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Monday, February 4, 2013
Examples of school book texts cited in Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land study

[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: Not the fundamental differences between many of
the Israeli and Palestinian examples.]

“Victims of Our Own Narratives?”
Portrayal of the “Other” in Israeli and Palestinian School Books
Initiated by the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land
Funded by a grant from the United States Department of State, Bureau of
Democracy, Human Rights and Labor awarded to A Different Future
Study Report, February 4, 2013
http://d7hj1xx5r7f3h.cloudfront.net/Israeli-Palestinian_School_Book_Study_Report-English.pdf

...A Major Common Problem: Consistent Negative Portrayal of the “ Other” in
Unilateral National Narratives

Examples from Israeli books:

“Since its establishment, the State of Israel sought to make peace with its
neighbors, the Arab countries, through Israeli-Arab negotiations. Its
efforts, however, have failed in the first thirty years of Israel’s
existence, because of the refusal of Arab countries and nations to recognize
the right of existence of Israel as a sovereign Jewish state. In order to
harm Israel, to weaken it and destroy it, the Arab countries have initiated
terror attacks, infiltrations into the territory of the State of Israel and
harming the civilian population. The Arab countries have accumulated weapons
and ammunition and strengthened their armies to wage a total war against
Israel” (State and state religious schools, Being Citizens in Israel-
in a Jewish and Democratic State [Grade 11, p.332, LP3275).

“Long ago, we were forbidden to leave the yard and especially not to go for
walks. The Arabs would snipe on the roads. To bring the milk, two drivers
would come in a convoy of trucks. But once the Arabs shot at the car
bringing the milk and hit Uri the driver. Uri’s grave was dug at night
since the kibbutz cemetery was too close to the Arab village, near the yard
of Abu Salah. In the yard, Arab “gangs” were based who would go out from
time to time to attack traffic on the roads” (State religious schools, Open
the Gate: Anthology for 6th Grade Grade 6, p.305, LP1254).

“Ever since 1964, the year the PLO was founded, Palestinian terrorist gangs
penetrated (to Israel)… The PLO took advantage of the military defeat of
Arab countries to increase its terrorist activity against Israel” (State
secular schools, National World - Building a State in the Middle East ],
Grade 10, Part 2, p.186, LP1027).

“Israel is a young country and surrounded by enemies: Syria, Egypt, Jordan.
And on every side […] enemy states are hatching plots that are only waiting
for the right time to be carried out. Like a little lamb in a sea of
seventy wolves is Israel among the Arab states, which, ever since she was
established to this day have not come to terms with the fact of her
existence even after they have threatened to destroy all the inhabitants…”
(Ultra-Orthodox schools, Country and Its Inhabitants: Israel Studies, Grade
4, Part 3, 2008, p.118, LP1333).

“The Arab states ogled the lands of Israel, claiming that Jewish Israel is a
foreign plant in the very heart of the Arab states. The Palestinian pact
states that they must wage holy war, Jihad, and liberate Israel-Palestine
from the Jews. Not only do the states bordering on Israel work against her,
but also all the other Arab states. In almost all the wars Israel has had
with her neighbors, Iraqis have sent soldiers to fight Israel. Iraq has
also helped the terrorists living in Lebanon. In the Gulf War, Iraq sent
missiles at Israel. Even now, Iraq still utters threats to destroy Israel.
It’s enough to glance at newspapers and see that Iran is constantly uttering
threats against Israel. Syria is the harshest enemy Israel has on her
borders. In Lebanon, the main problem is the terrorists who live there. A
peace treaty has been signed with Egypt, and also Jordan. But the citizens
of those ‘friendly’ states are hostile to Israel” (Ultra-Orthodox schools,
The Near East
, 1998, p. 39, LP49).

Examples from Palestinian books:

“Palestine's ancient history saw the entry of the children of Israel led by
Joshua son of Nun in the 12th century BC, and they fought the
Palestinian Canaanites. In the last third of the 11th century BC, Saul son
of Kish (Talut) became leader of the children of Israel, and fought the
Palestinians, who were led by Goliath, who were able to kill him and his
sons. At the end of the 11th century BC, after his death, the prophet David
son of Jesse became leader of the children of Israel, and continued fighting
the Palestinians and the Canaanites, founding the kingdom on part of the
Palestinians' land under his leadership...” (Palestinian schools, History of
Palestine: Modern and Contemporary , Grade 11, Part 1, 2008, p.9, LP1004).

