Israel Archives - IMPACT-se

Review of Arabs and Palestinians in Israeli Textbooks

adminimpact — Tue, 30 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This IMPACT-se report offers an insight into major themes relating to Arabs and Palestinians in government-approved, Hebrew-language Israeli school textbooks covering civics, geography, Hebrew studies, history, homeland, society and civics, Israel studies, Jewish thought, and Jewish-Israeli culture. The research explores how specific lessons, images and exercises portray and shape attitudes toward Palestinians and Arabs from various backgrounds within Israeli society and the greater region. It evaluates the presentation of the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, the peace process, and Arab and Palestinian Other—living either as citizens of Israel, in Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and elsewhere. This analysis looks at 107 textbooks taught at state and state-religious schools approved by the Israeli Ministry of Education for the 2022–23 academic year. These include the entire corpus of the eight state-approved civics textbooks (from which schools could choose), as well as the majority of history textbooks dealing with the periods of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In doing so, this report focuses on six thematic categories: “Peace Education”, “The Palestinian Experience”, “Diversity and Democratic Values”, “Self-Reflection, Violence and Injustice”, “Har Bracha: Perspective from the West Bank,” and “Cartography.”

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A Look at Gender Representation and LGBT-Inclusive Education in Israeli Textbooks

adminimpact — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This analysis on LGBT education in Israel examines two of the nine areas IMPACT-se reviews during textbook analysis — ‘Gender Identity and Representation,’ and ‘Sexual Orientation.’ The teaching of LGBT materials is afforded lesser importance in the curriculum: such content is generally not included in textbooks, and is instead provided as online supplementary materials. Nonetheless, education on LGBT identity is provided in the Ministry of Education-approved, mandatory “Life Skills” Program, which advocates for acceptance, tolerance, empathy, and responsibility toward the Other. This is available on the Ministry of Education website, is mandatory, and has been prepared in collaboration with an LGBTQ non-profit organization. The LGBT community is also referenced in one Ministry of Education Civics textbook, Being Citizens in Israel, in the context of the Pride Parade, and in an explanation of prohibited discrimination.

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Arab Education in Israel: A National Minority Curriculum

adminimpact — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

IMPACT-se has released a report on the Arab National Minority Curriculum in Israel, which includes Arab Muslim and Christian, Druze, Bedouin, and Circassian curricula. The report analyzes 108 textbooks across grades 1-12. Israel’s Arab Education program is a national minority curriculum in a conflict area. The Arabs of Israel are a large minority, but form part of the large Sunni Arab majority of the region. While textbooks contain contradictions, they nevertheless successfully educate for a social and economic integration of the Arab minority within the State of Israel, while fostering Arab and Palestinian cultures. Students learn important linguistic and cultural tools for success in Israel, the region and world. The curriculum’s perspective is from an Arab-Palestinian standpoint—Arab culture, history, tradition, connection to the land, and resentment and struggle with Israel. Yet there is evidence throughout that students benefit from a prosperous, peaceful and happy integration with their Jewish neighbors, so much so, that in some civic textbooks, Israel is presented as the homeland.

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Arabic-Learning ‘Madrasa’ App Developed by Technion Students

adminimpact — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Students from the Henry and Marilyn Taub Faculty of Computer Science at the Technion recently developed a voice-recognition app for the “Madrasa” project to help people learn Arabic. Part of the Madrasa project—which advocates for better communication in Israeli society through spoken Arabic courses—the app includes a voice recognition feature that will allow tens of thousands of students learning Arabic in online courses to practice their pronunciation. Students Noor Hamdan, Rina Atieh, Lina Mansour and Wadad Boulos worked on developing the app. “Working with the students was very effective and helpful,” Gilad Sevitt, founder and director of Madrasa, said. “They came on board and contributed greatly to our project, and we enjoyed working together on both the linguistic and technological levels. . . . With the help of Technion students, we were able to develop a voice recognition component that will finally allow tens of thousands of students in our online courses to practice their pronunciation in Arabic and speak while learning,” Sevitt said. Complete Article HERE

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Peace and Conflict in Israel State-Approved Textbooks: 2000–2018

adminimpact — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The article describes the peace and conflict educational approaches found in the Jewish-Israeli curricula between the years 2000–2017, and extracts the dominant themes and messages towards Muslim, Arab and Palestinian “others.” The study follows 123 textbooks recommended by the Israeli Ministry of Education for grades 7–12 of the Jewish state and state-religious sectors for the 2000–19 academic years. The academic subjects or disciplines represented in the study include history, geography, civics (Jewish) religious studies, and Hebrew language and literature studies. Study findings indicate that current Israeli textbooks do not contain any overt racism or incitement against Palestinians. However, ethnocentric perceptions and victim mentality are two themes that still dominate curricular discourse and are counterproductive to peace education goals. Additionally, the paucity of Palestinian narratives is another potential hurdle to achieving peace education goals.

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HAREDI TEXTBOOKS IN ISRAEL: REINFORCING THE BARRICADES

adminimpact — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

IMPACT-se researches 93 textbooks used in the Haredi curricula to promote a unique and separate cultural identity, keeping contact with mainstream Israeli culture to a minimum. While it fails to meet all of the UNESCO standards, Haredi education as a whole offers some unique characteristics and advantages that are worthwhile examining.

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PALESTINIANS IN ISRAELI TEXTBOOKS: 2016 UPDATE

adminimpact — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This timely report updates Impact’s analysis of the current Israeli educational curriculum, particularly as it relates to the Palestinian people and the Palestinian educational process. It is based on the review of 123 state and state-religious textbooks, which were approved and recom- mended by the Israeli Ministry of Education through the 2017 school year.

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Peace, Tolerance and the Palestinian “Other” in Israeli Textbooks

adminimpact — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:29:00 +0000

This study analyzes the attitude of Israel’s education system towards the Palestinian people and nationality, and towards the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. It is based on the review of 149 state and state-religious textbooks, which were approved and recommended by the Israeli Ministry of Education for 2009-2012.

Executive Summary:

Arabic (pdf, 321 kb)
English (pdf, 1.35 mb)

Full Report:

Arabic (pdf, 2.87 mb)
English (pdf, 852 kb)
Hebrew (pdf, 1.78 mb)

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Arabs, Islam and Palestinians in Israeli Textbooks

adminimpact — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:32:00 +0000

IMPACT-SE has recently started a review of Israeli schoolbooks used in school year 2009-2010. It has discovered that the encouraging fundamentals found in the previous report persisted and even strengthened, namely: regarding the “other” as first and foremost a human being; overcoming suspicion, hatred and prejudices; knowing and respecting Islam and Arabs; admitting the legitimacy of the rival national movement and; presenting conflict in a balanced way. Despite deterioration of Palestinian-Israeli relations after the second Intifada and the deep disenchantment with the peace process among Palestinians, peace is still considered something that might and should happen one day, and is presented as obviously positive and worthwhile for all sides.

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Arabs, Islam and Palestinians in Israeli Textbooks

adminimpact — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 11:33:00 +0000

Positive trends noted in the earlier report on Israeli textbooks such as, description of the conflict, presentation of Islam and education to tolerance, have been strengthened.

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