“I don’t believe in compelling students to visit a specific place” states Education Minister Shai Piron, who announced the ministry will no longer view visits to Hebron by students as a priority. While schools wishing to take students to the holy city may, unlike his predecessor, Gideon Saar, Piron does not see the wisdom in compelling visits to Hebron.

Piron adds that most non religious public schools did not visit Hebron anyway so the impact of the program was limited at best. The ministry plans to expand the list of possibly school trip venues to permit each school to select a venue from a large list of approve locations for school trips.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)