...
Examples of negative descriptions of the acts of the other: Examples from
Israeli books:
Referring to a 1941 pogrom in Iraq: “On the holiday of Shavuot, Arabs
attacked Jews and murdered them, including women and children…. The
slaughter of the Jews of Bagdad continued for two days without interruption”
(State secular schools, National World 2 - Building a State in the Middle
East, Grade 10, Part 2, p.160, LP918).

Or “Israel’s response to the acts of terror and murder was ‘retaliatory
activity’ across the border (State and state religious schools, Nationality
in Israel and in the Nations: Building a State in the Middle East , Grade
11, p.204, LP1632)” and “could not forget for a moment the hatred of the
Arabs who were watching for an opportunity to attack the inhabitants of the
Land and kill them mercilessly…” (Ultra-Orthodox schools, Country and Its
Inhabitants: Israel Studies, Grade 4, Part 3, 2008, p.140, LP1359).

“In the past, Arabs lived in Jaffa. When masses of Jews began to
immigrate to the Land through the port of Jaffa, many of them chose to
settle in the city. But the Arabs who lived there, along with the ancient
hatred, were envious of the Jewish rule of the place they thought was their
home. Therefore they persecuted them whenever they could and caused them
damage and misery. The Jews were not allowed to work in the port
which gave the Arabs a comfortable livelihood, and they also suffered
from repeated pogroms. In time, when the pogroms increased they had to leave
their houses near the Arabs, and concentrate in only Jewish neighborhoods in
the city. Moreover, bloody incidents were not prevented, and the Jews had no
choice. They decided to leave Jaffa” (Ultra-Orthodox schools, Country and
Its Inhabitants: Israel Studies, Grade 3, Part 2, 2008, p.113, LP515).

“On the 11th of Adar 1920…masses of armed Arabs surrounded the
courtyard of Tel Hai and wanted to enter by cunning…hundreds of incited
Arabs burst into Jerusalem in early April (p.28)”. “Masses of incited
villagers streamed to Jerusalem and burst into the streets of the city,”
“The rioters went from house to house and murdered 60 Jews…” (p.30). “An
incited Arab mob attacked Jewish passersby in Jaffa and killed nine of them…
the gangs burned down houses and their contents, and set fire to forests and
fields and uprooted citrus groves” (State secular schools, National World
2 - Building a State in the Middle East, Grade 10, Part 2, p.32, LP345).

“The PLO took advantage of the military defeat of Arab countries to increase
its terrorist activity against Israel. It set its bases in Jordan… In
1970, a military struggle began between the terrorists and Jordan, until
Jordan finally drove out all the terrorist organizations out of its
territory… Since 1970, southern Lebanon has served as a base for terrorists
(‘Fatahland’). Terrorist activities are staged against Israel from there”
(State secular schools, National World 2 - Building a State in the Middle
East , Grade
10, Part 2, p.197, LP1027).

“After the war, the ‘Palestinian Pact,’ which was composed by the
National Council of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) in 1964
was reformulated. In the spirit of the Palestinian Pact, PLO organizations
began a harsh terrorist war against Israel and Jewish institutions. Planes
were hijacked, Israelis were murdered in the streets of the Land and in the
world, and dozens of letter bombs were sent. Terror struck again and again,
and reached a climax in the period after the war with the murders of
13 students and teachers from Moshav Avivim on their way to school (May
1970) and 11 athletes at the Munich Olympics (September 1972) – Israel was
forced to cope with a new kind of war that had no decision” (State and state
religious schools, Nationality in Israel and in the Nations: Building a
State in the Middle East, Grade 11, pp.237-238, LP1692).

Examples from Palestinian books:

“…facilitating Jewish migration to Palestine to turn it into a Jewish state
after evacuating or exterminating its people, and before this Zionist,
imperialist plan... The struggle with the Mandate government and Zionism
continued until the Nakba (Catastrophe) took place in 1948… The Palestine
war ended with a disaster of which history had not seen the like,
and Zionist gangs usurped Palestine and displaced its people from their
cities, villages, land, and houses, and founded the state of Israel... The
tragedy was exacerbated with the Zionist entity's occupation of what remains
of Palestine... most Palestinians are still living under the yoke of the
Occupation, and others are living lives of displacement and loss…”
(Palestinian schools, Arabic language: Reading, Literature, and Analysis,
Grade 12, 2008, pp.97-98, LP886).

...

