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Friday April 18, 1997

Is Netanyahu kid getting runaround from top school?

ARYEH DEAN COHEN
Jerusalem Post Service

JERUSALEM -- He may have been allowed to throw pillows around the White House's Oval Office, but 5-year-old Yair Netanyahu is reportedly having trouble getting into a prestigious Jerusalem elementary school.

According to Israeli press reports, Sara Netanyahu has been trying to enroll her son, who starts first grade this fall, in the Keshet School, regarded as the place among the capital's yuppies to send their children.

However, school principal Ruth Lahavi was accused by Sara Netanyahu of giving her and Yair the runaround. Senior Jerusalem Municipality officials reportedly said Lahavi was not interested in having Netanyahu in the class because of the security problems and media circus it would entail.

Sources close to the prime minister reportedly said they had heard Lahavi comment that the prime minister's son would not study in her school.

A frustrated Sara Netanyahu then asked the Education Ministry for help. She was referred to the Jerusalem Education Authority.

According to a municipality spokeswoman, "There was a misunderstanding between the school principal and the prime minister's wife about the registration procedure."

Authority director Meir Krues "looked into the matter and the misunderstanding was straightened out," the spokeswoman said.

Netanyahu and Lahavi are reportedly now scheduled to have a meeting to discuss the matter, which is the regular initial procedure for school registration, according to parents who have children there.

Dudi Yifrah, whose son would be one of Yair Netanyahu's classmates if the prime minister's son is accepted into Keshet, said that while he and his wife had "no objection at all" to the boy attending the school, it was important the Netanyahus "be treated like any other family and are not given any preferential treatment."

His wife, Yoni, said the junior Netanyahu "has to go to school somewhere, after all."

But she noted that more than 100 applicants had already been turned down for the school, with limited space assigned to siblings of those already attending it.

Another parent from the school had more misgivings.

"Imagine the type of security that will be needed every time they go out on a trip," the parent, who asked not to be named, said.

Lahavi declined comment on the report and Sara Netanyahu's personal secretary was unavailable for comment.

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