Middle East Peace Begins in the Classroom

I recently wrote in these pages about the need for Israel to stop settlement construction in the West Bank, and for the Arab world to take real responsibility in ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While immensely important, additional measures by all parties need to be undertaken as well. This second article of a four part series will highlight some of the other issues that peace requires, beginning in the classroom.

A classic example of how a misguided education can fuel a conflict is the historic tensions between Judaism and the Roman Catholic Church.

My predecessor as President of the World Jewish Congress, Nahum Goldmann, negotiated the great papal encyclical "Nostra Aetate" with Pope John XXIII. As important as that document was in starting on the path of reconciliation, it didn't really change things on the ground. That's why the International Catholic Jewish Liaison Committee, an organization consisting of Jewish and Catholic communal leaders, was created: to improve interfaith relations, tangibly and from the relationship's core.

Among its other missions, the committee met regularly and took on the issue of what textbooks used in the classrooms said about the other faith. I was there at some of those meetings, and as difficult as it was in some instances, progress was always made. There are few complaints now as to what we say about each other. Jewish-Catholic relations have undergone a renaissance since the mid-20th century, furthering peace and reconciliation around the world.

Based on these lessons learned, and if there is to be real peace in the Middle East, there will have to be a review of what is being taught in the schools on both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Hamas' recent rejection of a UN initiative to teach the Holocaust in the schools of Gaza says everything about the power of education, and the extremists' need to traffic in fear and lies.

For this very reason, moderates on both sides must create a methodology of meeting regularly and pointing out what is being taught, on the ground, to young people about their neighbors.

We have to remember that while Catholic hatred of Jews had been a tragic staple for two thousand years, the tension between Muslims and Jews is much more recent and not as entrenched. As Princeton Professor Bernard Lewis and others have argued, during all those centuries of homelessness, the condition of the Jewish people under Muslim rule was much better than under Christian domination.

With the beginning of the Zionist project in the late-19th century - with its legitimate historical, territorial, and religious aspirations - Jew and Arab have been at each other's throats for most of the past 100 years.

At the present moment and into the future, what's fundamental is that the Israelis are in the Middle East to stay. The Palestinians will have to acknowledge this fact and transmit it to their children if they have any hope of creating a satisfactory state of their own.

In the words of Jewish philosopher and educator Rabbi David Hartman, "We Jews have come home."

Arab rejection of this basic reality from the moment Israel was created has done nothing but increase bloodshed, on all sides.

Arab youth are taught to wonder, since the Holocaust was a European affair, why are the Palestinians being forced to pay for the creation of Israel?

However, it's crucial to understand that Zionism predates the depravities of Nazi Germany. In fact, the search for a Jewish national home came about due to centuries of anti-Semitic pogroms, expulsions, discrimination and hate. The Holocaust was simply the evil culmination of all that came before it.

In addition, more than half of modern Israeli Jewish society is itself refugees - in this case, not from European concentration camps, but from Middle Eastern states like Morocco, Libya, Iraq, Syria, and many others, who evicted their Jews, penniless.

The Arab world needs to appreciate that legitimate historical claims and modern necessities are what make Israel the homeland of the Jewish people. Arab acknowledgment of that fact is necessary before a genuine peace can be attained.

For Israel's part, it needs to teach its children about the real potential for co-existence with the Arab world. Due to historical circumstances, Palestinians have been dealt a difficult hand. Many are still refugees and have paid dearly for decades of political upheaval. As Israeli leaders have repeatedly said, Israel needs to live up to its own liberal Jewish values and high moral standards that have been developed over centuries of rich tradition. This begins with teaching Israeli children that Palestinian children are their neighbors, with real histories and dreams.

In other words, there has to be a willingness to forget past hatreds on both sides of the divide, and look to a better future. As a necessary step, a group of Jewish and Arab leaders needs to be put together to look at what the textbooks say about the former enemy, and agree to move forward honestly, without distortion. If Catholics and Jews can today come together regularly for talks after so many tears and so much blood have been shed, than Jews and Arabs must be able to do the same.

 

Comments

[S1m0n]

There's no shortage of fear and lies in Israeli classrooms, either.

[Macready]

with all due respect Mr Bronfman . . . the situation on the groud makes this practically impossible . . . homeless people, without jobs, without schools, etc because they were destroyed by the Israeil's need the basics of life . . and to be treated with respect . . . I submit that your analogy just does not work . . .get israel to stop building illegal settlements . . get them to tear down the Jerusalem Wall . . .

[TheLonelyGod]

Look, you can disagree with Mr. Bronfman but it behooves you to at least be honest.

Employment is at 24% which is a lot, but that means 75% of Palestinians have jobs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_economy

There are hundreds of schools in both the West Bank and Gaza
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761557747/West_Bank.html

The Palestinians have one of the highest standards of living in the whole Middle East.

[Macready]

your information is outdated . . . . suspect it was before Operation Cast Lead . . .

[Freenation]

mr. bronfman i fully agree with your article but could the same be said about the is.raeli settlers who routinely burn palestinian fields, humiliate them with full protection of idf...can their school system be revised to teach their children compassion towards other humans?

[RudyHaugeneder]

One God but three religions -- each with their own interpretation of who will inhabit heaven when the end comes and each ready and willing to battle the others to become the Supreme winner.
What if God is sick of you all?

[greatscot]

Hey Mr. Bronfman. Monetary impecunity and international necessity (I need a vacation in Cancun) dictate that I should receive half your bank account! You need to realize that legitimate historical claims and modern necessity (bills are coming due) are what makes your bank account half mine!

Bronfman puts forth some absurd arguments in his piece about Jewish rights to Palestine, - about as absurd as my argument for half his bank account!

