Israel pulls textbook with chapter on Nakba

[Violet_Crumble]

The Ministry of Education has taken the unusual step of collecting all copies of the history textbook, "Nationalism: Building a State in the Middle East" which was published about two months ago by the Zalman Shazar Center. They will be returned to the shelves only after corrections are made to the text, particularly with reference to the War of Independence.

The book had already been approved by the ministry.

"Collecting the books from the shops is an unnecessary censorship," said Dr. Tsafrir Goldberg, who wrote the controversial chapter on the war. "The process of approving the text was completed in serious fashion from both the pedagogic and the historic points of view. The fact that the education minister changed does not mean that it is possible to bypass this procedure."

On September 22, Haaretz reported that the textbook, which is meant for 11th and 12th-grades, for the first time presented the Palestinian claim that there had been ethnic cleansing in 1948.

"The Palestinians and the Arab countries contended that most of the refugees were civilians who were attacked and expelled from their homes by armed Jewish forces, which instituted a policy of ethnic cleansing, contrary to the proclamations of peace in the Declaration of Independence," states the text, which presented the Palestinian and the Israeli-Jewish versions side by side.

Criticism about the book was voiced by history teachers.

"Presenting Israel's claims as being equal to those of Arab propagandists is exactly like presenting the claims of the Nazis alongside those of the Jews," one of them said.

On the other hand, another teacher noted that the most important component in studying history is to introduce as many points of view as possible.

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1122006.html

[Donald Ian Rankin]

1. At last, a statement I can agree with...

"Presenting Israel's claims as being equal to those of Arab propagandists is exactly like presenting the claims of the Nazis alongside those of the Jews," one of them said.


The Nakba was clearly not comparable to the Holocaust, but Nakba denial by Israelis - the heirs of the people responsible for it, who are still profiting from it, and are attempting to make political capital from it - is at least as contemtible, and far more widespread, than holocaust denial among Palestinians - who had nothing to do with the Holocaust, despite repeated desperate attempts by Israel to link them to it.

Every Israeli should be exposed to the fact that the founding of their nation was a crime against humanity on a massive scale.

[oberliner]

2. Should every American by exposed to the same fact?

Would you agree with the statement that the founding of the United States was a crime against humanity on a massive scale?

[ProgressiveMuslim]

3. I'm sure you're outraged by this move Oberliner, since you're all about students

having access to historical information!

[oberliner]

4. Absolutely outraged

Whereas I'm sure this isn't really a big deal for you since you have not appeared to be particularly concerned with students having access to historical information.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

7. Doesn't follow at all.

No-one would ever suggest giving any student access to all historical information. I think that the amount of space in the UK curriculum dedicated to 5th century Meso-American dynastic politics can safely be fairly small, for example.

The question is which bits of historical information are important, and how to present them. I think that teaching at least something about the holocaust to Palestinian children *is* important - even if you don't believe (as I do) that it was one of the more important events of the last century, it would give them an idea of "this is why the Israelis are being allowed to get away with so much".

But disagreeing with that is not the same as "not being concerned with students having access to historical information". Not worrying about students being taught that the holocaust didn't happen would be, but not worrying about them not being taught that it did isn't, necessarily (although it's emphatically not a position I share).

[oberliner]

9. Could not agree more

Similarly claiming that someone is "all about students having access to historical information!" does not follow logically from someone supporting teaching the Holocaust to Palestinian students.

Thus my rejoinder was a gentle tweak at that initial statement.

[azurnoir]

5. In a word YES they should be "exposed" to this information

I know my children were.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

6. Yes, absolutely 100%.

The same is true of many nations, and very few of them recognise it. Teaching your children to be proud of their nationality is a regrettably universal vice, when pretty much all nations have more to be ashamed of than proud of in their history.

But in the US, the consequences for present day politics of acknowledging or denying/justifying past crimes are far smaller than they are in Israel, or in e.g. Australia or Turkey (those three are almost certainly not the best examples, but they are among the ones I am least badly informed about).

