Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer has decided on further \"gestures\" for the Palestinian population. Arutz-7 correspondent Haggai Huberman reports that for the next two weeks, beginning this Saturday, IDF soldiers have been instructed to allow free travel throughout Yesha for PA students and teachers for the purpose of taking the matriculation exams. \"We must not make children - Jewish or Palestinian - pay the price of the violence,\" Ben-Eliezer said.
On the other hand, Israel\'s Education Ministry appears to have decided to withdraw its decision to grant an additional ten points in the matriculation exams for students of Judea and Samaria. A Ministry official said that the original decision was based on an \"error,\" but that alternative ways of helping them would be worked out. MK Zevulun Orlev, Chairman of the Knesset Education Committee, strongly criticized the new decision. \"If a mistake was made, then immediately after the tests, an investigation must be started. But the students cannot be made to suffer. They have gone through so much this year, and I have turned to Education Minister Limor Livnat to ask her to leave the ten-point bonus in place. I hope I am not too late...\"
Two high-school students explained to Arutz-7 today that they were not able to learn for days at a time because of the constant shooting attacks on the roads near them. \"We know so many of the victims, and there is an almost constant feeling of unrest here,\" said one. A school principal told Arutz-7 that although the students had gone through difficult times this year, the main issue at hand is the Ministry\'s credibility and the educational message it is transmitting: \"First it makes a decision, the students count on it, and then it changes its mind. This is unfair and uneducational.\"
On the other hand, Israel\'s Education Ministry appears to have decided to withdraw its decision to grant an additional ten points in the matriculation exams for students of Judea and Samaria. A Ministry official said that the original decision was based on an \"error,\" but that alternative ways of helping them would be worked out. MK Zevulun Orlev, Chairman of the Knesset Education Committee, strongly criticized the new decision. \"If a mistake was made, then immediately after the tests, an investigation must be started. But the students cannot be made to suffer. They have gone through so much this year, and I have turned to Education Minister Limor Livnat to ask her to leave the ten-point bonus in place. I hope I am not too late...\"
Two high-school students explained to Arutz-7 today that they were not able to learn for days at a time because of the constant shooting attacks on the roads near them. \"We know so many of the victims, and there is an almost constant feeling of unrest here,\" said one. A school principal told Arutz-7 that although the students had gone through difficult times this year, the main issue at hand is the Ministry\'s credibility and the educational message it is transmitting: \"First it makes a decision, the students count on it, and then it changes its mind. This is unfair and uneducational.\"
