Anti-Arab Propaganda in Official Israeli Textbooks and

Children’s Books: Teaching Hatred and Incitement

American Muslims for Jerusalem

18 April 2002

http://www.amjerusalem.org/InfoBriefs/041802IsraeliIncitement.pdf

Books approved by Israel’s Ministry of Education for in-class use promote dehumanizing attitudes toward Muslims and Arabs. A study1 by Daniel Bar-Tal¹ of Tel-Aviv University concludes “the majority of [Israeli school] books stereotype Arabs negatively.” Similarly, Adir Cohen,² former head of the education department at Haifa University, found that 31% of Israeli children’s books published since 1967 contain degrading descriptions of Palestinians. Cohen notes references to Arabs such as murderer, snake, dirty, vicious animal, killer and camel’s hump.

Bar-Tal reviewed 124 Hebrew language books approved for use in 1994 by the Ministry of Education.

This was shortly after the signing of the 1993 Oslo agreement, when hopes for a lasting peace were at their highest. Of 60 children’s storybooks reviewed, 27% contained references to Arabs as a “group not worthy of humane treatment.” This figure jumped to 30% in high school history textbooks. Only 15% of the children’s readers made any reference to “attempts to resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict peacefully.” The number dropped to 10% for the high school history textbooks.

Bar-Tal cites one children’s reader as saying, “We [first Israeli settlers] were lonely… pioneers surrounded by a sea of enemies and murderers.” In elementary school readers Arabs are “often” portrayed as “uneducated people and enemies.” Even the elementary school geography textbooks “stereotype Arabs negatively.” Among the approved junior high materials are books that “present a very negative picture of Arabs.”

Adir Cohen surveyed a group of 4th to 6th grade students for part of his study. He found:

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 that they believe that Palestinians have no rights whatsoever to the land in Israel or Palestine. ³

A first grade reader used in some Israeli classrooms relates the following story:

The Holy One, Blessed Be He, came to the Ishmaelites⁴ and asked them: “Do you want to receive the Torah?” They said: “What is written in it?”

He said to them: “Thou shalt not steal.” They said to Him: “We cannot accept the Torah, it is difficult for us not to steal.” And so, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, went from nation to nation, and not one of them wanted to receive the Torah. When He went to the Jewish people, they immediately said: “We will do and we will hear."⁴

1 Bar-Tal, Daniel “The Rocky Road Toward Peace: Beliefs on Conflict in Israeli Textbooks.” Journal of

Peace Research, 1998, vol. 35, no.6: 723-742.

2 Cohen, Adir An Ugly Face in the Mirror.

3 Meehan, Maureen “Israeli Textbooks and Children’s Literature Promote Racism and Hatred Toward

Palestinians and Arabs.” Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September 1999: 19-20.

4 Term used to refer to Arabs, the descendents of Abraham’s son Ishmael (Arabic: Ismail).

5 Everything in its Time, 1995: 233-234. As cited in Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, Arabs and

Palestinians in Israeli Textbooks, September, 2000.

In 1999, seventeen-year-old Jerusalem high school student Daniel Banvolegyi discussed what he called racism in Israel’s textbooks and teachers with freelance journalist Maureen Meehan. In part, Banvolegyi related: One kid told me he was angry because of something he read or discussed in school and that he felt like punching the first Arab he saw. Instead of teaching tolerance and reconciliation, the books and some teachers’ attitudes are increasing hatred for Arabs.6

6 See footnote 3.

208 G Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002

(202) 548-4200; Fax (202) 548-4201

amj@amjerusalem.org | www.amjerusalem.org