Keep security and education separate

w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m

19/01/2005

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/529013.html

Education Ministry Director General Ronit Tirosh announced this week at a news briefing in the presence of Education Minister Limor Livnat that the job of the Shin Bet officer at the ministry has not been canceled. A representative of the secret service serves as a deputy supervisor of the Arab education department, involved in all the appointments of principals and teachers in the Arab sector schools with the authority to veto an appointment.

Tirosh's announcement contradicts the Dovrat Commission's recommendation to completely cancel the job of the Shin Bet officer. The announcement surprised Prof. Ismail Abu Saad, who was a member of the Dovrat commission and participated in the briefing. Abu Saad said that the commission's approach was that "security and education don't go together," and he called on Tirosh to follow the commission's recommendations.

It seems that element was eroded during the process in which the ministry heads adopted the recommendations of the committee, apparently because of pressure from the security services. As a result, the ministry decided not to cancel the role of the Shin Bet representative, but to move the representative to the security branch in the ministry. From his new position, Tirosh explained, he will pursue an "egalitarian approach" because he will also oversee appointments of Jewish educators "in places where there are suspicions."

The ministry's decisions - both in not accepting the recommendation of the Dovrat Commission to cancel the Shin Bet's position in the ministry and in keeping the Shin Bet officer in the ministry's overall organization - should be opposed. The function of the Shin Bet representative as deputy chief of Arab education created the impression that the entire Arab population is under suspicion of disloyalty and that its teachers could incite the pupils against the state and its institutions. There is no justification for that impression, and the Dovrat Commission was correct to draw an overall organizational conclusion in its recommendations.

As long as there are hostile relations between Israel and its neighbors, awareness of security concerns in domestic matters cannot be canceled nor reduced in importance, and it is regrettable that sometimes it means Shin Bet surveillance of people designated for sensitive positions in the civil service. By placing a Shin Bet representative in the ministry's security department, making the ministry responsible for security irrespective of the backgrounds of the people it examines, the distinction of Arabs as requiring special surveillance has ostensibly been canceled. But in effect, the flawed principle has not been corrected.

Integrating the Shin Bet in the Education Ministry creates an uncomfortable feeling, and it is inappropriate for a state that is trying to nurture an open civic society. To do its job, the Shin Bet does not need to be organically integrated into the Education Ministry. Just as it can conduct its work regarding other public servants without being part of government ministries or the state institutions that employ them, so too can it do its job, as necessary, with regard to the Education Ministry workers, including teachers. Security must be kept separate from education.