Gli studenti diventano nazionalisti?
"No l'influenza del viaggio sugli studenti è relativamente
insignificante. Non contribuisce a rafforzare la coscienza ebraica o sentimenti nazionalistici, ma non aumenta l'empatia umana . Stiamo, così, perdendo la possibilità di trasmettere i veri valori educativi. La memoria della Shoah è una pietra miliare nella vita dell'umanità, non necessariamente solo nella vita del popolo ebraico. Non abbiamo davvero bisogno di un monopolio sull'Olocausto. Questo determina spesso una pericolosa paranoia . Israele non sta ponendosi il problema di come coltivare la memoria della Shoah in modo corretto. Ciò che manca è l'empatia per i vivi, non per i morti.Noi stiamo creando la paura . "
Come si possono misurare i risultati dei viaggi?
"Nessuno può valutare correttamente i risultati del viaggio , ma sicuramente si potenzia la
motivazione degli studenti di svolgere un ruolo significativo nelle
Forze di Difesa israeliane.
I giovani mi hanno detto esplicitamente che il viaggio in Polonia hanno
rafforzato la loro decisione di arruolarsi in una unità d'élite. Non c'è dubbio che l'IDF è il maggiore beneficiario dei viaggi in Polonia.
Il messaggio è questo: una cosa del genere non può accadere oggi, perché siamo forti, siamo una nazione indipendente e abbiamo l'esercito e la forza . "
Gli studenti hanno bisogno di avere un messaggio diverso, anche
perché la forza deve essere ancorata a un punto di vista morale e impedirne così la
corruzione. Il messaggio dovrebbe essere: Siamo forti ora, ma questo ci vincola . Negli ultimi anni ho visto crescere il
razzismo nella vita dei giovani. Dobbiamo combatterlo . Se gli studenti tornano a casa affermando 'Abbiamo bisogno di
uccidere tutti gli arabi,' allora non abbiamo realizzato nulla. Una affermazione che si fa senza alcun problema ed è diventata sempre più legittima Quello che gli adolescenti imparano in Polonia è solo ciò che è stato fatto agli ebrei in un certo periodo . Ne consegue che si deve essere forti e sbaragliare i nemici .Il razzismo e il nazionalismo vengono rafforzati nella convinzione di essere al centro del mondo e che il mondo sia contro . La bandiera israeliana è un elemento essenziale per il viaggio.Gli studenti usano la bandiera come strumento di espressione e alcuni si avvolgono in essa .
Recentemente i polacchi hanno chiesto di limitare le
bandiere in alcune aree dei campi. Ciò è una fonte di frustrazione per iragazzi .
Le bandiere svolgono un ruolo fondamentale insieme all 'inno nazionale che si canta in
Polonia almeno due volte al giorno. "
Haaretz
ha recentemente cercato di ottenere il permesso dal Ministero della
Pubblica Istruzione di seguire uno dei viaggi delle scuole superiori in
Polonia, ma non ha ottenuto il permesso. .Sta cercando di nascondere qualcosa?
"Forse sono preoccupati per gli episodi di violenza e di vandalismo che avvengono , ma si tratta di eventi marginali. e spesso esagerati In ogni caso è un peccato che il Ministero dell'Istruzione non dimostri trasparenza su tali questioni. Agli studenti non è permesso entrare nei negozi duty-free
prima del volo e , quindi, comprare alcolici .
E 'difficile fumare nelle camere perché il rilevatore di fumo si spegne
e le guardie di sicurezza immediatamente vanno a riferire l'accaduto agli
insegnanti.
Allegati :
What Really Happens on Israeli Students’ Holocaust Trips to Poland?
Dr. Idan Yaron, an anthropologist and senior lecturer in sociology at
Ashkelon Academic College, has been on five trips to Poland with Israeli
high school students. With Israeli parents reportedly increasingly
reluctant to send their kids on the tours, Yaron outlines what he sees
as the trip’s main issues.
“The main problem is the values
promoted on them,” he tells Haaretz. “In their present format, the trips
are driven by an agenda and miss the educational goals. The story is,
‘We have overcome the Holocaust, and we are here to stay. And we – my
words – showed them.’ It’s the narrative on a national and systematic
level. And when we harness the trip to Poland in order to advance an
agenda of strengthening nationalism, that’s a problem. We’re missing the
other goals, and the overall, human message of the Holocaust is
blurred.”
Does the system send the students a message that everything is just Judaism and Zionism, and there are no other messages?
“Yes.
The trips are usually built around the Jewish-Zionist and
Jewish-nationalist story, and much less on a universal message and the
significance of the Holocaust. This is so targeted, timed and managed in
a manipulative fashion by a very well-oiled educational system, until
there is almost no space for the students to say ‘Let’s ook at the
suffering of other peoples, too.’ If someone tries to say something like
that, there’s a feeling that it is grating, it is almost taboo.
“For
example, I came with a delegation from a yeshiva and asked the person
who headed the trip if he was concerned, as critics claim, that the trip
would increase the nationalism of the students. He told me, ‘Of course
[it will], that’s what we want to achieve here.’ In addition, to a
certain extent this is a trip in a bubble. Poland doesn’t exist. The
students only see it through the window of a moving bus. Even when we go
to the death camps, the signs and instruction around are in Hebrew and
there’s a feeling that you’re in an Israeli enclave.”
