The problem of changing another mind

 An Israeli TV show now showing in Australia prompts ITTAY FLESCHER to reflect on talking to racists.

What should an Israeli teacher do when a student yells "Death to Arabs" in his classroom?

That's the question we are forced to consider in the TV series The Lesson. Now available in Australia, the six-episode drama was a hit in Israel.

The Lesson was inspired by events in 2014, when teacher Adam Verta was suspended from his job at a high school in Tivon, near Haifa, after a student, Sapir Sabah, complained that Verta had expressed views critical of the Israel Defence Forces. In a civics lesson for 12^th graders, Verta had said to his students, “The IDF commits war crimes, I am ashamed that this is our army.” When a student responded that the IDF was the most moral army in the world, Verta began a classroom discussion which allowed for a range of opinions. Sabah, however, felt that this shouldn’t be the subject of debate in a Zionist school. Her outspoken nature immediately made her a cause celebre of the Israeli right.

How to manage racism in the classroom is a question many Israeli teachers face, even more so in the current political climate. They can kick the student out of class, as did Verta, exhort them not be racist, or choose another form of punishment. But none of these actions will stop the student  from holding the extreme view. It may even strengthen their sense of righteousness. Some argue that a deeper conversation about how the student came to this view and what can be done to challenge these assumptions would be a more beneficial approach.

After watching the show, Carmiel Frutkoff, a Jerusalem Peace Educator and former shaliach at Melbourne’s Bialik College, told me about an experience he once had in a taxi when a breaking news story about a terrorist attack committed by a Palestinian was aired. The Jewish taxi driver said, "We should kill all of them, don't you agree?"

Frutkoff played along.

"Who would do it?" I asked.