[Daoud Kuttab - Huffpost Blogger]

Palestinians have made great strides in this area that have yet to be fully recognised. I am afraid that people repeating the statement about Palestinian schools are not aware of what is happening in the Palestinian education system. Just to explain the change it might suffice to note that the Finnish government has been funding the new Palestinian text book, that a bipartisan committee from Congress has studied the situation and found no problem with Palestinian education system and finally USAID is asking all their grantees to work closely with the Palestinian Ministry of education. I wish that this issue gets removed from being repeated ad nasum without any updated facts on the reality in Palestine

[myopinion2]

The recent false accussations by the PA concerning non-existent Israeli provocations at the Temple Mount, and the PA's incitement of the Palestinians which resulted in Palestinians throwing stones at Jews praying at the Wall and stockpiling wheelbarrels of stones on the Mount for further assaults, evidences that the climate of the palestinian attitudes towards Israelis is far more ominous and dark than you allege. I wish it were otherwise.

[Tasies]

Yeah, and exactly what would you expect? That after a forty one year occupation accompanied by theft and egregious disregard that the Palestinian's would be hurling flowers at the IDF? That's where things turn ignorant and border line racist when it comes to this issue. The Palestinians have recourse to absolutely zero, no right to self defense or outrage. As if they should be nice and timid, subserviently knowing their place, and in awe of Israeli superiority. Don't these Palestinians know how lucky they should feel to be occupied by such a glorious nation?

[TonyMbutu]

"...non-existent Israeli provocations at the Temple Mount..."

Decades of occupation are sufficient "provocation" to explain, if not justify, the steps taken which were believed necessary to protect al-Haram al-Sharif. It's not like there aren't elements among the Isrealis who don't ache to desecrate and destroy the holy places there, like they barbarically liquidated the 800-year old Morroccan quarter.

[TheLonelyGod]

As comforting as it is to hear that changes have been made in the education system, Palestinian media is still very antisemitic, rejectionist, anti-Zionist, and genocidal.

More details can be read about here:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1254861893826&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

A recent survey found that 75% of Palestinians reject reconciliation with Israel in this generation. Not exactly very comforting.

[Donatella]

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

The following was recently written by Rabbi Manis Friedman of the Chabad-Lubavitch which is well represented in the West Bank and seems to reflect the right wing of Israeli politics:

“I don’t believe in western morality, i.e. don’t kill civilians or children, don’t destroy holy sites, don’t fight during holiday seasons, don’t bomb cemeteries, don’t shoot until they shoot first because it is immoral.

The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle).”

[phute]

Oh aren't these people who are living under a brutal occupation soooooooo ungrateful.
You'd think they would reciprocate the rivers of love that flow from Israel.

[Feylynne]

I definitely agree with your premise that peace must start in both Israeli and Palestinian schools in the early grades. However, this will mean that Israelis must first acknowledge that the Palestinians were displaced and became refugees due to the UN creation of Israel and Israel's own actions. Mutual acknowledgment of both people's tragedies is required for the healing of this rift. The Palestinians have paid a horrible price for the world's prejudice against the Jewish race, and these cycles of violence must stop.

I was at a lecture the other evening lead by the chairperson of B'Tselem--Gila Svirsky--and I mentioned to her that I believe that Israel needs to begin preparing for peace by creating a peace curriculum in their schools to breakdown prejudice and racism against Arabs/Palestinians and to teach basic conflict resolution principles. The UN is already using a Human Rights curriculum at its elementary schools in both the West Bank and in Gaza--although the Shoah is certainly absent. Ms. Svirsky blew me off and told me that peace can come before they prepare the Israeli people for it, and that they don't need this type of curriculum in the schools. How short-sighted is this type of thinking, especially from someone perceived as speaking from the Israeli left?

[myopinion2]

No. Palestinians were not displaced by the UN creation of both Israel and a Palestinian country. Furthermore, if the Palestinians and the Arab states had not rejected the UN Resolution and initiated a war intended to destroy the new Jewish state, there would have been no war refugees.

The Palestinians' suffering initially was created by their own hatred and rejection of Jewish sovereign presence. It is only after settlement building began following the 67 victory against Arab military aggression, that Israel became complicit in the Palestinian suffering.

[Donatella]

The 1948 Palestinian exodus also known as al Nakba occurred when between 650,000 and 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes by Jewish or Israeli forces, during the creation of the state of Israel and the civil war that preceded it.
Wikipedia

Even Israeli historians accept this version of history that replaces the propaganda of “A country with no people for a people without a country”.

[TheLonelyGod]

The Palestinians have paid a price for their own crimes against the Jews, no one else's.

[martin2]

Blame the victim the best line of defense.

[TonyMbutu]

Yup, how DARE they fight back against their oppressors and the thieves of their land!!!

[phute]

Wow - lonely god - with this logic there shouldn't be any Germany, Russia - what the heck - just level Europe.
Wow - so much for you to gorge on.

[Tasies]

Yes indeed, we can start with teaching Israeli kids about the Nakba, but then again, Israel's gov't is riddled with Nakba deniers.

How about this for a solution? Be rid of all the illegal settlements and go back to the 66' borders. There isn't one gov't in the Arab world who would say no to that deal.

[myopinion2]

kadima started implementing the teaching of the Nakba in Israeli schools, but Likud not surprisingly but nevertheless regretably reversed that decision. On the other hand, the Palestinians similarly are guilty of refusing to acknowledge the legitimate claims and positions of their adversary.

Both sides have far to go to create a climate of acceptANCE, TRUST AND PEACE.

[Tasies]

The only legitimate claim they have to acknowledge is that Israel is not going anywhere regardless of how it was imposed on them.