And these messages are really getting through? The students become nationalistic?
“No,
I can reassure everyone who worries about this and state that the
trip’s influence on the students’ views is relatively insignificant. It
doesn’t contribute in a significant way over time to strengthening
Jewish awareness or nationalistic feelings. And to my regret, it also
doesn’t increase human or general empathy. True, they’re trying to
inculcate nationalist values in the students, which can be strengthened
among those who have already come to the trip with definite nationalist
views. But I haven’t seen transitions from one side of the map to the
other, or from one position to another.”
How do you explain it?
“Schools
have a marginal influence on students. The trip has an influence in the
short-term, but it passes later. But it’s important to implement a
proper, consistent educational line.”
Empathy for the living
So what are we missing?
“We’re
missing out on the opportunity to pass on true educational values. The
memory of the Holocaust is a milestone in the life of humanity, not
necessarily just in the life of the Jewish people. We don’t really need a
monopoly on the Holocaust. The obvious outcome of the story of the
Holocaust as a Jewish story is often paranoia, and it is even dangerous.
Israel is not dealing with
preserving and cultivating the memory of
the Holocaust properly. What’s missing is empathy for the living, not
the dead. Instead they are creating fear.”
How can you measure the achievements of the trips?
“No
one can properly evaluate the results of the trip in the long-term, but
one of the measures used is the improvement in the students’ motivation
to play a significant role in the Israel Defense Forces. Youngsters
told me explicitly that the trip to Poland strengthened their decision
to enlist in an elite unit.”
It sounds as if the IDF is the main
winner from the trips to Poland.“There’s no doubt that the IDF is the
beneficiary of the trips to Poland. The result of the messages of
fearmongering and the victims passed onto the students is that something
like that will not happen today because we’re strong, and have an
independent nation and army.”
In other words, the solution to the Shoah is strength.
“Yes,
and that’s not enough in my opinion. The students need to get a
different message, too, because when we have strength, we also need to
talk about its use and base it on a moral viewpoint that will prevent it
from corrupting. The message the students receive must be honest: We
are strong now, but it also obligates us. As part of another research
project, I spent a lot of time in schools in recent years and saw how
prominent racism is in the lives of the young people. We need to fight
it. And if students come home from Poand say ‘We need to kill all the
Arabs,’ then we’ve accomplished nothing.”
They say that?
“They say it with no problem, and it’s become more legitimate in recent years.”
And how are the Arabs connected to the Nazis?
“What
they learn in Poland is only what was done to the Jews in a certain
period, and they conclude from this that we must be strong and rout our
enemies. I conducted many observations in schools, and they have a deep
problem with racism. For example, the trip to Poland doesn’t deal with
racism at all – which is a profound problem in Israel. The moment the
trip leads to a feeling of strengthening nationalism and ‘It’s us
against the world,’ we achieve
the opposite results of those we
wanted. When you travel to understand yourself and then look in the
mirror and see a racist and violent face, then somehow you missed out.
There are major lessons the students need to learn in Poland, but many
times they don’t get them.”
Can you explain the significance
of the Israeli flag? In the pictures the students upload to Facebook,
they are always wrapped in the Israeli flag.
“Yes, the
Israeli flag is an essential item on the trip. They use the flag as a
tool of expression, and some of them also wrap themselves in it. Every
delegation comes to Poland with dozens of flags. Recently, the Poles
asked to limit the movement with flags in certain areas of the camps,
and it’s a source of frustration for the kids. The flags also play a key
role in the ceremonies, alongside singing [the Israeli national anthem]
‘Hatikva,’ which is sung in Poland at least twice a day.”
Haaretz
recently tried to get permission from the Education Ministry to follow
one of the high school trips to Poland, but they wouldn’t allow it. Are
they trying to hide something?
“Maybe they’re worried that
you’ll report about the violence and vandalism you see in the newspapers
sometimes, but these are marginal events. They are exaggerated too
much, and it’s also less important in the context of the trips to
Poland. In any case, it’s a shame that the Education Ministry doesn’t
demonstrate transparency on such matters. I think it’s a mistake you
weren’tallowed to participate – there’s nothing to hide.”
Yaron
adds that none of the trips he accompanied featured partying or
nightclubbing. “The children have a completely full schedule. They are
difficult days, packed and exhausting, and there’s no room or time for
that. Every once in a while there are some who come with a bottle of
alcohol. There was an instance on one of the trips where the children
didn’t get up in the morning because they drank
t night, and when
the security guards opened the door we found them passed out in bed and
it was a huge embarrassment. But these are rare occurrences.
“The
children aren’t even allowed to enter the duty-free stores before the
flight and if someone is caught with alcohol, it’s also a reason to be
immediately thrown off the trip. It’s hard to smoke in the rooms because
the smoke detector goes off and the security guards immediately come
and report it to the teachers. In addition, today, as opposed to the
past, the drinking culture among youngsters is so developed that they’ll
find other opportunities.They’re actually not so desperate on those
days in Poland to unwind through drinking.
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