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Students
at Tel Aviv high school protest `militarization' The officer's lecture proceeded eventually, but attention remained focused outside the hall, on the students who remained chained to the gate for several hours. Some fellow students supported the protest, others organized a counter demonstration. Several police officers arrived at the school - acting on intelligence, they said - adding to the drama. This was the most radical protest by Ironi Aleph students against the military's involvement in their school, but it wasn't the first. Cohen has been in conflict with some seniors for several years over the army's presence in the school and its recruiting efforts. Ironi Aleph, an arts school in the center of Tel Aviv with a student body that has a "leftist" reputation, has the lowest rate of army enlistment among city schools. For example, in a report published at the beginning of 2004, the rate of graduates from this school who did not enlist was 19 percent, compared to schools like Lady Davis and Zeitlin, where only 5 percent failed to enlist. Faculty and students say these figures prompted Cohen to actively change the school's "refusenik" image. In recent years, the school has been inundated with motivational activities - visits and lectures by officers, enlistment pep talks from Cohen at various events, and celebration of "land forces day" all joined the regular class led by an IDF youth counselor that is meant to prepare seniors for their mandatory service. "In one of these classes, the soldier entered the classroom and began shouting at us to stand at attention, to demonstrate what we'll encounter in the army," recounts Shaul Berger-Nughrabi, an Ironi Aleph graduate. These inspirational efforts have met with complaints from students, some of whom view them as brainwashing. Sometimes flyers are handed out at school calling on students to resist the army's involvement, and last Remembrance Day a sign was posted at school calling on students to rebel against "the army myth" and to weigh their willingness to enlist. The sign was hastily removed, but the message was clear. According to one of the chained seniors, Assaf Riv, the demonstration wasn't aimed only at their school but at the broader trend of bringing the army into schools. A joint venture, dubbed "next generation," was launched last week by the Education Ministry and IDF Education Corps to assign schools senior officers who will be responsible for raising morale and enlistment numbers. The project will encompass some 70 schools this year and 250 next year. "Right now we're not a movement and aren't acting on anyone's behalf," Riv stresses. The Education Ministry's director general said in response that cooperation with the army is being done on a professional basis, which relies on the wealth of knowledge that senior army officials have, in contrast to the usual practice of having junior soldiers prepare students for enlistment. "Ironi Aleph is known for its phenomenon of refusal so it needs activity aimed at strengthening values and increasing motivation to serve in the army," Ronit Tirosh said. |