Schools are often described as spaces of learning and inclusion. In Israel, however, education also serves as a quiet infrastructure for mobilisation and national discipline.
Curricula, textbooks, youth movements and conscription-linked programmes together form a system where civic identity merges with military readiness. What looks like civic education frequently doubles as training in hierarchy, obedience, and patriotic loyalty.
Key Points
- The school system functions as an early stage of recruitment and socialisation into military logic.
- Programmes such as Atuda and pre-army academies integrate study and service.
- Teachers, textbooks, and ceremonies reinforce narratives of threat and national duty.
- Education thus becomes a bridge between civil society and military institutions.
- The result is a society where discipline, surveillance, and conformity are learnt as virtues.
Education and Militarisation
From primary school onwards, the Israeli education system cultivates proximity to the military.
Classrooms celebrate national memorial days, uniformed officers visit to “explain defence,” and field trips often go to army bases rather than historical archives.
This is not coincidental: the Ministry of Education maintains close cooperation with the Israel Defence Forces, embedding military values into pedagogical frameworks.
│ Ethical question:
When a school teaches loyalty and obedience as civic virtues, what happens to critical thinking and dissent?
Curricula and Values
Subjects such as history and civics are designed to highlight collective sacrifice and the existential threat narrative.
Textbooks often omit Palestinian perspectives or frame them through the lens of security and demography.
Citizenship education thus becomes less about pluralism and more about preparedness and cohesion.
Teachers and Authority
Teachers are encouraged to act as moral role models for discipline and patriotism.
In many schools, especially in the Jewish sector, reservist status or military service experience enhances a teacher’s authority.
The classroom reproduces the structure of command – rank, respect, and control – shaping what children see as natural forms of order.
Youth Movements and Pre-Army Programmes
Pre-army academies (mechinot kdam-tzvaiyot) and youth organisations like Bnei Akiva or Hashomer Hatzair channel civic engagement towards readiness for service.
Participants learn leadership through hierarchy, logistics through drills, and community through national mission.
Programmes such as Atuda merge higher education with military service, guaranteeing scholarships and career progression in return for early commitment.
Atuda – study and service intertwined
Under Atuda, selected students begin academic studies before completing army service, with tuition funded by the military.
After graduation, they serve in positions aligned with their degrees – engineers, programmers, doctors – turning the campus into a recruitment hub.
Universities benefit through funding and prestige, while the army secures trained professionals.
Consequences for Society
This tight coupling between education and security produces a civic culture where questioning the military is seen as disloyalty.
Critical teachers face pressure, and alternative narratives struggle to reach classrooms.
The boundary between civil and military spheres dissolves – and the habit of command becomes part of everyday citizenship.
│ Ethical question:
If a generation learns that safety depends on domination, what kind of peace can they later imagine?
Deepening: Concepts and Cases
Concepts & Definitions
- Militarised education: Schooling that integrates defence ideology into civic instruction.
- Pre-army academies: Gap-year institutions preparing youth for leadership and service.
- Atuda programme: Pathway linking university study with future army placement.
- Civic-military continuum: Overlap between national education and military institutions.
Examples
- Atuda recruitment brochures highlighting “serve and study.” [LINK]
- Ministry of Education guidelines on “defence education.” [LINK]
- Documentary on teachers with army backgrounds shaping school culture. [LINK]
Media
- QR: Short clip on Atuda – “Study for the Nation.”
- QR: Film sequence from The School under Surveillance (illustrating classroom hierarchy).
Sources
- B’Tselem (2022). Militarisation of Education.
- Helman, S. (2019). The Israeli Civic-Military Nexus.
- Zureik, E. (2020). Knowledge, Power and Control.
- Ministry of Education (official guidelines, 2021).
Reflection Questions
- How does education shape public acceptance of military power?
- What happens to critical thinking when hierarchy and obedience are taught as virtues?
- Can a genuinely civilian curriculum exist in a state built around conscription?
Tips for Dialogue
- Discuss how your own schooling treated themes of security, conflict and belonging.
- Compare civic education models – which promote empathy, which promote obedience?
- In what ways could schools encourage responsibility without militarisation?
- How might an education system look if its ultimate goal were coexistence rather than readiness?
Resources
PDF: Education, Power and Security – Overview – download
Video: Learning under Control Regimes – watch