Bennett, Herzog teach civics class in honor of Unity Day

Opposition leader takes jab at Bayit Yehudi party during event at Modi'in high school.

By HAYAH GOLDLIST-EICHLER
Naftali Bennett and Isaac Herzog teach civics class in honor of Unity Day (photo credit: SASSON TIRAM)
Naftali Bennett and Isaac Herzog teach civics class in honor of Unity Day
(photo credit: SASSON TIRAM)
Education Minister Naftali Bennett and opposition leader Isaac Herzog met up at the Yachad high school in Modi’in to teach a civics class on unity on Monday.
The class, taught at the high school that caters to students of all Jewish backgrounds and levels of observance, was scheduled ahead of Tuesday’s “Unity Day,” the anniversary and commemoration of the abduction and murder by Hamas terrorists of three high school pupils, Gil-Ad Shaer, Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrah, last year.
Zionist Union chairman Herzog took the opportunity to take a jab at Bayit Yehudi leader Bennett and his party members over statements allegedly made during the recent election campaign.
“Minister Bennett leads a large and distinguished party, but in the last election, he and his friends crossed red lines calling members of the Zionist Union destroyers of Israel and comparing them to Hamas,” accused Herzog.
“The unity that can and should be created among the people is a deep unity, one that, for it to be created, we must stop the incitement and violence, the baseless hatred, the racism and slander that have become the center of Israeli discourse,” he continued.
The civics lesson was designed to generate a discussion of values and unity among the students and addressed the question of “What have we learned since then?” – referring to the abduction of the three teenagers in Judea last June.
Bennett and Herzog led a discussion among the students about the social cohesion that was felt over the past year.
“People think that the danger in Israel is between Right and Left, between coalition and opposition, and on this day I want to say: The division in Israel is between those who profess tolerance and those who don’t, between those who sanctify the unity of the nation and those who sanctify the things that separate us,” Bennett told the class of 10th-graders.
“We see in all of this morning’s headlines the increasing boycott of Israel. The boycotters don’t distinguish between Right and Left; from their perspective, the damage to Israel is to all of us. That is the message from this day forward – the State of Israel is a strong country, we are strong together,” he said.
Also in attendance were the Fraenkel and Shaer families.
Bennett addressed them, saying “Last summer the path to a few minutes of unity was lit up for us. We won’t allow that light to go out again. The path you went down this past year has paved the way to unity for all the people of Israel. We learned from you to listen and to be tolerant. Not to act overzealously, but to concentrate together on what we have in common as one nation.”