NAZARETH // Government officials warned Israeli teachers last
week not to cooperate with a civic group that seeks to educate Israelis about
how the Palestinians view the loss of their homeland and the establishment of
the state of Israel in 1948.
Israel’s education ministry issued the advisory after Zochrot – a
Jewish group that seeks to raise awareness among Israeli Jews of the events of
1948, referred to as the “nakba” by Palestinians – organised a workshop for
primary school teachers.
The ministry said the course had not been approved and told
teachers not to participate in Zochrot-sponsored activities during the coming
school year.
In a letter to the education ministry protesting against
Zochrot’s activities, the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, an advocacy group
for Jewish settlers, called the group’s educational materials “part of a
criminal vision to wipe Israel off the face of the earth”.
It was unclear whether participants in the workshop for primary
school teachers would be punished, but a teacher identified as a trainer for the
seminar might be investigated by the education ministry, the Jerusalem Post
reported.
The warning is the latest move by the education ministry, headed
by Gideon Saar, a member of the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing
Likud party, to use school curricula to advance a more strident Zionist agenda.
In March, for instance, the ministry banned Israeli schools from
distributing a booklet for children about the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. Critics had objected to parts of the declaration that refer to freedom
of religion and protection of asylum-seekers.
The ministry’s latest move involves the controversies that still
swirl over the events that led to the creation of the Jewish state in 1948 –
what Israelis describe as their “War of Independence” and what Palestinians call
the nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe”.
Eitan Bronstein, Zochrot’s director, said
the ministry was trying to “frighten off” teachers from learning about a period
in Israel’s history that until now, he said, had been presented in schools only
from a “triumphalist perspective”.
The group, which was founded eight years ago and whose Hebrew
name means “remembering”, has provoked controversy by organising visits to some
of the hundreds of Palestinian villages destroyed by the Israeli army during and
after the 1948 war.
Zochrot members place signposts at the
former villages using their original Arabic names, and bring Palestinian
refugees back on visits, upsetting Jewish residents who live in communities
built on those lands.
In recent months, Zochrot has concentrated on developing a
programme on the nakba for schools, allowing teachers to address the subject
from a Palestinian perspective for the first time.
Mr Bronstein said more than 300 high school teachers had asked
for Zochrot’s information kits over the past year, and a few primary school
teachers had started to show an interest too. That has provoked a backlash from
education officials and right-wing groups.
“A small but growing number of teachers are curious about the
nakba and want to find out more,” he said. “The problem is that the education
authorities see this development as threatening and are prepared to intimidate
teachers to stop them from getting involved.”
Last week’s workshop was the first Zochrot had arranged for
primary school teachers.
Hebrew textbooks focus chiefly on the success of Israel’s troops
during the 1948 war. The books say that the 750,000 refugees either left
voluntarily or were ordered to leave by Arab armies. Most historians now say
that Israeli troops either physically expelled the Palestinians or frightened
them so much that they fled.
In 2006 an Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, published a popular
book in English – but little read inside Israel – that went farther, arguing
that Israel had implemented a military plan to “ethnically cleanse” Palestinians
even before Israel’s founders declared statehood.
A year later Yuli Tamir, the dovish education minister, provoked
public outrage by approving for the first time the use of the word “nakba” in an
Arabic textbook for the quarter of the school population who belong to the
country’s Palestinian minority.
The book was banned last summer by Mr Saar, Ms Tamir’s successor.
Mr Saar has also backed legislation to punish groups and
individuals who commemorate the nakba. The bill, which enjoys wide support, is
working its way through the parliament.
Zochrot’s kit includes teaching units on
life among Palestinians before and after the 1948 war, personal stories from
refugees, a tour of a destroyed village, and a discussion of the refugees’ right
of return.
Amaya Galili, Zochrot’s educational
coordinator, said that although the group offered complete lesson plans, most
teachers incorporated only elements of the programme so that officials would not
notice they were using Zochrot’s material.
A history teacher in Jerusalem, who did not want to be
identified, said she was one of half a dozen in the city who had participated in
Zochrot’s courses.
She said, however, that her new-found understanding of the nakba
had had almost no impact on either the curriculum or the pupils at the school.
“There are many other ways for the school to make sure that an
atmosphere of fear prevails towards Palestinians. It’s easy to insert a
nationalistic and religious agenda into the classroom – and, after all, I am
just one teacher.”
The changes at the education ministry have become increasingly
apparent since Mr Saar’s appointment nearly 18 months ago.
Earlier this year, the ministry demanded that its logo be removed
from a joint Hebrew and Arabic website called Common Ground, which aims to
promote greater understanding between the country’s Jewish and Palestinian
citizens. Officials had objected to Zochrot’s posting of a story written by a
Palestinian girl about the nakba.
Ms Galili said the ministry’s response to Zochrot’s work
contrasted strongly with its encouragement of private initiatives by right-wing
groups.
One, called Gush Katif week, brings former Jewish settlers from
Gaza into 400 schools to celebrate life before Israeli troops and Jewish
settlers withdrew from the Strip in 2005. Another, Mibereshit, run by a
far-right rabbi and financed by evangelical Christians in the US, offers pupils
tours of the country, including the settlements, in a bid to “strengthen Zionist
education”.
“Many of these programmes sound superficially reasonable. They’re
presented as ‘instilling positive values’ or ‘learning to love the land’. But,
in fact, they are cover for dubious initiatives by religious and settler
groups,” Ms Galili said.
Over the past year, Mr Saar has emphasised courses on Zionism,
Jewish heritage and Judaism. He has also increased pupils’ visits to Jerusalem,
including settlements in its Palestinian districts, and introduced a programme
to bring soldiers into the classroom to help enlist pupils into the military.
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