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Basic ignorance By Akiva Eldar w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m 9 December 2004 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/511983.html Prior to her upcoming series of lectures in Israeli high schools in the framework of in-service training courses on peace education, psycho-linguist Dr. Tzvia Walden decided to equip herself with birth certificates of Israelis born before 1948. A lecturer at Beit Berl College, Walden is hoping that these certificates will convince the pupils that the State of Israel was born only 56 years ago. "I am continually astounded at the ignorance of the young people," she says. "They don't know basic historic facts, such as the fact that during the British Mandate period the geographic region in which we live was called Palestine. Every time I say `Palestine' and show them maps from the period, they jump up and aggressively demand that I stop using the term. They yell at me, `It's ours - let them go.'" In sessions that she conducts in the framework of the in-service training for peace education, Walden has learned that high-school pupils do not understand the substance of the conflict. "The only interpretation that is acceptable to them is that the Palestinians want to gain control over our land, and that the solution to that is strength. No one takes responsibility for dealing with this ignorance and furnishing them with the basic facts, on which there is no argument," says Walden. "It is unacceptable that Israelis on the eve of their enlistment will say that there will not be any Arab villages here, and for them not to have any understanding of agreements that the State of Israel took on itself." Last week she spoke with a professor at Al-Quds University, and found that the situation among Palestinians is no less depressing. The professor was adamant that in 1947 there was a Palestinian government here, and that there were 6 million Palestinian refugees. "The profound ignorance makes it possible to pass the hatred on from one generation to the next - it is the common enemy of both peoples," asserts Walden, who points an accusatory finger at the teachers, the textbooks and the maps. The time has come, she says, that along with a glossary of terms of the Zionist heritage, the pupil will receive a historical ruler and a glossary of terms related to peace. ----------------------------------------------------------- /hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=511983
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