Far-right coalition in Israel sparks furor over education and values

A new, far-right government led by Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to officially take office, but already a public revolt is brewing.

It’s not against the coalition’s looming plans to seize more West Bank land or to undermine the independence of Israel’s judiciary, but rather the handover to religious extremists of key facets of the country’s education system.

Indeed, among the numerous flash-points this new government – expected to be sworn in next week – may exacerbate are fundamental questions surrounding Jewish values and civic identity in Israel, which was founded both as a liberal democracy and as a homeland for Jews.

Alluding to this month’s Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, termed the Festival of Lights, Israel’s largest parent association wrote as a protest rallying cry in early December: “We’ve come to expel darkness.”

In quick succession, hundreds of schools and dozens of municipalities across Israel signed on to the petition by the parent association rejecting any radical changes to the education curricula. Demonstrations were called, and in a move never before seen in Israeli politics, still-serving centrist Prime Minister Yair Lapid joined in protests against the government that is set to replace him.

This is “the most extreme and the most insane government in the country’s history,” Mr. Lapid told protesters in Tel Aviv, a bastion of liberalism and secularism, “but we aren’t going to surrender, we are here to stay.”

The Nov. 1 general election returned a clear parliamentary majority for Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party and its right-wing allies, which include Jewish ultra-Orthodox and far-right ultranationalist factions. According to coalition agreements already signed, Mr. Netanyahu has given his more radical partners unprecedented powers over the national police, government policy in the occupied territories, most issues of religion and state, and integral parts of the education system.

“Traditional values” and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric

No one individual serves as more of a focal point for Israel’s current debate over identity and values than Avi Maoz, whose extreme religious-nationalist Noam party ran on a campaign of “traditional” family values and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.

Despite Noam securing a solitary seat in parliament, Mr. Netanyahu granted Mr. Maoz a deputy ministerial post with control over all external curricula allowed in mainstream secular schools in the vast state-run education system. Additional responsibilities include a new amorphous “Jewish Identity Authority.”

Mr. Maoz was the “darkness” alluded to by the parent association and demonstrators this month, who all vowed to resist, in their words, any education that allowed or preached “the denial of the rights of others based on religion, ethnicity, or gender.”

Their concerns appear justified.

Mr. Maoz recently promised to cancel the Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem, calling it a “march of abomination and prostitution,” and has in the past supported so-called “conversion therapy” treatments and eliminating sex reassignment surgeries. He has also said a woman’s role in life is to raise a family and have as many children as possible, and certainly not to serve in the military.

Pedagogically, Mr. Maoz has vowed to remove the influence of what he has termed foreign-funded “radical, progressive, left-wing NGOs” who “want to make the State of Israel into a country like any other country.”

In a speech to parliament Dec. 7, Mr. Maoz slapped back at his critics, promising to strengthen the Jewish identity of both Israel and Israelis.

“Anyone trying to harm real Judaism is what is dark,” he said. “Anyone trying to manufacture a new and supposedly liberal religion is what is dark.”

Concerns even in Likud strongholds

For the vast secular Israeli mainstream – which is still a strong plurality at 45% of adults in the country, according to official government figures – such talk is anathema to their personal and civic identities.

“I’m totally horrified by it all – not just Avi Maoz specifically but also the ultra-Orthodox parties and the entire direction of the new government,” says Ariel Levy, a father of two in north Tel Aviv.

“I don’t deny that there’s a Jewish nation, and obviously religion is part of that identity, and there should be space for religious schools. But for me and my children living in Tel Aviv I want to see more math and science and English literature, and as little religious study as possible. With this new government I see things becoming more illiberal and less open.”

The concerns emanating from Tel Aviv were to be expected. The city’s mayor, Ron Huldai, went so far as to tell a television interviewer in early December that the country was shifting “from a democracy to a theocracy.” A massive 12-story re-creation of Israel’s Declaration of Independence was hung on the side of Tel Aviv City Hall, with the message being that its values of full equality and protections should be heeded.

Yet beyond Tel Aviv, even in traditional Likud party strongholds, some local officials have also voiced their concern about Mr. Maoz’s program.

The mayor of the southern city of Ashdod, himself a Likud member, issued a statement promising to uphold his education system’s “cultural, social, and religious diversity … with tolerance, mutual respect, and full equality of opportunity” for every student.

How much pressure on teachers?

Educators themselves appear wary about Mr. Maoz’s intentions, yet skeptical regarding his ability to institute wholesale changes to the system.

Nir, a father of two and high school teacher in the central city of Rishon Le’Tzion (where Likud won a third of the vote last month), says Israeli society has become less secular in recent decades and more religiously traditional, if not wholly Orthodox. As such, he did not see a major problem increasing the hours devoted to Jewish identity or Torah studies – but not, he stressed, at the expense of subjects like English, math, or science.

“The agenda of Maoz and the others [future government members] is clear, they don’t hide it. They’re missionaries who view secular society as an ‘empty vessel’ and Israeli secular identity as flimsy and weak,” says Nir, who asked to withhold his last name.

“But how exactly will a minister or clerk in Jerusalem dictate to us what to teach or what topics are brought up in a classroom by the students themselves? At the end of the day, it comes down to one teacher standing in front of a class.”

Mr. Netanyahu, for his part, has already tried to assuage the public’s concerns, not just with regard to Avi Maoz’s agenda but the entire litany of concessions and powers that may be granted to his other ultra-Orthodox partners.

The potential changes floated so far include amending the Law of Return, which allows foreigners of Jewish descent to immigrate to Israel, on the grounds that many of them are not genuinely Jewish. Some future government ministers have demanded revoking official recognition of Reform or Conservative Jewish conversion processes, an issue of particular importance to American Jewry. There reportedly have even been calls to halt soccer matches and electricity generation on the Sabbath and increase the number of gender-segregated beaches.

“Let me reassure you … there is and will be electricity on the Sabbath. There are and will be beaches for everyone. We will uphold the [religious] status quo,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a Knesset speech Dec. 15. “Everyone will live in keeping with their beliefs, there will not be a halachic [Jewish law] state here.”

The price of power

For Mr. Netanyahu’s many secular supporters, the religious agenda promoted by his allies is perhaps not ideal, but understood as simply the price for regaining power.

“Sadly these are our partners, and I mean sadly,” says Yael Katzir, a secular mother in southern Israel who, despite the contours of the incoming government, does not regret voting Likud.

“I’m less scared of the ultra-Orthodox than I am of the Israeli left and their partners, the Arab-Israelis, who want to erase us,” she says, meaning Jewish Israelis writ large. “I’m not religious, but we shouldn’t be afraid of our traditions. At the end of the day, we’re Jews.”

Ms. Katzir highlights the fact that Mr. Netanyahu was going to be prime minister, and the Likud was historically a secular party committed to personal freedoms and economic liberalism, albeit right-wing and nationalist. “I don’t think anyone will let [Avi Maoz] get to a situation where he can implement all these plans,” she adds.

Analysts are less sanguine, pointing out that Mr. Netanyahu needs his more extreme partners to potentially halt his ongoing corruption trial, so the balance of power inside the next Israeli government remains to be seen.

As Nir, the more skeptical high school teacher, points out: “If they do push it too far, there will be a genuine civil revolt.”