There are a few countries which seem to be doing a decent job of acknowledging past crimes in their history - Germany is one, Australia seems to be getting better at it for another, the US is far from the worst - but Israel is right up there with Turkey among the ones doing their best to deny the indefensible, I think.

[oberliner]

10. The US is far from the worst?

I wholeheartedly disagree.

Things may have improved of late, but the majority of history books in the United States do not present the genocide of the Native American people as a crime against humanity. Certainly the Native American perspective regarding the founding of the United States was generally not presented side by side with the more commonly taught perspective. At least not when I was in school.

[shaayecanaan]

8. Yes. Emphatically Yes. (nt)

[Violet_Crumble]

11. Of course theyshould be

Are you supporting the removal of content from this Israeli textbook?

[aranthus]

12. Depends what the books actually say.

I haven't read them, and I suspect that neither have you. All I have is what is in the article. It suggests that the books state that the Arab countries and the Palestinians contend that there was ethnic cleansing. That's certainly true; they do contend that. I see no reason why that shouldn't be left in the book. Was there some actual ethnic cleansing? Almost certainly, and that should be in there as well. Where the train runs off the tracks is if they argue that the Palestinians were mere innocent victims, and that all or almost all of the refugees were ethnically cleansed. That's utter falsehood that shouldn't be taught anywhere. Is that in the books? I don't know. I don't think that people who have not read the books can give a reasoned answer to the question.

[Violet_Crumble]

15. It looks like the book was giving alternate perspectives...

The Zionist and Arab perspectives were given side by side. It's a shame that the side by side narratives aren't done in both Israeli and Palestinian history textbooks so that the kids understand why the *other* mob feels the way they do - after all, it's really bad that Israeli kids don't get to learn of the dispossession of the Palestinians and that Palestinian kids don't get to learn the context around the founding of Israel as a Jewish state. Understanding how the *other* feels would hopefully go some way to doing away with some of the more extreme views on either side of the conflict....

[aranthus]

30. I don't have a problem with teaching that the Palestinians have a different perspective.

Where I have a problem is teaching that the Palestinian perspective is true in its full telling.

[Ken Burch]

16. Yes, and Americans SHOULD be exposed to that information.

Do you actually expect anyone here to disagree?

[oberliner]

17. Do American textbooks do a good job of that?

In my opinion, they do not.

[Ken Burch]

26. They could do better, I'll agree

That doesn't mean that what the OP discusses is no big deal.

[LeftishBrit]

18. There was a thread not long ago on GD about whether Columbus should be seen as a villain rather than

hero.

Opinions were by no means unanimous.

As regards the UK, I think that we've been exposed for a fairly long time to the fact that significant numbers of people didn't and don't consider its establishment as a Good Thing (there is a lot of popular literature, songs, films, etc. that presents the side of Scottish, Welsh and Irish fighters against England). Bit it is only relatively recently that school history has moved away from a focus on How Great Britain is Great and Won All the Glorious Wars.

[Recursion]

32. Absolutely NT

[proteus_lives]

13. Israel shouldn't ban discussion of the "Nakba" they should be challenging it in historical debate.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

19. No, they should be admitting, apologising and atoning for perpetrating it. N.T.

[proteus_lives]

21. Wrong, the Arab states that attacked in '48 should apologize....

For causing so much misery to both the Jews and the Palestinians.

While they are do that they should apologize and atone for expelling Jews from their homes across the Middle East.

[Violet_Crumble]

27. And Israel doesn't have to apologise for anything?

That doesn't seem right. Israel expelled Palestinians from their homes in what is now Israel, so why shouldn't they be expected to apologise aqnd atone for that?

[proteus_lives]

28. I never said that.

I have a problem with thinking that that the events in '48 were black and white. I would think it would be appropriate for Israel to apologize for displaced people. But it's not as simple as "The evil Israelis stole everyone's homes."

