The Breaking the Silence Law, enacted following the activities of various left-wing organizations in the educational system against the IDF, was approved Tuesday night in the Knesset for second and third readings.

The law, which was promoted by Education Minister Naftali Bennet, who is also chairman of the Bayit Yehudi party, along with party colleague MK Shuli Muallem, will prohibit the entry of organizations working against IDF soldiers to enter and lecture in schools.

“The reality in which organizations that undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel and slander IDF soldiers will seep into Israeli students – ended today,” said Bennet.

“Breaking the Silence has long crossed the boundaries of the legitimate discourse when they chose to defame the State of Israel in the international arena. So long as they are working abroad against the State of Israel and the IDF, I will not allow their activities in the education system. In the education system, the belief in shaping the future generation will not give expression to such voices,” added Bennet.

In the Breaking the Silence organization, which the law was enacted mainly because of their public activity, they attacked and said that “after the rejection, the silence comes: Minister of Education Naftali Bennett is so afraid of Breaking the Silence that he passed a law to silence the occupation. Bennet wants to infuse his doctrine into the classrooms of the state education system, as he expressed it in the media: It is justified to shoot eight-year-old Palestinian children, but it is forbidden to evacuate settlers from their homes.”

In their words, the time has come for Bennet and his friends to understand that as long as there is occupation, there will also be soldiers who break a silence to reveal what we are doing in the territories already. Fifty-five years, they want to shut up, finish the occupation.”

The Im Tirtzu organization responded. “This law sends a clear message to anti-Israel delegitimization organizations that they cannot have their cake and eat it too. Whoever slanders Israel and IDF soldiers in the international arena will not be able to do the same from within Israel.

“We hope that this law will lead to the ouster of other delegitimization organizations from Israel’s public institutions,” stated Im Tirtzu CEO Matan Peleg.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)