RAMALLAH, Oct. 12 (JMCC) - The
Palestinian Authority has accepted a textbook into its school curriculum that includes the Israeli nationalist narrative alongside the Palestinian one.
The textbook is the work of a joint project between a Palestinian and Israeli professor and the Swedish government.
After reading the book, Palestinian officials decided it will be used in some
West Bank schools, while at the same time
Israel's education ministry dismissed the book out-of-hand, according to reports.
It will be taught in two high schools near Jericho, the Palestinian Education Ministry said.
Next week, the Education Ministry is scheduled to summon the principal of a Sderot area high school for clarification after he had permitted the use of the textbook by students in a special supplementary educational course.
Aharon Rothstein, the head of the Sha'ar Hanegev high school, may be reprimanded for allowing students to reference a textbook entitled Learning the Historical Narrative of the Other, a project initiated by Prof. Dan Bar-On of Ben-Gurion University and Prof. Sami Adwan of Bethlehem University.
Unfortunately, the Palestinians are further along than the Israeli Education Ministry when it comes to acknowledging the other side of the conflict, said an official involved in administering the textbook in the Sha'ar Hanegev school. While [the Palestinians] approved the project, here they are summoning the principal for clarifications. This is a highly embarrassing situation.
Israeli officials said that the Education Ministry's order to discontinue the use of the textbook was issued without any official vetting of the book's contents or the supplementary coursework. It was only after the project garnered media attention that the ministry's pedagogic secretariat, Zvi Zameret, asked to see the textbook....
Read more at
Haaretz....