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Last update - 09:37 08/02/2010
Israeli author: Censorship turning Israel into mini-Iran
By Maya Sela and Or Kashti
Tags: Israel school, Israel Iran 
 

An Education Ministry decision to bar a Kfar Sava school from teaching sexually explicit poetry by Israeli writer Yona Wallach shows that Israel is becoming a mini-Iran, Israeli author Yoram Kaniuk said over the weekend.

After receiving complaints from parents of students in Edna Resh's literature class at Rabin High School in Kfar Sava, Shlomo Hertzig, the ministry's supervisor of literature education, ordered the school and Resh to stop teaching Wallach's sexually explicit poems, Yedioth Ahronoth reported last week.

Many of Resh's students protested the decision, and were joined over the weekend by some of Israel's most prominent writers and literature educators.
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"We are gradually becoming a mini-Iran," said Kaniuk. "Everyone talks about the threat of Iran's bombs and missiles, but they forget that the worst thing is this lousy religion, which is flourishing nowadays. They're taking over our lives. It's terrible what they've done to the Jewish religion. Yona Wallach is a terrific poet."

Wallach's poem "You Are (He Is) My Girlfriend," which refers explicitly to sexual organs and raises questions about sexual identity, is one of several controversial literary texts taught at Rabin High School as part of a three-year-old program aimed at encouraging students to think critically, said Resh and Regev Yakobovich, who teaches the program with her.

As part of the program, 10th-graders through 12th-graders choose two topics to learn about per year. The Wallach poem that has since been blacklisted was introduced as part of a class called "Pride and Prejudice: Single-sex Couples - Perversion or Choice?"

Other subjects include "Belief in God: Opiate for the Masses or Commitment to Values?" as well as "The Army As a Test of Israeliness" and "On the Arab Image in Israel - Fifth Column or Free Citizen?"

"The Education Ministry has completely given up on its basic job - shaping an active citizen within society - and has remained solely within the professional sphere, transmiting information and matriculation exams," said Yakobovich. "No one wants to get involved in conflicts, but the young people who are a bit more on the ball than the adults are are demanding it from us, demanding that we teach them, in the broad and true sense."

Gali Siton, a 12th-grade student at Rabin who came to her teacher's defense, said the controversy has made her realize "that we're lucky, that I gained the opportunity to ask questions."

Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar spoke to Resh on Friday, telling her that "there are various restrictions" and that he was looking into the matter, Resh said. She said Sa'ar apologized for what she underwent and said he wanted her to "feel protected." Ministry officials said they were not planning to initiate any proceedings against her.

Meanwhile, poet Meir Wieseltier and Menachem Perry, a literature professor at Tel Aviv University, came out against the ban.

"Maybe [Hertzig] thinks there's no need to teach poems, just to teach how to raise the flag during roll call," said Wieseltier. "The flag is raised during roll call with a rope, not a poem."

