The Israeli Ministry of Education announced on Sunday that it would cut 85% of its budget for Tolerance Programs, a program aimed at conveying a message of tolerance to Israel's LGBTQ+ community, Channel 13 reported.
The budget for this program will be reduced from NIS 3 million to NIS 300,000 in the 2024 budget. As a result, 4,200 workshops will be canceled and 145,000 students will no longer be exposed to the content taught in the workshops, even as anti-LGBTQ+ violence and hate speech is on the rise in Israel.
Mol Nahari, CEO of Hoshen – Education and Transformation organization (Hoshen), which conducts a significant portion of workshops canceled due to budget cuts, calls for a solution before Passover A letter was sent to Education Minister Yoav Kish. And then the entrance exam begins.
“Hoshen’s workshops for tolerance education are the Department of Education’s way of providing a safe and secure space for LGBTQ+ youth and combating LGBTQ+phobia, violence and hatred from schools. Avi Meoz has now received a budget of 25 million shekels (!!) while Tolerance Education in schools is in danger of being abolished completely, assuring us that they will not cause any harm. We will continue to act until all students are protected and safe as they should be. We urge Minister of Education Yoav Kish not to abandon LGBTQ+ youth and to ensure that Passover is not abandoned. We ask that the budget be restored even before the budget was released,” Hoschen said in an Instagram post.
According to Hoshen's website, Hoshen was founded in 2004 with the aim of promoting tolerance on the subject of sexual orientation and gender identity, eradicating homophobia in Israeli society, and training professionals to work with the LGBTQ+ community. Founded. It started as part of her LGBTQ+ task force in Israel, The Aguda, but is now an independent organization.
Its program primarily includes workshops, where students meet volunteers from the LGBTQ+ community and learn about their personal stories, how they discovered their sexual orientation, and how they come out to society. I'll tell you what I did.
Previous funding issues
In 2019, the Department of Education delayed the transfer of funding to LGBTQ+ groups active in schools, primarily affecting Hoshen.
In 2016, the Ministry of Education began including the organization's work in its budget in a regulation entitled “Education for Tolerance.”
Schools receive funds to purchase activities from Hoshen as part of their budget, primarily through the Education Network. The regulation states that “gender-sensitive education and a commitment to 'rainbow families' (children growing up in LGBTQ+ families) are additional aspects of the recommended approach in educational institutions from compulsory education to grade 12. ” is clearly stated.
According to Aguda's 2023 report, Israel recorded a record high of 3,309 incidents of violence and hate speech directed at members of the LGBTQ+ community in 2022. Reports on 2023 data have not yet been published. This is an 11% increase compared to the number of instances in 2021.
