Unprecedented Demonstration in Jerusalem of Christian Schools

ComeAndSee ^ | May 21, 2015 | Christian Website from Nazareth

[Mrs. Don-o]

I don't know much about it, but according to Fr. Fahim Abdelmaseh, OFM, it looks like the Israel Ministry of Education is trying to take educational facilities away from parishes, monasteries, etc. and turn them into public schools.

Real school choice is an important mark of a free society. I want to keep an eye on this.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Sounds like what is happening with parochial schools in America.

All schools teach a belief system. It’s just a question of whether the powers that be agree with that particular belief system.

[Chickensoup]

Real school choice is an important mark of a free society. I want to keep an eye on this.
___________

Well we don’t live in a free society here that is for sure.

[ml/nj]

The protestors in the demonstration will be demanding that the Ministry of Education fully fund the Christian schools, just like other educational networks

This sort of implies that all other educational networks are fully funded by the government. I don't believe that such is the case. Reform and Conservative rabbis here in the US regularly whine that their associated schools in Israel do not get government funding. Only Orthodox Jewish institutions are funded by the government. (I don't know about Muslim schools.)

ML/NJ

[rmlew]

They are doing the same to Jewish schools. This isn’t mentioned because it interferes with their persecution complex and desire for leftist help.

[Petrosius]

They are doing the same to Jewish schools. This isn’t mentioned because it interferes with their persecution complex and desire for leftist help.

So an attempt to economically squeeze Jewish schools too in order to be taken over by the state justifies the same attempt against Christian schools? Christians should just keep quiet and let the state close down their schools?

[UnwashedPeasant]

"Most of these schools began operating years before the State of Israel was established."

This statement is fishy. It suggests that Jews have a secondary claim, even though "years before" means the period when Zionist Jews moved into the territory laid waste by Muslim rule and caused it to flourish.

Many of the "Christians" over there are Arabs first and Dhimmi Christians second.

[rmlew]

So an attempt to economically squeeze Jewish schools too in order to be taken over by the state justifies the same attempt against Christian schools? Christians should just keep quiet and let the state close down their schools?
I don't think you understand Israel. They have budget issues. Also, they have a big problem with religious anti-nationalists and with the religious who have no skills and limited employment after religious school. They are fed up with welfare for the ungrateful religious.

[Chaguito]

Ack! This is exactly what has happened in Chile under the banner of punishing “money-hungry” school owners. It will destroy what gains in educational quality have been achieved in the last 27 years.

[jjotto]

Once socialism is accepted and it’s understood that it’s OK to demand other people’s money, it always comes down to a demand for the government to steal more money on behalf of recipients. It is inevitable.

[Calpublican]

They are doing the same to Jewish schools. This isn’t mentioned because it interferes with their persecution complex and desire for leftist help. Wait, you lost me there. Leftists would want to help a Christian school?

[Mrs. Don-o]

Exactly.

[jjotto]

Because the population of religious Jews is increasing, there is a push on by the secular government to ‘mainstream’ religious schools by offering them incentives to increase hours of study to accommodate more secular studies. Interesting that this apparently should have some fallout on Christian schools, if that is indeed the case.

[Cicero]

Like most Christians, I am a firm supporter of Israel against the Palestinians. But it must be said that the Jewish government has not always been kind to Christians living in Israel. Not because they are Jewish, but because so many of them are big-government leftists.

It’s unfortunate. But from the sound of it, they have every right, indeed duty, to object to a government takeover of religious schools.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I’m wondering whether some sort of voucher system would work. All parents get, oh, say, $10,000 per year per child, to be spent on tuition and fees. They can spend it wherever they want. Public subsidy, parental choice, free market.

[Mrs. Don-o]

This was a report on a demonstration organized by the Catholic Schools. Naturally they reported on the concerns of the Catholics. In no way did that they imply that this wasn't also affecting Muslims, non-Orthodox Jews, and others as well.

You're assuming "persecution complex" for no sufficient reason.

[jjotto]

That’s precisely what Israel’s education bureaucrats want to move farther away from. They believe that smart bureaucrats should direct education for the benefit of ‘society’ and that unwashed religious believers are just too stupid to make wise decisions.

[Mrs. Don-o]

""Most of these schools began operating years before the State of Israel was established." -- It suggests that Jews have a secondary claim...

I don't see where it suggest that at all. There's nothing there about Jews being "secondary."

Without evidence, your comment seems to be an example of eisegesis. If you want to try again, I am always willing to look at evidence.

[Petrosius]

I don't think you understand Israel. They have budget issues. Also, they have a big problem with religious anti-nationalists and with the religious who have no skills and limited employment after religious school. They are fed up with welfare for the ungrateful religious.

Then why put restriction on the fees they can charge? There is more here that you do not want to admit.

[Mrs. Don-o]

And you put “Christians” in scare quotes? Do you mean to suggest they are not Christians?