Media Statements by BTS head Yuli Novack
On December 27, 2016, Education Minister Naftali Bennett announced that he will promote a bill aimed at granting him “as the head of the educational system” the authority to “forbid persons or organizations which are not part of the educational system, to operate within a school when the activity is aimed at…harming IDF soldiers.” This bill would ban “Breaking the Silence” from presenting in public schools.
In response to the initial Knesset approval of the legislation, January 11, 2017:
Yuli Novak, Breaking the Silence CEO:
“The rags of Smotrich. The Zionist Union has 24 Knesset Members. But in front of the fascist and violent show of Bennett and the Jewish Home, only 17 Knesset Members from the opposition stood up. 4 from Meretz. Shame on you! And to the Knesset Members from Yesh Atid, I send my condolences that they let Yair Lapid turn them into the rags of Smotrich and the Jewish Home. You can keep sweating. Do you want to shut our mouths? End the occupation. Until then, we are here.” (Twitter screenshot, Hebrew)
In response to the discussion of the legislation at the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, January 8, 2017:
Yuli Novak, Breaking the Silence CEO:
“Bennet’s obsession with Breaking the Silence only makes us stronger. As hard as he tries to silence us, more and more teenagers hear about the occupation.
And Yair Lapid, Bennet’s brother, thinks that being in a photo with him will help brand himself right and not left; the pathetic thing in this story is that Yair became the useful idiot of all the Smotritch’s and Yogev’s, because he gets a photograph while they get legitimization and the power to continue occupying, settling and destroying the democracy” (Minute 2:17, Reshet Bet, Hebrew)