Tel Aviv postpones class trips to Jerusalem in wake of rioting
Published October 26, 2014
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Tel Aviv schools have postponed class trips to Jerusalem in the wake of a terror attack in Jerusalem and rioting in the city.
A trip for most Tel Aviv schools planned for this week for 7th-and 8th-grade students has been postponed, according to reports. The trip was to visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem to mark the students’ bar mitzvahs.
“Due to the security situation in Jerusalem, we received notice from the Municipality of Tel Aviv, the initiator and organizer of the tours, to cancel the trip scheduled for Tuesday. We have not yet been informed if there will be a trip later in the year when things calm down,” a statement sent to parents of seventh graders in one of Tel Aviv’s schools read, the Times of Israel reported.
Tel Aviv city officials said trips to parts of Jerusalem not involved in the current rioting and violence would go forward.
Jerusalem officials said in a statement that canceling trips would “reward those who are disturbing the peace,” according to the Times of Israel.
Neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem have been the scene of Palestinian rioting for the last three days, following the death of a Palestinian teenager who was killed Friday evening by Israeli troops in the West Bank village of Silwad, near Ramallah, as he was allegedly preparing to throw a firebomb at traffic on Route 60. On Oct. 22, a Palestinian man from the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan drove his car into a light rail stop in eastern Jerusalem, killing a 3-month-old Jewish girl who was a U.S. citizen and injuring at least seven others.