Israel's educational curricula aim at psychologically mobilising the new generation towards war, writes Emad Gad 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.
