Peace talks and the Israeli school year have started at about the same time. Which is more worthy of your attention?
The school year.
Peace talks are doomed to fail. Hamas, a key player, is being excluded. Just four months ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proclaimed that "We will never divide Jerusalem." And the settlement freeze--which saw construction on hundreds of new homes--is set to expire at the end of the month.
The list goes on.
The Israeli educational system is only slightly more promising.
The start of the school year saw the introduction of a pilot program that will make Arabic classes mandatory for students in 170 schools in the north of Israel. Speaking to the Israeli news site Walla, Dr. Shlomo Alon, Head of Arabic and Islam Education in the Ministry of Education, remarked: "We live in a country that has two official languages... Studying Arabic will promote tolerance and convey a message of acceptance."
Alon continued, "The state aspires to complete equality of citizenship. We will not deal with conflicts based on cultural identity."
The rhetoric is great but the reality of the pilot program is a bit dimmer. Haaretz reports that it is a response, in part, to greater demand for Arabic matriculation exams. This means that the classes are intended primarily for Palestinian-Israeli students. It is Jewish-Israelis, not Palestinian-Israelis, who need to learn how to accept Arabic-speakers.
Further, the pilot program is being conducted in Israel's North District--home to an Arab majority.
More encouraging are the Ministry of Education's plans to make Arabic compulsory across the country. And it's heartening that pilot program is the result of the tireless efforts and advocacy of The Abraham Fund, a local NGO that promotes "coexistence and equality among Israel's Jewish and Arab citizens" and was founded in the midst of the First Intifada.
But Israeli schools also hold some dark harbingers.
A recent poll conducted by Tel Aviv University professor Camil Fuchs found that 50 percent of Jewish-Israelis don't want Arabs in their classes. And while nearly two-thirds of those surveyed acknowledge that Arab citizens don't have equal rights, 59 percent are fine with that.
Racism takes other forms in Israeli schools. When school started last year, more than 100 Ethiopian students were barred from private ultra-Orthodox schools in Petach Tikva because of their ethnicity. More recently, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled against the segregation of Sephardi and Ashkenazi students in an ultra-Orthodox school-- and Ashkenazi students skipped school in response.
At the same time that the Ministry of Education is launching its pilot program, it is rewriting its textbooks in a bid to "move the emphasis from citizenship and democracy" while "strengthening Zionism and national patriotism," according to Hebrew University professor Dr. Ricki Tessler.
Even though 64 percent of students would likely agree with the statement "since its establishment, the State of Israel has engaged in a policy of discrimination against its Arab citizens," the Ministry of Education will see this sentence, and others like it, struck from textbooks.
While Israel bears a greater responsibility than the Palestinians--it was the Jewish state that created the refugee problem in 1948, discriminates against its Arab citizens, and continues to occupy and illegally settle the West Bank--the PA has some educational work to do, too. Many Palestinians know little about the Holocaust, a horrendous chapter in Jewish history that continues to make an impact on the Israeli psyche and, arguably, influences the Israeli government's policies for better or worse.
Two state, one state, or no state, our fates are bound together and our educational systems must reflect that. We must learn more than one another's languages--we must know each other's cultures, histories, and values. We must know each other's humanity.
That the peace process has been stalled for years--and is likely to stall again--points to the urgency of a bottom-up solution. Only when the people demand peace will peace come.
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“Dr. Nurit Peled-Elhanan of the Hebrew University School of Education recently completed an in-depth study of six Israeli textbooks published in the past few years.....
One of the prominent findings in her study is the blurring of the Green Line. The book "Israel - Man and Expanse" published by the Center for Educational Technology features a map of Israel's institutions of higher learning, with colleges in Ariel, Elkana, Alon Shvut and Katzrin, along with colleges in Safed, Jezreel Valley and Ashkelon. No border is demarcated, nor is any mention made of a single Palestinian university. Nor do the book's maps show Nazareth or any other Arab city in Israel, although holy sites in the West Bank are presented as an integral part of the State of Israel.
A chapter on the ultra-Orthodox community states that they live in settlements that.....are an inseparable part of the State of Israel.
