Nurit Peled addressing the EU Council

Nurit Peled, co-founder of Bereaved Parents for Peace and lecturer at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has written extensively on the subject. "From the age of three children have a military education. From the minute they learn about holidays it is about our land and our destiny." Peled believes feelings of national pride are subtly manipulated to craft an identity based on superiority and advancement, inversely denigrating those outside these parameters. "The message that we are the strongest is very sophisticated in mainstream education. The wars and pogroms, the Nakba, a word which is never used, are all mentioned the context of our progress."

This approach legitimises atrocities committed in the name of Israeli advancement. The 20th century- A History of the People of Israel in the Last Generation, a text book commonly used for grades 10-12, describes the Kafer Kassim massacre, in which 48 Palestinian villagers were killed, as "a good turning point for Israel’s Arabs, although it began with tragedy". The text, placed alongside victorious Israeli soldiers in heroic poses and stirring nationalist poetry, reinforce the message that the end justifies the means.

Map from "The 20th century"

It is sadly inevitable that any analysis of Israel’s history, particularly the bloody events of 1948, can hardly avoid emotive descriptions. Palestinian schools teach the Nakba in equally one-sided terms. In order to restore balance and accuracy to the debate, Dr. Sami Adwan, head of Bethlehem university, pioneered a project named Learning Each Other’s Historical Narrative, a text book that gives Israeli and Palestinian accounts of events simultaneously. Using six teachers from either side, the book juxtaposes both sides’ account and leaves a blank space in the middle for a student’s own thoughts.

So far the reaction has been tepid, which disappointed but did not surprise Sami, "the most important thing with this project was not to create too much hope. Our proposal was rejected out of hand by ministries, parents and students too. The prevailing attitude is 'I only need one narrative, the other is lies’." The problem is partly of writing living history, as Adwan puts it, "the project started as post conflict but the conflict continues."

To this end there is a need for Israeli ministers to promote militarism in school, as they will supply the next generation of combatants. It is common practise for army generals to visit schools and for class outings to a military base. Schools have begun to receive awards for the number of their graduates who make it into an elite unit of the army. This glorification of the military requires demonisation of the enemy.

Both Adwan and Peled have closely studied representation of Palestinians in a wide range of children’s texts, with similar conclusions. "We could not find one picture of an Arab human being" Peled reflects sadly, "they are all of types. They are presented as primitive terrorists, farmers who reject modernity. They are not people."

Representation of "Arabic Village" from Modern Times 2

Peled goes deeper in her thesis The Presentation of Palestinians in Israeli Schoolbooks, identifying the "references to humans as an abstract noun" as a tool to engender racism. The most frequent embodiment of this theory comes by presenting Palestinians as a 'problem’ to be solved. Modern Times Part 2: A History Israel in the Last Generation, for grades 10-12, typifies this approach, "The 'Palestinian Problem’ incubated in the poverty, the idleness and the frustration that were the lot of the refugees in their pitiful camps". The 20th Century is even more impersonal; "This chapter will explore the Palestinian problem, which stands since the beginning of the Zionist enterprise in the heart of the Middle Eastern conflict, and the attitudes within the Israeli public regarding the problem and the character of its solution."

Adir Cohen, author of An Ugly Face in the Mirror , researched 520 school books for children published after 1967. He found that 66% referred to Arabs as violent, 52% as evil, 37% as liars, 31% as greedy, 27% as traitors and many more derogatory links. He then conducted a survey of children between fourth and sixth grade with the following results:

"Seventy five percent of the children described the "Arab" as a murderer, one who kidnaps children, a criminal and a terrorist. Eighty percent said they saw the Arab as someone dirty with a terrifying face. Ninety percent of the students stated they believe that Palestinians have no rights whatsoever to the land in Israel or Palestine."

Dr. Adwan believes the problem is growing. "Dehumanisation by stereotyping is on the rise in Israeli schools. It is very sophisticated and implicit. One story I found for 8 year olds is of a Palestinian child selling orange juice by the sea. An Israeli child is thirsty but is scared to try it. He asks an Israeli man, who tells him it is safe and then he buys it. The message is that Palestinians mean you harm, they have bad intentions and you can only trust Israelis. Children’s stories frequently involve Palestinian workers who are late and do bad jobs, which is all absorbed by such young children The message has gone from explicit to implicit in recent years."

Peled believes geography is a subject heavily exploited to promote nationalism. "We never teach about the state of Israel, we teach the land of Israel, which includes all of Palestine and parts of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan." Often taught in conjunction with passages from the bible, which promote Israeli’s rights to land far beyond its borders, the message is "the legitimacy of divine law over international law". As Jay Lemke, author of Metamedia Literacy puts it; "The intertextuality with the Bible gives a holy stamp to the textbook and a scientific stamp of validity to the Bible".

Arab Population Map from "Israel. Man and Space". White areas indicate no data

All the books Peled surveyed feel below the standards of cartographic practise set out in Oxford & Harris’ industry standard Student’s Companion to Geography, which calls for "the source of the data, where it was obtained, when it was collected and by whom. Labels that would indicate features of interest." Typically the books surveyed would include even the smallest settlement, while regarding Palestinian territories as "areas with no data". A map of East Jerusalem in Israel: The Man and the Space (for 9th grade) shows it to be an "empty place, where Temple Mount and the Wailing Wall are the only features of interest".

Such exclusion reinforces the age old 'land without people for a people without land’ myth. Typically survey data excludes statistics from the Arabic population. A puzzling contradiction from this approach is that while Palestine is declared part of Israel, its population remains foreign, or alien.

Adwan and Peled both feel there is a desire for Jewish-Israeli identity to align itself with western culture, rather than that of the middle east. As Peled writes "cultural discourse and social life is heavily westernised. We are closer to Yemen than Europe, but on our mental map the centre is still Europe". Attempts to create distance from primitive, undeveloped Arabic culture can be seen in the typical representation the other living in "one story cottages" and "pitiful camps". "They see themselves as part of western culture" says Adwan, "its approach recognition by denial, which is even imposed on their own citizens. In the 1960’s it was practically illegal to play Arabic songs in public".

Such a skewed system has impacted on academic performance, until recently a source of great pride to Israelis. "History and geography results are deteriorating. More of our brightest academics are leaving to study abroad", says Peled. Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar recently acknowledged the negative trend but reached for a predictable answer, "the Arabic population brings down our international status", he explained. To Peled there is a better solution; "the Israeli education system should be monitored by the international community. Nothing is irreversible but racism in Israeli education is the worst its ever been."