The Knesset Education Committee voted on Monday by an 8 to 2 non-binding vote to call on the Labor party member to revoke the order she issued on December 5th, which she again refused to do.
Tamir, a former member of the left-wing Peace Now organization, said after Monday’s meeting that she stands by her decision, arguing that the Green Line is an historical fact that should be designated on the maps. She did not explain why the Green Line should be designated instead of the 1947 borders determined by the United Nations Partition Plan, which Arab nations rejected.
It was the second debate on the subject by the Knesset Education Committee since the order was issued.
At a previous meeting, committee members were not allowed to decide on a proposal to temporarily freeze Tamir’s decision pending further discussion, because her fellow faction member, Chairman Michael Melchior (Labor/Meimad) refused to bring it to a vote.
Debate among Knesset members at large over the directive has been fierce at times. The Likud party immediately filed a no-confidence motion when Tamir’s order was announced.
“The Minister has mixed politics into the education programs from an extreme-left point of view in an act of ignorance to state laws including the Jerusalem Law and the Golan Heights Law,” stated the motion filed by Likud Knesset members.
The Green Line marks Israel according to the 1949 armistice lines and excludes all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, including the Old City in Jerusalem, from Israel. It derives its name from the green pencil that was used to draw the line on the map during the talks between Israel and the Arab countries that attacked it, including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
With the conquest of Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six-Day War the Green Line stopped serving as Israel's de-facto border, but it is held by the Arabs living there and in Middle Eastern countries to mark "occupied territory" that they insist Israel must evacuate.
Tamir, a former member of the left-wing Peace Now organization, said after Monday’s meeting that she stands by her decision, arguing that the Green Line is an historical fact that should be designated on the maps. She did not explain why the Green Line should be designated instead of the 1947 borders determined by the United Nations Partition Plan, which Arab nations rejected.
It was the second debate on the subject by the Knesset Education Committee since the order was issued.
At a previous meeting, committee members were not allowed to decide on a proposal to temporarily freeze Tamir’s decision pending further discussion, because her fellow faction member, Chairman Michael Melchior (Labor/Meimad) refused to bring it to a vote.
Debate among Knesset members at large over the directive has been fierce at times. The Likud party immediately filed a no-confidence motion when Tamir’s order was announced.
“The Minister has mixed politics into the education programs from an extreme-left point of view in an act of ignorance to state laws including the Jerusalem Law and the Golan Heights Law,” stated the motion filed by Likud Knesset members.
The Green Line marks Israel according to the 1949 armistice lines and excludes all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, including the Old City in Jerusalem, from Israel. It derives its name from the green pencil that was used to draw the line on the map during the talks between Israel and the Arab countries that attacked it, including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
With the conquest of Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six-Day War the Green Line stopped serving as Israel's de-facto border, but it is held by the Arabs living there and in Middle Eastern countries to mark "occupied territory" that they insist Israel must evacuate.