By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson
MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — A chance encounter led me to the offices of IMPACT, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, where I was able to learn about their work and see for myself the fruits of their labour from its acting director, psychologist Shelley Elkayam.
Situated in a building on the Hebrew University’s leafy Givat Ram campus, the book-lined institute, which is a-political and funded entirely by donations, was set up by a group of experts in 1998 after the signing of the Oslo accords amid a growing awareness among scholars and intellectuals in Israel and abroad that more than paper agreements were needed in order to alter the hearts and minds of the peoples of the region. In the fifteen years of its existence the institute has been able to analyse some of the textbooks used in schools in various countries of the Middle East. These are books that are used to teach children in both elementary and high schools. The subjects for which the books are used include history, geography, social studies, economics and religious instruction, as well as books used for teaching first-graders to read.
The process of obtaining the textbooks from such countries as Saudi-Arabia, Iran and the Gulf States is not always simple or straightforward, but once they have reached the Institute they are subjected to a rigorous process of analysis. This is undertaken by researchers from various disciplines who are fluent in Arabic or other Middle Eastern languages. The analysis involves identifying passages in the books according to their compliance (or rather non-compliance) with UNESCO recommendations regarding tolerance, understanding and respect for ‘the other,’ in the school curriculum.
After a book has been analysed a report is prepared and the messages identified in the book, such as the attitude to the ‘other,’ the promotion of the peaceful resolution of conflicts and freedom from prejudice and stereotypes, are then discussed by a panel of the institute’s board, consisting of psychologists, historians, experts on Middle Eastern affairs, linguists and allied professionals. The board also includes Arabs and Jews who are experts in various aspects of Muslim studies. Finally, a booklet is published in English containing the main points of the analysis and the board’s conclusions and this is sent out to individuals and institutions in Israel and throughout the world.
Most of the textbooks, such as those from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Turkey and Lebanon, vilify non-Muslims in general, and Israel and the Jewish people in particular. The one ray of hope in recent years has been from pre-revolutionary Tunisia, where a forward-looking Minister of Education, a former member of the Opposition who was taken into the government by Ben-Ali, introduced a progressive curriculum which promoted tolerance and acceptance of ‘the other.’ Possibly the youngsters who were brought up under that system were instrumental in removing the dictatorship which they felt was not in accord with the principles they had absorbed at school. But, again, while many of those who were active in the recent revolutions and demonstrations in other Arab countries were from the younger generation, they did not all have a similar educational background.
Particularly telling is the Hamas web magazine for children, Al-Fateh, which mirrors the Hamas movement’s ideology, preaching hatred and condemnation of ‘the other,’ while indoctrinating its readers in Jihad, annihilation and self-destruction through its advocation of the cult of martyrdom. The Holocaust is castigated as a Jewish lie propagated in order to evoke sympathy for Zionism, and of course the Jews are decried as usurpers who have no place in Palestine.
The West and western civilisation are anathema according to the curriculum of textbooks from Iran, where America is defined as ‘the Great Satan’ and Israel is demonized as a usurper and the killer of Palestinian children. In Egypt, in the wake of that country’s peace agreement with Israel, there was a shift towards approbation of peace as a positive value, and this was reflected in textbooks, where a move towards greater acceptance of ‘the other’ was promoted. Attention was also focused on the need to maintain good relations between Egypt’s Muslim majority and the Coptic Christian community. It is too soon to tell whether this will continue to be the trend in the future.
The textbooks of the Palestinian Authority delegitimize the Jewish and Israeli ‘other’ by denying the historical and religious presence of Jews in Palestine and opposing recognition of the State of Israel. They demonize the ‘other’ by ascribing dubious and nefarious characteristics to Jews (never portrayed as individuals) and the State of Israel. In addition, they present a biased view of the Middle Eastern conflict by assigning Israel exclusive blame and absolving the Palestinians of any responsibility for it, as well as stressing the ideal of a violent struggle of liberation rather than advocating a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The report published by IMPACT did note that there have been some changes for the better in Palestinian textbooks since the death of Arafat in November 2004 and the appointment of Mahmud Abbas as head of the Palestinian Authority. It was hoped that the situation would improve through the mechanism of textbook reprinting which began in 2007, but what has in fact happened is that several belligerent statements have been added to the books.
Thus, martyrdom and martyrs are again mentioned in language exercises. Although a language exercise which included the sentence “I swear that I shall continue acting on the path of the martyrs” was omitted, a passage was introduced in another book saying: “…the Palestinian mothers have become unlike all other mothers in this world and continue for the sixth decade to bury their children with trilling cries of joy! …The Palestinian fathers continue to bury their sons calmly and promise to give the rest! …The Palestinian of whatever age, religion, gender and affiliation becomes a martyr project!”
In conclusion, although some positive changes have been made in the reprinted books in recent years, they still do not represent a clear departure from the negative fundamentals regarding the Palestinian attitude to the Jewish and Israeli ‘other’ and the peaceful resolution of the Middle Eastern conflict.
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Shefer-Vanson, a freelance writer and translator, is based in Mevasseret Zion, can be reached at dorothea.shefer@sdjewishworld.com