Abstract
In this chapter, Alayan explores the challenges and dilemmas confronting textbooks published by the Palestinian Authority (PA), their foci and the processes they have undergone through the years. There is little doubt as to how influential textbooks are on the collective identity of Palestinian students and on the construction of a national identity. In 2000 the PA started introducing Palestinian textbooks, and these have been the subject of debate since 2006. While some claimed that the new curriculum did not live up to the expectations and national-historical perceptions of the Palestinians, Israel argued that the new textbooks were aggressive and that they encouraged violence. The textbooks studied exemplify claims that educational materials produced in countries with ongoing conflict rarely demonstrate objectivity.
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Notes
- 1.
D. Bar-Tal and S. Adwan, ‘“Victims of Our Own Narratives”? Portrayal of the “Other” in Israeli and Palestinian School Books’, Study Report, 4 February 2013 (Jerusalem: Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land).
- 2.
H. Murray, ‘Curriculum Wars: National Identity in Education’, London Review of Education. Routledge Vol. 6 (March 2008), 1, 39–45.
- 3.
A. E. Mazawi, ‘“Which Palestine Should we Teach?” Signatures, Palimpsests, and Struggles over School Textbooks’, Studies in Philosophy and Education 30 (2011), 169–183. R. Asali Nuseibeh, Political Conflict and Education in Jerusalem. The Provision of Education and Social Services (London and New York: Routledge, 2016).
- 4.
I. Gur-Ze’ev and I. Pappe, ‘Beyond the Destruction of the Other’s Collective Memory: Blueprints for a Palestinian/Israeli Dialogue’, Theory, Culture & Society 20 (2003) 1, 93–108.
- 5.
E. Naveh, ‘Recognition as Preamble to Reconciliation: A Two Narratives Approach in a Palestinian—Israeli History Textbook’, Horizons Universitaires 3 (2007) 4, 173–188. See also N. Peled-Elhanan, Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education (London/New York: I.B. Tauris, 2012).
- 6.
S. Alayan and N. Al-Khalidi, ‘Gender and Agency in History, Civics and National Education Textbooks of Jordan and Palestine’, Journal of Educational Media, Memory and Society 2 (2010) 1, 78–96.
- 7.
The Ministry of Education (MoE), Broad outlines of the history curriculum for Grades 11–12 (Palestine, 1999/2007) (in Arabic); see also Alayan, Samira, ‘White Pages: Israeli Censorship of Palestinian Textbooks in East Jerusalem’, Social Semiotics, Taylor & Francis, in print 28, no. 4 (2018) Published online 21 June 2017, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10350330.2017.1339470.
- 8.
R. Asali Nuseibeh, Political Conflict and Education in Jerusalem. The Provision of Education and Social Services (London and New York: Routledge, 2016).
- 9.
A. E. Mazawi, ‘“Which Palestine Should we Teach?” Signatures, Palimpsests, and Struggles over School Textbooks’, Studies in Philosophy and Education 30 (2011), 169–183.
- 10.
Ibid.
- 11.
S. Alayan, ‘History Curricula and Textbooks in Palestine’, 209–236.
- 12.
A. E. Mazawi, ‘Which Palestine Should we Teach?’
- 13.
N. Brown, ‘Genesis of a New Curriculum’. In Teaching Islam: Textbooks and Religion in the Middle East, ed. E. A. Doumato and G. Starrett (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2007), 125–138.
- 14.
IMPACT-SE is a research organisation that monitors and analyses schoolbooks and curricula across the world with an eye to determining their compliance with international standards on peace and tolerance, as derived from UNESCO declarations and resolutions. Formerly known as the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP).
- 15.
A. Groiss, ‘Palestinian Schoolbooks: An Updated Conclusion’, Israel Behind The News, October 29, 2009, accessed 9 July 2017, http://israelbehindthenews.com/palestinian-schoolbooks-an-updated-conclusion/6194/.
- 16.
A. Abu Jamoose, ‘Palestinian Curricula: Voices For and Against’, Al-Tareeq magazine ‘The Street magazine’ 14 (2004) (original reference in Arabic).
- 17.
The Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP) was a Jewish-American non-governmental organisation affiliated with the Israeli right wing (its research director, Itamar Marcus, lives in the West Bank settlement of Efrat). It is now known as The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE).
- 18.
F. Moughrabi, ‘The Politics of Palestinian Textbooks’, Journal of Palestine Studies 31 (2001) 1, 5–19; I. Jad, ‘Critique on a study about Palestinian curriculums issued by the consulate general in Jerusalem’, Al-Ayyam Newspaper, accessed 26 June 2016, http://www.al-ayyam.com/znews/site/template/Doc_View.aspx?did=41619.
