Palestinian and Jewish ignorance
of one another is a root cause of our unresolved conflicts.
At this moment, almost no Jews and almost no
Palestinians have ever had an in-depth, sustained relationship with the
"other."
We continue to make decisions -- and treat each other
badly -- based on incorrect stereotypes, preferring to elevate ourselves while
demeaning, blaming, dehumanizing, disregarding and disenfranchising the
"other."
Both peoples are settling for -- and even
institutionally perpetuating -- ignorance and the resulting, exaggerated fear.
Responsible research continues to
reveal a need for both Palestinian and Israeli educators to discover, tell,
hear and respect the narratives and humanity of both peoples equally.
This is the beginning of healing.
In a leading-edge response, an
international conference has been called for December 17-21, 2006 in
"EDUCATION FOR PEACE EDUCATION FOR
LIFE: Peace Education in Israel and Palestine" will be co-chaired
by:
Watch for more information on the Web site the
sponsoring Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI):
This
Wednesday, 12 October 2005,
This new generation of balanced history textbooks
is described at http://traubman.igc.org/textbook.htm
.
The project co-directors are:
Balance the Dialogue with stories of both fine
peoples, wherever you live.
You can be part of the end of war, refusing to be
enemies.
"An enemy is one whose story we have not
heard."
Published by USA TODAY -- Wednesday, October 12, 2005
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-10-11-israel-palestinian-students_x.htm
Professors' history project opens
new chapter for Israeli, Palestinian students
By Martin Patience, USA TODAY
JERUSALEM The year 1948 resonates with Israelis just
as 1776 does with Americans as the year their nation was born in blood during a
war for independence against all odds.
For Palestinians, 1948 means something very different. It marks the defeat of
the Arab armies, the failure of Palestinians to establish their own state and
the beginning of exile. It was the year 750,000 Palestinians became refugees in
neighboring Arab countries the start of a period they call "The Catastrophe," or al-Nakba in
Arabic.
The battle lines of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
extend to the classroom, where the two sides' versions of their shared history
diverge sharply. Now, two university professors aim to change the way the
conflict is taught by exposing Palestinian students to Israeli history lessons
and Israeli students to the Palestinian version of history.
The project is the work of Dan Bar-On, a social
psychology professor at
The professors say the project is an effort to bridge
the chasm between the two peoples. "The way a conflict or history is
taught in the classroom can either support that conflict or (support)
co-existence," Adwan says. "The project
aims to break down the stereotypes and build nuanced understandings."
Says Bar-On: "What we're talking about is the
disarming of history, where the teaching of history no longer feeds the
conflict."
Young audience
Aimed at 15- and 16-year-olds, the five-year project
produced three booklets, distributed in seven Israeli schools and seven schools
attended by Palestinians or Israeli Arabs. The first booklet was published in
2002 in Hebrew, Arabic and English. It covers events in 1948 as well as the
Balfour Declaration in 1917, when occupying
Israeli history holds that the declaration was the
"first time any country expressed support for Zionism" the creation
of a Jewish state in modern-day
The professors' booklet also shows differences over
the first Palestinian uprising, which lasted from 1987 to 1993. Palestinian
history states as fact that the violence began after an Israeli truck driver
"deliberately crashed into an Arab car," killing four Palestinians.
Israeli history injects doubt by saying, "the Palestinians claimed
..."
Sonia Nour, 45, a
Palestinian history teacher at the Talitha Kumi High School in Beit Jala, a West Bank town, says the project opens the eyes of
her students. "The children are not aware of the other side," she
says, "and we provide them with that information. We need to clear the
road for them and teach them how to study in an open and democratic
manner."
Nour says she has had
problems with some parents who don't believe their children should learn
Shai Meizlemann,
35, an Israeli history teacher at Democratic High School in Kfar
Saba, close to Tel Aviv, says the project touches on issues that are
contentious. "Teenagers are often highly emotional, particularly when it
comes to teaching the conflict," he says. "But teaching history
involves being rational and looking at the other side and the project
encourages this."
The second booklet, out this year, deals with the 1967
Six-Day War between
Intense debate
Bar-On and Adwan say
writing the booklets was often emotional. "One man's hero was another
man's terrorist," Adwan says. He recalls the
intense debate about treatment of the
The history project has produced controversy in the
classroom, Bar-On says. Palestinian students complained about having to look at
the Star of David on
"We need to listen to one another," says
Ahmed Mahmoud, 17, a Palestinian at
The third booklet of the series, to go to classrooms
next year, will look at more recent events, such as the second Palestinian
uprising that began in 2000.
Bar-On says the two professors have tried to avoid
attracting the attention of the Israeli and Palestinian education ministries.
But eventually they hope the ministries will approve the comparative histories
for use in national curricula. Both ministries refused comment.
Bar-On and Adwan say they've
become close friends through their collaboration. The events covered in the
booklets are deeply personal for both, they say.
For Bar-On, losing a friend in the Six-Day War made
him think about the plight of the Palestinians. For Adwan,
once jailed for being a member of a political group declared illegal by
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PHOTO In East Jerusalem: Students at