From Israel: Hatred at
the start
17 - 23 March 2005
Issue No. 734
Al-Ahram Weekly
Israel's
educational curricula aim at psychologically mobilising the new
generation towards war, writes Emad Gad
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/734/pr3.htm
Last week the
Israeli press focussed on the issue of racism, especially the form of
racism practised against Jews, better known as anti-Semitism. Focus on
this issue has increased ever since the US Congress passed the Global
Anti-Semitism Review Act in October 2004, and the US State Department
subsequently released a report in accordance with this act in January
2004. On the other hand, the Israeli press does not focus on the racism
that is rampant within Israeli establishments and organisations, whether
in schools or the media, which Arabs Against Discrimination, routinely
observes. It seems though, that increased discussion about racism in
Israel has forced the Israeli media to follow the issue closely,
especially since the highly objective and scientific work being
conducted outside of Israel has begun exposing the presence of racism
within Israel, creating a very strong and credible body of evidence.
Within this
context, Egyptian researcher Safa Abdel- Aal prepared a study,
addressing the Israeli curriculum, with a certain degree of focus on the
Israeli media. On 11 March, Yediot Aharonot published an article
about the book saying that an Egyptian researcher had compiled a study
entitled Racist Education in the Israeli Curricula in which she
posited that Israel's educational curricula is aimed at psychologically
mobilising the new generation towards war, and inciting racism against
the Arabs. She said that Israeli textbooks implant the desire for war in
the souls of students as the only means of defending what they see as
historical and legitimate rights, and in order to mobilise Israeli
public opinion towards accepting the idea that there is no escaping war.
"Even though the
fight for these legitimate rights is drawn out, youngsters should accept
this and be willing to sacrifice themselves for it, just as the first
Zionist generations sacrificed themselves," she went on to say in her
book. "[This generation] will not sacrifice their lives unless they
believe that the war is legitimate and is being fought to liberate the
occupied lands of their forefathers and the kingdom of Israel from the
days of David and Solomon," she added. In her study Abdel-Aal pointed
out that "the psychological battle begins before the conflict on the
ground."
Abdel-Aal's book
analyses 11 history and five geography books taught to students in
elementary school from grades three to six. The books she addresses have
titles such as Stories of the First Settlers, The First Guards,
Within the Walls of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem for
You and Me, The Place and Status of Historical Jerusalem,
Outside the Walls, The Nature of Life within the Walls, and
The Homeland.
Abdel-Aal says
these textbooks are obstacles to achieving peace and establishing an
independent Palestinian state. She added that in analysing these books
it became clear to her that "one of the main tasks of the Israeli
educational system is to plant the seed of fear of the other in the
minds of their youth, implant hatred and malice in their psyches... and
develop in them a spirit of antagonism towards the Arabs, tarnishing the
image of the Arabs in the eyes of current and future Israeli
generations.
"The danger of this
racist education lies in the fact that it is taught during the primary
phase of the Israeli educational system, which accounts for nine years
of a student's total education," Abdel-Aal added. "During these years
children receive their basic foundation, and Zionism is used to inject
them with malice and hatred towards the Arabs in particular, and others
in general, and they are also fed the entire spectrum of the Zionist
philosophy of superiority."
She added that
these books deliberately paint distorted pictures of the Arabs, giving
them such derogatory descriptions as "Arab thieves" or "embezzlers", and
saying they are "bastards, thirsty for Jewish blood" or that they are
"underdeveloped Bedouins" and "vagrant highway robbers," or describing
the "house of Arab reptiles".
Abdel-Aal also said
that Arabs are always maliciously described as murderers and thieves,
citing a statement which talks about the sacrifices made by the early
Jewish generations "despite a harsh climate and strange environment full
of attacks by Arab embezzlers, thieves and terrorists". A second
description refers to the city of Tiberias where "a feeling of
insecurity and fear of the Arab murderers spread among the residents of
the city."
In fact, the
results of the study prepared by Abdel-Aal coincide with the results of
an opinion poll conducted by Professor Ephraim Yair and Professor Daniel
Bar- Tal from Tel Aviv University. The study surveyed the political and
personal positions of 175 teenagers aged 15-17 and 14-21, both Jews and
Arabs. The results, which follow, were published at www.nrg.co.il,
under the title "Democracy? Not in our schools".
One thing that
surprised the researchers was Jewish teenagers' intolerance for their
Arab peers. Some 51 per cent of the Jews who participated in the study
said Israeli Arabs should be prevented from standing in Knesset
elections, while only 38 per cent supported this position in a previous
study conducted in 1998.
Around 46 per cent
of Jewish respondents said that their differences with Israeli Arabs
were very dangerous to Israeli society, while only 21 per cent named
religious differences and 17 per cent named political differences or the
struggle between the right and the left as a threat to Israeli society.
The researchers
also observed some support among teenagers for illegal or violent
protests against the disengagement plan. In the study conducted in 1998,
20 per cent of Jewish youth supported non-violent civil disobedience
such as organising protests without a permit or refusing to carry out
their military service in the territories. The current study saw an
increase in this percentage, with 28 per cent of teenagers expressing
their support for non-violent civil disobedience.
But the really
worrisome piece of information is the large increase in the number of
teenagers who are prepared to support violent civil disobedience. While
in the previous study only nine per cent supported the idea, this time
around no less than 24 per cent support it. "If we translate this
percentage into numbers, we will find that tens of thousands support the
use of illegal means of protest in principle," the two researchers
wrote.
Anyone who thinks
that a lesson was learned from the assassination of former prime
minister Rabin is mistaken. Nine years after his assassination, 40 per
cent of Jewish youth say they consider it a regrettable incident like
any other murder, and it did not affect their view of the state.
Meanwhile, 71 per cent think there is a great possibility that another
political assassination will occur in Israel.
For more
information on this issue, please visit the website of Arabs Against
Discrimination www.aad- online.org.