According to Education Minister Gideo Saar, in an address to the Israeli parliament: "No other country in the world, in its official curriculum, would treat the fact of its founding as a catastrophe." I in fact remember quite clearly learning about the oppression and murder of Native Americans in this country, the trail of tears specifically, and I also remember learning about slavery. So, I must disagree with Mr. Saar, there are countries which in their official curriculum teach the diverse opinions surrounding their founding (though, as Americans we still belittle the Native American genocide brought on by white colonization).
Furthermore, nationalist actions such as this only weaken efforts at reconciliation between the two sides. A Jewish child brought up ignorant of history will only be more likely to misunderstand an Arab child's fury on Israel Independence day, while an Arab child taught to ignore his own people's past will only feel hatred toward those who oppress the truth. There will be no reconciliation between the sides without understanding and there will be no understanding without proper education. Measures such as this should never be allowed and we here at UBSJP will do our best to promote both truths of May 14, 1948.
To see the AP article, click here: Israel cuts Palestinian narrative from texts
Education Minister Gideon Saar says "No other country in the world, in its official curriculum, would treat the fact of its founding as a catastrophe."
ReplyDeleteThis may be because no other country of the world was founded simultaneously with the (evidently permanent) expulsion of most of its original inhabitants.
There are partial exceptions--the Native Americans expelled from an expanding United States, the Muslim Indians and Hindu and Sikh Pakistanis expelled upon partition.
But these episodes of ethnic cleansing aren't the ideal role models, are they? And whereas Muslim Indians and Native American inhabitants of the US now have full civil rights, Palestinians have second-class civil rights in Israel; no civil rights in East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank; and the miserable life of refugees in surrounding nations.
Yes, it sounds like a "Nakba," doesn't it?