Take the OP for example, I'd agree totally if they were saying that both sides should admit and apologize for wrong-doing but that's not what they think or want. They just want Israel to be the only nation wearing a Scarlet Letter.

How about all parties apologize?

[Violet_Crumble]

29. When it comes to apologies, it has to be all-sided...

I totally agree with you in that regard. There's never going to be any real resolution to the conflict if there's not acknowledgements and apologies for past wrongs included....

When it comes to the subject of the OP, which is what's in history textbooks, what the book was doing was laying out two different perspectives side by side, and not making any editorial comment on either perspective being the right one or getting into who should be sorry etc....

[LeftishBrit]

14. This is wrong. Pupils should not be protected from alternative viewpoints

[Donald Ian Rankin]

20. I'm not sure that's the issue here.

I think that pupils should be taught the truth and not lies. The Nakba is a matter of historical record. It's not a matter of two valid viewpoints; Nakba denial is just like denying the Holocaust or the Armenian genocide, except it's more widely accepted. Children *do* need to be protected from the "viewpoint" that the Nakba didn't happen, or that it wasn't as massive crime by Israel against the Palestinians, because that viewpoint is simply untrue.

[oberliner]

22. You truly have no idea what you are talking about

There are numerous different ways to tell the story of the founding of the State of Israel, just as there are numerous different ways to tell the story of the founding of the United States.

The idea that there was a "massive crime" committed by Israel (which did not actually exist yet) against the Palestinians is your opinion.

There are many viewpoints regarding the events of 1947-1948 and even the history of the region prior to that point. A variety of different "heroes" and "villains" emerge and the story can be told from any of several different points of view.

In American history, there are very few textbooks that present George Washington as a villainous criminal who oversaw the near total annihilation of the Iroquois people, however that would certainly be a valid perspective.

The idea that there is simply one "true" way to present history is just ridiculous.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

24. There are multiple "narratives" about the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide, too.

But that prior to the Nakba, the majority of the population of what is now Israel and the occupied territories were Palestinians, and that they were ethnically cleansed through violence and terror to make way for the founding of Israel, is not an opinion, it's a fact.

I suppose that technically the belief that that was a bad thing is an opinion...

And my use of the word "crime", was, on reflection, simply wrong - I'm guilty of confusing "moral" and "legal", something I often pull other people up for. The only body of law I know of relevant to international conflicts is that of the UN, which sanctioned the Nakba, so crime isn't really accurate (although "atrocity" is, but again the idea that the murder of large numbers of innocent civilians and the forcible displacement of millions more is an atrocity even when the perpetrators are Jewish and the victims Muslim - which I do think is the reason that Israel gets away with so much, and so many people either refuse to condemn it or equivocate when doing so - is only an opinion, not a fact). Although, "crime against humanity" is an idiom slightly distinct from "crime" in the legal sense, and the Nakba clearly qualifies as that.

[oberliner]

25. There sure are

No argument here.

The rest of your so-called facts, specifically the ones in your first paragraph, are simply not facts.

I would encourage you to expand your reading list on the subject.

[shira]

23. wow...you really are incapable of distinguishing between fact and fiction

[aranthus]

31. Of course they should. Just not this one.

"Protect" isn't the word I would use. Schools should teach truth, and where the truth is in question, legitimate disagreeing viewpoints should be on the curriculum. That doesn't mean that all viewpoints should be taught or that all viewpoints are equally valid. As an example, most general science courses teach that at one time large numbers of people thought that the world was flat. They don't teach that the world is flat, even though there may be some people today who believe it. What's true in this case is that a majority of Palestinians and Arabs believe the Nakba narrative. I see no reason to hide that, or hide from it. There are also reasons why they believe the Nakba narrative, even though it is largely untrue. Like every other country, Israel has some dark patches in its past. That should be taught as well.