Teachers demand the removal of Education Minister Rafi Peretz

15/07/19

Teacher and activist Yifat Ben Dov launched a campaign via “My Zazim,” our community campaign platform, calling for the removal of Rafi Peretz as Education Minister following his anti-LGBTQ statements:

We call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire Education Minister Rafi Peretz! We will not allow business as usual and go on teaching while the Education Minister expresses these vile opinions. If the Education Minister is not removed from his position, we call on all school-teachers and principals to strike, suspending the opening of the school system and the beginning of the school year.

We, education workers, are appalled by the statements in support of conversation therapy made by the Education Minister. In our schools, we educate our students to welcome and respect those who are different. Conversion therapy is a means of rejecting difference and demanding that others deny who they are. We will not allow our students to feel that their identity is unwelcome or rejected. It’s known that these “treatments” have been repeatedly proven to pose a threat and cause harm to people’s health. An Education Minister promoting this hateful assault on the rights of LGBTQ people, Arabs, and other minorities, is a danger to democracy. 

Photo: Guy Yitzhaki