“Zionism: is a colonialist political movement founded by the Jews of Europe
in the second half of the 19th century, with the goal of bringing together
the Jews of different nationalities from all across the world, and amass
them in Palestine and neighboring Arab countries through migration and
displacing the Palestinian people in Palestine from their land in order to
found the state of Israel” (Palestinian schools, Modern Arabic History,
Grade 9, 2009, p.82, LP2722).

...

Examples of positive descriptions of the acts of the other from Israeli
books:

One example from an Israeli State school book when discussing the
pogrom in Hebron in 1929: “If not for the brave stand of a British police
officer and moderate Arabs who physically defended their Jewish
neighbors, the slaughter would have been more awful” (State secular
schools, National World 2 - Building a State in the Middle East, Grade 10,
Part 2, p.30, LP345).

Another example: “‘I saw it as my obligation as a Muslim Arab to offer help
to an Israeli soldier injured in an accident’ said Abdullah Yusef Yunes… who
offered help and drove an Israeli soldier in his vehicle” (State
secular schools, Through the Words: Book D, 2009, Grade 4, Part 4, p.203,
LP1892).

“Abu Salah had long been our friend and neighbor. Only a low stone fence
separated our cemetery and his house. In the summer, Abu Salah would bring
us coal for the bakery oven, and in the winter, when our car got stuck in
the mud, he would bring the milk on his camels” (State religious schools,
Open the Gate: Anthology for 6th Grade,, Grade 6, p. 304, LP1254).

As illustrated in two of these examples, positive characterizations of
Arabs or their actions in Israeli State books typically refer to individuals
rather than to Arabs as a whole or as a nation.

An example of positive description of the act of the other from Palestinian
books

The following divine books: 1 - "The messages of Abraham (peace be upon him)
and Moses call for belief in God Almighty, worshipping Him, and following
noble morals". 2 - The Torah: Was revealed to Moses (peace be upon him) to
guide the children of Israel. 3 - The Zabour: Was revealed to David (peace
be upon him) with sermons and guidance for the children of Israel. 4 - The
Gospel: Was revealed to Jesus (peace be upon him) to guide the children of
Israel, and to reaffirm what Moses (peace be upon him) had brought”. Islamic
Education part 1 grade 3 p. 17

...
Examples from Israeli books:
...
In discussing opposition to the founding of Israel: “Between 1920 and 1945,
the Arabs of the Land initiated several riots in which hundreds of Jews were
killed or wounded. The outbursts were motivated by various reasons and
various organizations, but behind them all was the opposition of the
Palestinian Arabs of the Land of Israel to the coming of the Jews to the
Land of Israel and the establishment of a Jewish state” (State and state
religious schools, Nationality in Israel and in the Nations: Building a
State in the Middle East , Grade 11, p. 38, LP1205).

In discussing opposition to the founding of Israel: “The Arabs denied the
right of the Jews to settle in the Land of Israel. …With this claim, the
Arabs completely ignore the historic connection of the Jews with the Land of
Israel… They adopted the claim that the Jews are not a nation and Judaism is
merely a religion, and hence the Jews have no right to territories. On the
other hand, the Arabs are a nation and thus, according to their claim, the
Land of Israel belongs to them. According to them, the immigration of the
Jews to the Land of Israel negates the Arab nature of the Land and the
Zionists deliberately create an economic depression in the Land of Israel to
impoverish the Arabs and force them to sell their lands” (State secular
schools, A Journey to the Past: The Modern
World In Crisis, 1939-1870 [9191-9781 pp.168-169, LP1475).
...
...Examples of self-critical presentation of actions by the self-community
in Israeli State

In reporting criticism of the bombing of the King David Hotel in 1946, first
because it was done at all, and second because it was done during the day
when more people were likely to be (and in fact) killed, the passage
concludes: “The disowning of the bombing and the sharp disagreement stirred
in its wake led to the final dismantling of the insubordinate Hebrew
movement” (State secular schools, National World 2 - Building a state in the
Middle East, Grade 10, Part 2, p.63, LP504).

