MESA PANEL NOVEMBER 2002: Views of the Other in Israeli and Palestinian Textbooks

by Ann M. Lesch

Palestinian American Research Center

http://www.parcenter.org/resources/palestinian_studies_today/mesa_papers/mesa2002.html

PARC President Philip Mattar chaired a lively discussion at the MESA conference in Washington, DC, on the theme of "Views of the Other in Israeli and Palestinian Textbooks." Although scheduled for early on November 24, 2002, the PARC panel attracted a large audience keen to learn more about controversies over history and social science textbooks in Israel and Palestine. (Check PARC's website <www.parcenter.org> for useful summaries.)

Dr. Essam Nasser from the Institute for Jerusalem Studies, Dr. Fouad Moughrabi, director of the Qattan Educational Foundation's Ramallah office for the past two years, and Dr. Nathan J. Brown, professor of government at George Washington University, described the evolving Palestinian curriculum. Brown explained that the Palestinian Authority (PA) gained control over the school system in 1995. The PA immediately published supplements for grades one to six, since the existing Jordanian and Egyptian texts omitted Palestinian history. Meanwhile, the newly formed curriculum development center commissioned new textbooks, which were modified and approved by the PA in 1997-1998. In the first year, books were produced for grades one and six, the next year for grades two and seven, and the third year for grades three and eight.

Brown noted that the new curriculum inculcates and protects national identity and upholds authoritative religious, political, and social structures. Thus, the symbols of the Palestinian flag and the Dome of the Rock are used widely, and texts emphasize the importance of family life and religious heritage as well as the nation. Nasser pointed out that the six curricular units on Palestinian history assume a continuity in Palestinian national identity throughout history. They focus on the struggles against Zionism and the British during the Mandate period, struggles that culminated in the late 1980s in the intifada and the PLO's proclamation of an independent state.

All three speakers emphasized that the PA is cautious in treating controversial history and civics. They believed that the PA does not know how to handle issues whose resolution is still uncertain, such as refugees, borders, and statehood. It therefore downplays or ignores those issues.

Brown and Moughrabi stressed that critics of the PA have distorted the contents of the textbooks in order to discredit the PA. In reality, Moughrabi commented, “The new textbooks contribute to a new definition of citizenship, including a focus on democracy, peaceful resolution of the conflict, human rights, and issues of coexistence.” They both expressed particular concern over pedagogical practices, rather than the textbooks: The pedagogy remains arid and discourages critical thinking.

Moughrabi elaborated on the importance of developing a student-centered pedagogy and on the difficulty of teaching civic education. He was particularly concerned that textbooks promote formal and legalistic citizenship values seemingly divorced from the conflicts and tensions that Palestinians experience in their daily lives. He stressed the importance of developing a critical pedagogy that would encourage students to examine the past and to recognize and understand differences -- differences not only between Palestinians and Israelis, but also between Palestinian city dwellers and those living in refugee camps, between the poor and the rich, and between men and women.

Dr. Elie Podeh, senior lecturer in the Department of Islam and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, drew on his research for The Arab-Israeli Conflict in Israeli History Textbooks, 1948-2000 (2002) to discuss how the "Arab" is imagined in Israeli history textbooks. Although textbooks are only one of many educational instruments, texts indicate the values and "facts" the government wishes to inculcate, and students tend to view texts as providing an authoritative historical narrative.

He outlined three phases in the depiction of the Arab-Israeli conflict. At first, Israeli textbooks were highly nationalistic, transmitting a distorted version of history and evidencing strong biases against the Arab "other". Not until the mid-1970s did a more balanced content begin to be introduced, partly in response to the emerging peace accords with Egypt. The greatest change came in 1999-2000 when some new texts incorporated the findings of Israeli revisionist historians. For example, maps of Palestine used to omit Arab villages, propagating the myth that Palestine was barren and empty when the Zionists arrived. In contrast, new texts show the Arab towns and villages and introduce the idea that at least some Palestinians were expelled in 1948.

For Dr. Ilan Pappé, professor of political science at Haifa University, the Israeli self-critique remains too limited, even in the "best" textbooks -- and self-critique is too often silenced by the government. Pappé maintained that those texts still do not face forthrightly the issue of expulsion and thereby leave the Zionist narrative intact. He argued that de-Zionizing cultural production is a precondition for peace and reconciliation.

Discussion centered on teachers' use of texts in classrooms as an important mediating factor. Moughrabi said that teachers at Qattan Foundation workshops ask how they can teach this "garbage" when tanks and helicopters strike their cities daily. Reality becomes those students' larger text. Within Israel, the texts are mediated in radically different ways by teachers in religious and secular schools and in settlements, as well as by teachers of different political persuasions and Palestinian-Israeli teachers. Little is known, the speakers concluded, about how the texts are actually used. Moreover, at present, while Palestinian texts struggle to combine nationalism with support for the now-destroyed Oslo peace process, Israeli texts may revert to the ultra-nationalism of the "first generation."