of the Iftar fast, at the beginning of Ramadan, at the home of the Arab high school principal ORT Hilmi. "For this demonstration. No one imagined what would happen the next day."
Ort Hilmi High School students were involved in violence?
"There were students who were involved in the riots, but in the arrests that were later our students were not arrested or indicted. In the severe violence our students were not involved. We sat for hours with videos to see if anyone was involved, and we did not find. But in any case these are young people from Acre. "Therefore, the rift was great. As the ORT network, we embarked on this task and brought in our facilitator to accompany the process."
The quickest way to crime
The first step decided on by the educational leadership is to take care of the social mobility of the young people of the city of Acre and build a personal plan for each student and graduate, until successful absorption in the labor market.
"When a Jewish guy graduates from high school, he enlists in the army and from there for higher education or employment. In the Arab sector, as soon as a student finishes twelfth - either he goes to higher education or he goes to find work.
The problem is that almost 30 percent of the city's students do not really manage to integrate into the labor market in the first three years after high school.
Such non-integration is the fastest way to the world of crime, to places we do not want to see our students degenerate into, and we want to prevent that.
The second step taken by the educational leadership was to prepare the education system to deal with the next event.
"We called it a tul, a learning doctrine, borrowed from the military concept of 'doctrine of warfare,'" they tell me. Arabs. Unfortunately, among the attackers were students of the professional 'ORT.'
The attacking boys received both educational and police treatment.
All the managers issued a condemnation and did a thorough job. "
The third step that preceded it was the establishment of a preparatory school for civil service for at-risk Arab youth.
The preparatory school opened last year with 15 students, and next year all graduates of the Technological High School will continue for a preparatory year.
"The goal is to strengthen their Israeli-Arab identity, teach the Hebrew language, educate for giving to the community, and also give them professional intentions. We hope that this framework will prevent the deterioration of young people."
You talk about educating young people to Israeli-Arab identity, but their teachers publish posts of identification with Palestine.
"I know of two posts written during The Wall Guard, and as soon as those posts were published - school principals called these teachers for a call and the posts were downloaded. One of the teachers is no longer working at the school."
One of the posts that led to the investigation,
"Education for Coexistence"
When I read to Aviram the posts we have revealed, he asks that we pass them all on to him and assures them that they will not go on the agenda about such statements.
Later, after all the posts were forwarded to them and after checking things out, the ORT network reported that: "The ORT Israel network condemns all incitement and violence, and actively works to promote coexistence in the city of Acre and to educate our students in this spirit." In their personal Facebook profiles, we examined the issue in accordance with the law and the directives of the Ministry of Education.
"After the exam, it was found that the same content was uploaded in May 21 during the events, an extreme and violent period that is remembered by the city's residents as traumatic to this day, and the issue was brought to the attention of the Ministry of Education.
" In tense periods to accommodate complex events.
"It is important to note that since the Guard of the Walls, the ORT network, in cooperation with the Acre Municipality and the Ministry of Education, has been working to develop coexistence in the city and in particular to promote Arab youth. The studies, including a prevention plan and a detailed goal plan for emergencies of further warming in the sector, such as last May. "
At the same time, following the "Israel of the Week" investigation, the mayor of Acre, Shimon Lankri, contacted the CEO of the ORT network, Zvika Peleg, and ordered him to immediately examine the continued employment of teachers. Lankri also met with the commander of the Acre police station And asked them to check whether the things attributed to these teachers were criminal acts.
"The things I saw were especially irritating and outrageous," Lankry said.
"It is inconceivable that educators who receive their salaries from the State of Israel and are supposed to educate the children of the city, will be the ones who will spread expressions of hatred and incitement themselves. These bad voices cannot continue to exist as if nothing happened here. I hope the police I turned, they will carefully examine what the hard hand required to handle these weeds is. "
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