Another example refers to “the slaughter” in the Sabra and Shatila refugee
camps: “In Tel Aviv, in City Hall Square […] a mass demonstration gathered,
the biggest Israel had ever known. Many people demanded the establishment
of an official investigating committee to examine the events of the
slaughter and, after strong pressures, Menahem Begin approved its
establishment. The Kahn Commission […] determined that it was the
Phalangists who carried out the slaughter, but it made Israel indirectly
responsible for the act and recommended removing the Minister of Defense
from his position” (State secular and state religious schools, Nationality
in Israel and in the Nations: Building a state in the Middle East LP1756).,
Grade 11, p.266,

In reference to violence in the Arab village Deir Yassin:

“In the middle of Nachshon, the battle of Deir Yassin took place, which
developed into the killing of dozens of helpless Arabs […] and created a
negative and terrifying image of the Jewish occupier in the eyes of the
Arabs of the Land. […] The fighters acted in the light of day and were hit,
and then those left split up and went on fighting in small units, without
any central control and without any contact between them. The inhabitants of
the village didn’t leave it, and that is the main reason why the number of
civilians wounded in the battle was high. According to historical research,
about 100 people were killed in Deir Yassin, most of them women, children
and old people, but at that time, there was talk of hundreds killed, and
ETZEL even boasted after the battle and counted 240 killed… The
episode of Deir Yassin horrified public opinion in Israel and in the world
because of the harsh attack on a civilian population. The leadership of the
Jewish Agency expressed ‘feelings of horror and disgust at the barbaric way
that action was carried out.’ On the political plane, it served and still
serves as an excuse for Arab propaganda against Israel, but its main
influence was in the immediate range: the image of the Jewish occupier
created by the battle of Deir Yassin was the central cause of the Arab
exodus from captured Arab settlements” (State secular and state religious
schools, Nationality in Israel and in the Nations:
Building a State in the Middle East , Grade 11, p.113, LP1429).

“ETZEL, which warned that there was only one way to rule and be safe in the
Land of Israel: blood for blood – a policy of defense and restraint would
not bring victory and would not break the enemy forces. Because
of that, the members of ETZEL took measures of blind terror,
indiscriminate terror, against Arab terror. Those actions were
revenge actions” (State secular schools, A Journey to the Past: The
Modern World in Crisis, 1939-1870 , Grade 8, p.239, LP1503).

“‘Program D’ which was designed to deal with the expected invasion of the
Arab Countries allowed the “Hagana” commanders to empty
strategically-essential territory of its population, and to expel hostile
villages. Each unit interpreted and implemented these orders as it
understood them, and according to the circumstances. And still, it is clear
that there was no plan to expel the Arabs from the Jewish States
territory, and the issue was never discussed in the higher
political institutions” (State religious schools, Revolution & Salvation in
Israel & the Nations: Third Part 1939-1970 [9191-9181], Grade 10, Part 1,
p.312, LP1637).

With regard to Kfar Kassem (Kafr Qasim), a history book for both state
systems writes:

“On the first day of the Sinai war, a dreadful event took place in Kfar
Kassem (Kafr Qasim). In the village, near the center of the Land (until
1967, it was near the Jordanian border), 49 men, women and children were
murdered by a company of border police that operated in the place”
(Nationality in Israel and in the Nations: Building a State in the Middle
East, Grade 11, p.213, LP1656).

This statement in a book Democratic Israel (2001) from state secular
schools refers to graffiti: “No Arabs – No Attacks” and states: “The
document appears in a part which deals with the issue “Democracy put to a
test: the struggle against violence”. The document is “An announcement of
condemnation published by Rabbis, heads of “Bnei Akiva” Yishivas, against
the graffiti that had been sprayed all over the country: “No Arabs – no
terror”. 1. We who signed below, are enraged and shocked by terrorist
attacks and murders committed against us on a daily basis. We have no doubt
that we are facing a difficult enemy and that we must deal with, and that it
is the right of every person to express his rage against his enemy. 2. And
yet, we strongly condemn the slogan “No Arabs – no terror” which is
spreading around the country, and denounce it as a generalizing and
impassioned slogan, which exceeds the boundaries of natural morals and
freedom of speech, and the boundaries of political disputes. 3. Such
statements are against the Torah and Judaism’s spirit and are an extreme
blasphemy. 4. We call upon every which sees itself as opposed to racism, to
condemn any expression of wrong and illegal opinions. We must not allow
blind hatred a footing in our place! Signed (names of 14 Rabbis)” (p.354,
LP271)

Example of self-criticism from a Palestinian book:

“Omar's policy with his subjects is an example illustrating how careful
Islam is to guarantee subjects' rights and provide them with a dignified
life whatever their religion. When Omar saw an elderly Jew begging because
of his poverty and need, he (may God be pleased with him) told him: 'We were
unjust to you, we took the jizya (poll tax) from you as a young
man, and then we abandoned you in your old age.' Omar ordered that he and
those like him be spent for out of Islamic charity money” (Palestinian
schools, Islamic education Grade 10, Part 2, 2005 (2nd edition), pp.67-68,
LP2789).

...

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