Change the Palestinian Condition, Not Just School Textbooks
Ziad Asali
The Daily Star, November 08, 2003
Distributed by the Common Ground News Service.
In considering Palestinian education, one must begin by insisting that the
most damaging consequence of fear, anger, despair, violence and an almost
exclusive sense of victimization on both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict is the narrowing of the space needed for policy options and
rational debate.
Such an atmosphere ensures that public discourse is stunted, simplistic and
crude. It is much easier in this climate to follow the safe course of
demonizing and dehumanizing "the other." To assume the worst and to impugn
the motives of the other is safer than to explore the possibilities of
compromise and to work out solutions. This is the kind of climate that
makes it possible to advance racist and fascist arguments, sometimes openly
stated, but more often implied: "They are not human; they understand
nothing but force and violence; we should never show them any mercy because
they will think it is a sign of weakness; a face for an eye." This is a
prescription for more disaster and mayhem.
The problem with history is that it has been around too long. It has
provided arguments, based in fact, fiction or perceived wisdom for each
party to the conflict, and even for those who seem to have no axe to grind.
The difference between the Palestinian and Israeli narratives continues to
feed polarizing and centrifugal forces that fail to see the existential
need for compromise. Each and every effort directed against the vision of
peace and the two-state solution so clearly stated by President George W.
Bush is yet another tool to extend the violent and destructive realities
of the status quo. It is in this context that we should view all facets of
this conflict, particularly Palestinian education.
Until the Palestinian Authority faced the problem of the content of school
textbooks in 1994, Jordanian textbooks were used in the West Bank and
Egyptian textbooks in Gaza, a situation that began in 1948 and continued
during the years of Israeli occupation. After Oslo, a Curriculum
Development Center was established and began studying and overhauling the
Palestinian educational system. A new set of textbooks was phased in during
the 2000-2001 academic year. Much, if not all, of the criticism leveled at
Palestinian textbooks for incitement, anti-Semitism and the marginalizing
of Jewish history has, in fact, been directed at Egyptian and Jordanian
textbooks over which the Palestinians had no control. Palestinians toiled
for years after Oslo to provide reasoned and thoughtful solutions to the
unique issues that a people under occupation face, including how they
should educate their children. No serious scholarly and substantiated
criticism has so far been directed against the new Palestinian textbooks,
although strident, emotionally charged and factually challenged statements
continue to be bandied about.
Akiva Eldar, the well-known Haaretz columnist, wrote in January 2001: "The
Palestinians are punished twice. First, they are criticized for books
produced by the education ministries of others. Secondly, their children
study from books that ignore their own nation's narratives." The European
Union, in a statement issued in Brussels in May 2002, concluded: "New
(Palestinian) textbooks, although not perfect, are free of inciteful
content and improve the previous textbooks, constituting a valuable
contribution to the education of young Palestinians."
The eminent scholar Nathan Brown, a professor of political science and
international affairs at George Washington University, issued a 26-page
report in November 2001 prepared for the Adam Institute on Democracy,
History, and the Contest over the Palestinian Curriculum, which made a
significant contribution to the subject. He concluded by writing: "Harsh
external critics of the curriculum and textbooks have had to rely on
misleading and tendentious reports to support their claim of incitement."
The daily life of Palestinian children, who face occupation, closures,
violence, demolitions, Israeli checkpoints, bravado, fear, suicide
bombings, air raids, humiliation, economic hardship, vengeance, religious
extremism and the breakdown of traditional values, is a reality that cannot
be dissociated from the classroom. It is this reality that we need to
resolve by bringing about peace and security for all. Textbooks that
Israeli students read can also be reviewed to bridge the gap between their
own realities and classrooms as we improve on those realities.
History has been unkind to the Jews, and to the Israelis and the
Palestinians. The Jewish narrative of pogroms, ghettos, the Holocaust, but
also survival and achievement, and the Palestinian narrative of
dispossession, occupation, demolition, humiliation, as well as resistance
and persistence, are but sad tales of two people caught in a complex web of
history. Let us, at least those of us with hope for humanity, try, with our
thoughts focused on the future of our children rather than the past of our
forefathers, work for peace and dignity for these two courageous people.
Let us not allow the demagogues on all sides, those who engage in violence
and who have the least sense of fundamental human values, to dictate the
agenda and undermine peace.
# # #
Ziad Asali is President of the American Task Force on Palestine. This
commentary, written for The Daily Star, is adapted from testimony presented
before the US Senate's subcommittee on labor, health and human services
on October 30.
