Israel’s education minister has apologized following the exposure of teachers from a school in Netivot after their racist WhatsApp group set up to mock their Ethiopian Israeli students on a field trip.
The teachers were exposed when one of the girls filmed a teachers posting in the group, titled “Black School Trip” over the teacher’s shoulder.
She the composed a message of her own attaching the teacher’s racist exchange to her peer’s WhatsApp group.
“Instead of being our teachers and setting an example and making us feel like we’re in our safest place, you did the exact opposite,” one of the girls wrote as she shared the damning images on social media. “You are a disgrace, I’m ashamed that you’re our teachers and that you’re teaching the future generation.”
All of the teachers involved have been suspended. “The incident will be dealt with severely with all the tools at our disposal,” Israeli Education Minister Yoav Kisch said.
“I’m sorry for the distress that was caused for the students. There will be zero tolerance for these sorts of incidents on my watch.”
About 150,000 people of Ethiopian origin reside in Israel, with many initially brought to the country in the 1980s during a covert Mossad operation.