On Sunday, an emergency conference supported by NIF was held to discuss how to protect public education in Israel. The conference was arranged by Mishmar Hachinuch Hamamlachti (State Education Guard), a new organization supported by NIF, leading educators, and civil society groups, which seeks to protect Israel’s state education system and its humanistic, liberal, and social values.

Under Israel’s new government, attacks on the public education system are likely to intensify and jeopardize the fundamental values of education for pluralism and equality.

The conference on Sunday was packed with concerned parents and protestors. Those attending included many prominent Israelis like author Eshkol Nevo, Reform Movement leader and MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv, and Tami Yakira, leader of NIF grantee Kahanism, Racism, and Homophobia – Not in Our Schools. Yakira is also Shatil’s Coordinator for Social Change in Human Rights.

Yakira outlined to the conference the range of important actions that parents can already take to thwart the right-wing and conservative extremism that currently prevails. Yakira said that the State Education Guard’s WhatsApp group already has over 5,000 members, most of them concerned parents.