It seems that there is a raging battle going on in Israel and Palestine for the minds of their children. This diary should be called, The Battle of the Schoolbooks, since it is all about how to divide this land, fought over now for over 60 years.
The strangest discovery about schoolbooks in Israel and Palestine is that they represent the most extremist viewpoints of the conflict. Israeli schoolbooks show an Israel without any West Bank or Gaza, no Palestinian presence. Palestinian schoolbooks show a Palestine without any Israel. There’s no Green line in discussion here. It is all or nothing.
Earlier, there were many articles about the matter. When the Israeli Education Minister Yuli Tamir proposed including the pre-1967 boundary, or Green Line, in maps that appear in Israeli school textbooks, many sharply criticized her recommendation. The extremist right wing and religious parties found it unacceptable. An Israel without any room for a Palestine has been clearly displayed in Israeli schoolbooks up until now.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
This IRIN article from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, ISRAEL-OPT: Schoolbooks say 'fighting Israel is Islamic duty'
http://www.irinnews.org/...
arrived this morning indicating that the same thing has been happening in Palestinian textbooks. Children are being taught a vision of Palestine without room for Israel.
RAMALLAH, 29 March 2007 (IRIN) - Palestinian schoolchildren are being taught to hate Israel and to see fighting Israelis as a holy Islamic duty, according to a report by an Israeli media monitoring group.
New Palestinian 12th grade textbooks published last December deny Israel's existence and teach 11-year-olds that the Palestinian struggle is part of an overall war between Muslims and their enemies, according to a Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) report entitled "From nationalist battle to religious conflict".
The Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) said it was reviewing the issue.
"The books don't allow for a Palestinian child to accept Israel as a neighbour. When you define the conflict as a religious war you are no longer fighting for your own national identity or territory but for Islamic destiny. You have to accept either Islam or Israel," said Itamar Marcus, PMW's director.
Read the rest here:
http://www.irinnews.org/...
The conclusion: right wing extremists on both sides of the aisle have a deep hold of the school systems of Israel and Palestine, and both are equally intransigent.