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The Arab-Israeli Conflict in Israeli History Textbooks, 1948-2000

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This scholarly study by Elie Podeh of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem analyses Israeli history textbooks’ presentations of the Arab-Israeli conflict and their depiction of Arab people. He contends that, “biased Israeli and Arab textbooks have fostered and maintained a kind of silent conflict between the parties. ... my hope is that better textbooks - free of bias, prejudice, inaccuracies, and omissions - on both sides of the conflict will result in a better atmosphere, congenial to the successful consummation of peaceful relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.”

His Chapter 1 presents a rationale for studying school textbooks. Chapter 2 investigates the changing attitudes in Israel’s education system towards teaching the Arab-Israeli conflict. Chapter 3 presents case studies of textbook coverage of various subjects and historical periods: Islam, the Ottoman Empire, the first and second Aliyah periods (1882-1902 and 1902-14), the First World War agreements, the British mandate in Palestine (1920-48), the 1947-48 war, the 1956 war, the 1967 war, the post-1967 period and the Arab minority in Israel. He notes that even text books published in 1999 printed maps of late 19th-century Palestine that omitted all the many towns inhabited by Arabs!

The book charts Israeli educationalists’ growing awareness that Zionist ideology distorts the history of Israel and of its relations with its neighbours. The 1967 war, Israel’s war against Lebanon in 1982, the Palestinian Intifada of 1988 and the peace process of the 1990s, all forced many Israelis to view the Arab-Israeli conflict more even-handedly and improved the quality of the textbooks. The newer textbooks present more self-critical accounts, instead of projecting all evil onto Arab people, and allow that self-criticism is a source of strength not a sign of weakness.

Similar studies in other countries have shown that textbooks of Empire demonise and distort colonised nations and their liberation movements, that US textbooks demonise communism, and that Irish textbooks demonise the other guy’s religion.

Hopefully, this fine book will achieve the author’s aim of assisting the development of peaceful relations between Israel and its neighbours.