- 19.
IPCRI, Examination of Israeli Textbooks In Elementary Schools of The State Educational System (Jerusalem: Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, 2004).
- 20.
W. Rafeedi, ‘National identity after Oslo: dismantling as a regime’, 1993, accessed 26 June 2016, www.badil.org/en/haq-alawda/item/1706-art5.
- 21.
Ibid.
- 22.
‘Special report on Palestinian education’, Aljazeera.net, May 17, 2010, accessed March 27, 2012, http://www.aljazeera.net/news/pages/e5456a93-fd99-4240-ad93-c2c915929bb7.
- 23.
‘Interview with Curriculum and Education Specialist Tahseen Yaqeen’, Aljazeera.net, May 17, 2010, accessed May 12, 2012, http://www.aljazeera.net/news/pages/e5456a93-fd99-4240-ad93-c2c915929bb7. See also the conclusion of S. Alayanq, ‘History Curricula and Textbooks in Palestine’.
- 24.
See F. Moughrabi, ‘The Politics of Palestinian Textbooks’; A. E. Mazawi, ‘Which Palestine Should we Teach?’; S. Alayan, ‘History Curricula and Textbooks in Palestine’; N. Brown, ‘Genesis of a new curriculum’; D. Bar-Tal and S. Adwan, ‘Victims of Our Own Narratives?’
- 25.
S. Alayan, ‘The Holocaust in Palestinian Textbooks: Differences and Similarities in Israel and Palestine’. Comparative Education Review, 60, no. 1, (2016), 80–104.
- 26.
Modern and Contemporary History of Palestine, Eleventh Grade.Pt. 1. Ta’areekh Falastin al-Hadith wal-Mu’asser (State of Palestine: Ministry of Culture and Higher Education of the Palestinian Authority, 1st ed., 2005) 33.
- 27.
M. Peled, The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine (Charlottesville: Just World Books, 2010).
- 28.
Modern and Contemporary History of Palestine, Eleventh Grade.Pt. 1. 33.
- 29.
The writer chose year 11 textbooks for examples of handling ‘the other’ which, historically, is Israel. History textbooks for younger pupils (starting in year 5) do not address subjects such as the ‘Nakba’ or recent Palestinian history.
- 30.
S. Alayan, ‘History Curricula and Textbooks in Palestine’, 209–236.
- 31.
Modern and Contemporary History of Palestine, Eleventh Grade.Pt. 2. Ta’areekh Falastin al-Hadith wal-Mu’asser (State of Palestine: Ministry of Culture and Higher Education of the Palestinian Authority, 2nd ed., 2006), 35–36.
- 32.
Ibid., 63.
- 33.
Interview with Curriculum and Education Specialist Tahseen Yaqeen.
- 34.
Al-Buraq research centre used to print a ‘national education’ textbook, due to the absence of any ‘other narrative than [that of] the PA’ in textbooks, and it was taught in Palestinian schools until 2008, when the Israeli army closed the centre. Printing was then exclusively carried out by the Ministry of Education.
- 35.
For example, a conference was held in the Islamic university in Gaza Strip (6 May 2008).
- 36.
N. Brown, ‘Democracy, history, and the contest over the Palestinian curriculum’. In Contested Past, Disputed Present: Curricula and Teaching in Israeli and Palestinian Schools (= Studien zur internationalen Schulbuchforschung: Schriftenreihe des Georg-Eckert-Instituts, 110), ed. F. Pingel (Hanover: Hahn, 2003); N. Brown, ‘Genesis of a new curriculum’; A. E. Mazawi, ‘Which Palestine Should we Teach?’
- 37.
S. Alayan, ‘History Curricula and Textbooks in Palestine’.
- 38.
N. Peled-Elhanan, Palestine in Israeli School Books.
Further Reading
Bashir, B. ‘Engaging with the Injustice/Justice of Zionisim: New Challenges to Palestinian Nationalism’. Ethical Perspectives 18 (2011) 4, 632–645.
Bashir, B. ‘Reconciling Historical Injustices: Deliberative Democracy and the Politics of Reconciliation’. Res Publica. A Journal of Moral, Legal and Social Philosophy 18 (2012) 2, 127–143.
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Alayan, S. (2019). Palestine. In: Cajani, L., Lässig, S., Repoussi, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Conflict and History Education in the Post-Cold War Era. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05722-0_36
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