Israeli students with Images of Israeli hostages held in Gaza (Israel Ministry of Education)
Israel’s Ministry of Education said that on the occasion of the International Day of the Rights of the Child, which is being observed today, Monday, November 20, 2023, worldwide, Israel’s schools will dedicate themselves to the more than 40 Israeli schoolchildren under the age of 18 currently being held hostage by the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza.
To that end, the school bells that ring to announce the end of a class, or the start of a new one will be different on Monday in all of Israel’s high schools, middle schools, and grade schools, ibn that they will be dedicated to “the anticipation and hope for the return of the Israeli students taken hostage in the October 7 Hamas attack to their families and homes, safe and sound.”
In their honor, instead of ringing a bell, Israeli schools will play the song “Go back home” performed by Shir Ya’akov together with the singer Keren Pel, over the individual schools’ PA systems. Shir Yaakov’s father, Yair Yaakov, his partner, Merav Tal, and her two younger brothers, Yigil and Or Yaakov, were kidnapped during the barbaric Hamas attack on the State of Israel on October 7.
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Also, the educators in Israeli schools on Monday are holding a dialogue with the students about the hostages. The teachers and students will together prepare various outreach activities to “promote the international community’s awareness of the issue of abducted children,” said the ministry.
Israel’s Ministry of education said that it hopes this will “instill a spirit of hope in all of Israel’s students, and give them the opportunity to be active, involved and significant in the national efforts to return the kidnapped students to their homes and to their families.”
Minister of Education Yoav Kish invited 52 Ministers of Education from various countries around the world to visit the State of Israel, in order to tour the towns near the Gaza Strip, to get a close impression of the dimensions of the loss and destruction, and to meet with the families who were forced to leave their homes and flee for their lives, including with the family members of the students who were kidnapped during the attack, and have not yet returned to their family and home.
The UN first established World Children’s Day in 1954 as Universal Children’s Day and is celebrated on 20 November each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children’s welfare.
Since 1990, World Children’s Day also marks the anniversary of the date that the UN General Assembly adopted both the Declaration and the Convention on children’s rights.