On most of the maps appearing in the books examined by Peled-Elhanan, Ariel and Katzrin are marked as part of the State of Israel. A map of the national parks shows no sign of a Green Line, but does show Ma'aleh Efraim. Peled-Elhanan contends that this is merely a sophisticated way of ensuring that the pupil will espouse certain basic political assumptions.”
http://js-kit.com/api/static/pop_comments?ref=http://israelforumwatch.blogspot.com&path=%2F393173788188421336
.....They lived there for thousands of years without any changes, and the only thing that happened to them was the disaster of the Nakba in “Tashah” [1948]. Because we didn’t come to collect taxes, we came to inherit the land from foreigners. That was the foundation of our thinking. We drove them out because of the Zionist ideology. Pure and simple. We came to inherit the land. Who do you inherit it from? If the land is empty, you don’t inherit it from anyone. The land wasn’t empty so we inherited it, and whoever inherits the land disinherits others. And that’s why we didn’t bring them back. It was everywhere, in the north and the south, everywhere. That’s the most important point. The land wasn’t empty as I was told when I was a child."
http://zochrot.org/index.php?id=844
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100822/FOREIGN/708219932&SearchID=73400683661917
To all of you, a year of joy and health.
And what is your source for the “vermin” thesis?
Here's a pair of articles addressing a similar topic. The articles were published by Moment Magazine: Independent Journalism from a Jewish perspective.
From Arab to Palestinian Israeli: One Family's Changing Identity
Part 1
http://www.momentmag.com/moment/issues/2009/10/200910-Arab_to_Palestinian_Israeli.html
Part 2
http://www.momentmag.com/moment/issues/2010/10/Feature-Arab_Israel.html
http://www.eufunding.org/Textbooks/NewSchoolbooks.html
There is racism and hate on both sides; and yes a good deal of it is institutionalized and deeply ingrained in the culture and society on both sides; and it won't disappear that easily, not even after peace is a reality.
However, to generalize like you do is pointless. I don't think under the circumstances you should expect peace studies and a positive portrayal of Israelis to flourish among Palestinians!
Did your textbooks tell you about these outlaws?
I don't even know why I'm asking all these questions, I honestly don't believe that I'll get an answer.
I assume that if at some point the Mexicans decide they are entitled to take Texas back, and the UN decides to back them, you'll blame any Texan who ends up 'displaced' when the apartment building they rent in gets sold and they are forced to leave Texas, or 'displaced' when evidence of ownership of land from the time when it was Mexicn territory are given priority over deeds from after that time, or 'displaced', when those who flee from roving gangs of heavily armed Mexicans who have started roaming around there are told they 'voluntariily left' and therefore are not entitled to return or compensation, or are displaced because they were outside of Texas on business or vacation on the day the announcement is sprung, for 'refusing the partition'.
I could say 'go to hell', but I don't want to overwork the religious symbolism.
Most of the refugees fled the hardship of the war out of economic distress and cowardice. Jews in the exact same position mostly stayed foot. When captured, their Arab captured murdered them. In some cases Arabs were expelled as part of the fighting, as in that war villages were bases for attack and logistic support. In several cases they were expelled with no good military reason. But the number 750,000 includes all these cases, and those who ran away were the majority.
The Palestinians simply can admit it, while contemporaries knew it very well. You are rewriting history, but it will not work.
Israel is responsible for the refugee problem? Really? In 1948 when the U.N.declared Israel could be a sovereign nation, Israel was attacked by five Arab countries. Those countries told other Arabs living in the area to clear out so they could have an unobstructed path for killing Jews, and when the carnage was over, the Arabs could have their choice of any Jewish house still standing. Well, it didn't work out that way, did it?
At least Arabs still living in Israel have a constitutional guarantee of protection, while Palestinians refuse to allow any Jews to live in their territory (even those who lived there before the conflict began). And as for the Palestinian educational system, which you don't even cover in detail, they happily promote children's televisions shows calling for the death of all Jews.
Israel doesn't have a constitution. Can you really be that ignorant?
I do have a few questions to the author:
1- When will the Palestinians begin to educate their children proper geography? at which point will they put back Israel on the maps of their school books?
2- When will the Palestinians begin to educate their kids about the Holocaust?
3- When will the Palestinians stop ingraining hate against the Jews to their toddlers?
(Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XELcNMhkKCo&feature=related )
4- And finally, at which point will the Palestinians educate their children to refer to Israelis as Israelis and not Yehuds?
A second question if I may. You obviously promote a peaceful solution to the conflict. How do you feel when you read some of the anti-Israel posts here which accuse Israel of being theives, war criminals, etc. What would you say to those people about the conflict and about their accusations.
Shana Tova. May this year finally bring Israelis and the Palestinians everlasting peace.