Radical youth? Israel’s educational anxiety in response to high school political protests, 1967–1973

Between 1967 and 1973, Israel experienced a wave of cultural and political protest, reflecting global trends and local tensions linked to the waning dominance of the Israeli Labor Movement. These protests influenced high-school students, who organized direct and collective actions challenging state policies. This article examines the institutional response to these protests, arguing that it sparked a form of public-educational moral panic. This reaction aimed to suppress political critique by framing youth dissent as a threat to societal values, thereby deflecting attention from growing disillusionment with the Labor Movement and highlighting tensions between educational authority, political identity, and national consensus.