Perry said a curriculum could not be imposed from outside the classroom, adding that one can teach anything to a "good class."
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  1.   good example of set in dementia 04:47  |  ralph 08/02/10
  2.   Mini_Iran 05:17  |  arieh zimmerman 08/02/10
  3.   yoram kaniuk 06:16  |  samuel gurewicz 08/02/10
  4.   #1 mini_iran 06:33  |  David 08/02/10
  5.   the alternative 06:36  |  ron 08/02/10
  6.   What will be the canonical literature in Israeli schools? 07:04  |  Angelus Novus 08/02/10
  7.   Israel = Iran 07:16  |  george 08/02/10
  8.   She is 100% Correct 07:17  |  SJ 08/02/10
  9.   Rabin isn`t a religious school, and kanyuk should leave 07:21  |  Kafr 08/02/10
  10.   israel - iran ? 08:12  |  yossi 08/02/10
  11.   God 08:50  |  instructed 08/02/10
  12.   Since he can speak without arrest shows Israel is not Iran! 08:56  |  Gershon 08/02/10
  13.   What would 08:56  |  King Asa do? 08/02/10
  14.   what does an author know 09:19  |  a voice 08/02/10
  15.   The Left should object to censorship of religion 09:31  |  Binyamin Dissen 08/02/10
  16.   EDNa Resh 09:38  |  Jochai Rubinstein 08/02/10
  17.   Why not ban "Song of Songs (Solomon)" as well? 09:38  |  Yonatan 08/02/10
  18.   THE HEART BEHIND THE POETRY 10:37  |  Steven 08/02/10
  19.   I usually don`t agree with people who claim..... 10:39  |  Swiss (Dino) 08/02/10
  20.   arieh 11:07  |  John Spear 08/02/10
  21.   SPEAR Hatred &Jelousy will eat you up 11:26  |  PETER SM 08/02/10
  22.   Mulik Gurewicz spot on.Kids are bombarded with sex all day 11:33  |  PETER SM 08/02/10
  23.   Losing respect 11:59  |  Liza 08/02/10
  24.   The intellectuals here pulled their heads in when a Turkish gir 12:00  |  PETER SM 08/02/10
  25.   There appears to be much more 12:18  |  Mark Lincoln 08/02/10
  26.   Peter sm from OZ, he is always angry..... 12:25  |  John Spear 08/02/10
  27.   yona wallach 12:26  |  spiritual jew 08/02/10
  28.   I do know that 12:42  |  Mark Lincoln 08/02/10
  29.   samuel gurewicz. #3 Girls,high school and sex 12:54  |  Roo 08/02/10
  30.   mini-iran 12:57  |  steve 08/02/10
  31.   israel 13:09  |  flora 08/02/10
  32.   Bombarded 13:27  |  sh 08/02/10
  33.   To Mr. Samuel Gurewicz, Melbourne 13:29  |  Jane 08/02/10
  34.   Bialik wrote love poetry, too, and to . . . 13:29  |  Zev Davis 08/02/10
  35.   Censorship? 13:54  |  FOX 08/02/10
  36.   SJ Oh my! 13:57  |  FOX 08/02/10
  37.   David from S.F. 14:08  |  arieh zimmerman 08/02/10
  38.   Oh La! David and others 14:34  |  AE 08/02/10
  39.   SJ, get real! 14:45  |  Zev Davis 08/02/10
  40.   Israel more and more like a mini Iran 15:01  |  Chris Linthwaite 08/02/10
  41.   Israel`s right wing would only be happy 15:06  |  Sangin Phil 08/02/10
  42.   Bob Dylan? what about Yair Hurvitz!!!.. 15:17  |  AE 08/02/10
  43.   Steven on Teaching Critical Thinking 15:43  |  Yaakov Sullivan 08/02/10
  44.   Censorship in this Internet world, don`t make laugh 15:53  |  Socialist 08/02/10
  45.   PETER SM #21 16:21  |  Roo 08/02/10
  46.   to sanguin Phil 16:25  |  a voice 08/02/10
  47.   It´s a lie, Iran is a midage teocracy. Israel is being democratic 16:27  |  Jose Pedro 08/02/10
  48.   The left is loosing its last marble 16:44  |  TOMY 08/02/10
  49.   #46 The Voice 17:01  |  Sangin Phil 08/02/10
  50.   Totalitarian Lincoln 18:16  |  FOX 08/02/10
  51.   Factual blarney FOX ~ 50 18:49  |  raul 08/02/10
  52.   To Mr. Gurevitch 18:50  |  Maxinetz 08/02/10
  53.   Bathroom grafitti or toilet critics; produces cultural decline 18:50  |  Paqid Yirmeyahu 08/02/10
  54.   to #3 19:30  |  tamar 08/02/10
  55.   Great example of what is censorship... what can I say! 19:36  |  Mike 08/02/10
  56.   So right! 03:43  |  Jordan 09/02/10
  57.   If love and sex are beautiful experiences 04:42  |  utagawa 09/02/10
  58.   Israel is a "hilltop youth" culture 05:02  |  W. 09/02/10
  59.   Linthwrong, shut up already 06:08  |  SDHD 09/02/10
  60.   Do the anti-Israeli idiots really believe... 06:10  |  SDHD 09/02/10
  61.   ROO&SPEAR.Answering everything except the question 06:41  |  PETER SM 09/02/10
  62.   "Close your eyes and think of England"is NOT being taught. 06:52  |  PETER SM 09/02/10
  63.   W Israel stands for one of the highest biomedical patents in the 07:16  |  PETER SM 09/02/10
  64.   PETER SM 11:16  |  Roo 09/02/10
  65.   poluting the minds 14:03  |  er- cha 09/02/10
  66.   tefillan on naked man on her facebook page photos 17:56  |  danny L 09/02/10
  67.   Explicit sexual act description - requisite to critical thinking? 18:24  |  common sense 09/02/10
  68.   Sexually graphic schooling? Maybe Iran is correct-we are crazy... 20:17  |  bat yam 09/02/10
  69.   Where is the problem 00:17  |  Hish 17/02/10
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