Source: This is a special report of the Israel Project.
The Israeli school system has made teaching peace a cornerstone of its curricula, focusing on tolerance and reconciliation as keys to creating a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike. This goal has continued even as Iran-backed Hamas continues to launch rockets, missiles and mortars at Israel and Palestinian classrooms remain filled with negative images of Jews and Israelis – in violation of past agreements between the two sides.
Although the Palestinian Authority has omitted some negative references to Jews and Israelis since it began reprinting school textbooks in 2007, many books continue to minimize the Jewish historical and religious presence in Israel. Additionally, textbooks continue to portray martyrdom in a positive light.
The Israeli government is committed to the concept that a peace-oriented education is necessary to end the conflict with Israel's Palestinian neighbors. Israeli textbooks specifically frame peace as an attainable goal and avoid using negative stereotypes to discuss Islam or the Arab world. In presenting controversial topics, Israeli textbooks strive for objectivity by exposing students to multiple viewpoints.
Reflecting Israel's diverse population, Israel has four distinct school systems: state, religious, private and Arab/Druze. The national and local governments fund 80 percent of all Israeli education.
•Arab and Druze schools provide instruction in Arabic. They supplement the traditional curriculum with lessons about Islam and the Druze religion, as well as the history and culture of both peoples.
Despite differences among the four systems, each year the Ministry of Education introduces a theme of national significance to school curricula for all children. Past themes have included democratic values, immigration, peace and industry.
Dr. Shlomo Alon, the Ministry of Education's Arabic Studies supervisor and a fluent Arabic speaker, encourages Arabic-language study among Israelis. Said Alon, "If you know the language of the other, you have the power to break barriers." Alon has helped develop core courses throughout Israeli classrooms, such as one for middle schools called "Challenges of Recognizing the Other" in which students read classical Arabic and Hebrew texts in their original languages.
In 1997, Arab-Israeli and American-Israeli educators Amin Khalaf and Lee Gordon founded Hand in Hand: Center for Jewish-Arab Education, a network of accredited public bilingual schools. Hand in Hand now has four campuses in Jerusalem, the Galilee region, Wadi Ara and Beersheva; each school has a Jewish and an Arab principal, and one Jewish and one Arab teacher jointly lead each class. The goal is to build understanding, friendship and peace through education. Jewish and Arab students attend classes in the same proportion and learn each other's language, religion and culture. Hand in Hand works in conjunction with Israel's Ministry of Education.
Click here to read about a range of coexistence programs designed to promote better understanding and interaction among Israel's Arabs and Jews.
The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE), formerly the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP), is a non-profit and non-political organization that examines the content of school textbooks used in the Middle East. IMPACT-SE found that Israeli textbooks, instead of calling for war or violence, frame peace as an attainable goal and emphasize the desire for peace to prevail.
•Students learn about holy sites significant specifically for Muslims, as well as those that have religious importance for both Jews and Christians.
•Israeli textbooks present a nuanced view of Palestinian Arabs, rather than as a uniform group. A 2001 history book differentiates between Palestinian factions in the 1930s: the moderate Nashashibi family, which favored compromise with the Jewish population, and the Husseini family, which rejected compromise.
•Israeli textbooks use simulation games to help students understand different perspectives on an issue. For example, students are told to divide into groups representing Jewish and Palestinian journalists and to prepare reports examining the 1947 United Nations' deliberations that culminated in the Partition Plan. Students then discuss the differences between the reports.
•Israeli textbooks contain a plurality of views, including those that conflict with conventional research and are critical of Israeli policies. Controversial topics, such as the disputed territories, the refugee issue and the status of Arab Israelis, are covered from multiple viewpoints. For example, one book quotes a controversial revisionist historian's position attributing the flight of Palestinians in 1947-1948 more to the actions of Jewish forces than instructions by leaders of Arab countries.
•Israeli textbooks recognize the importance of the land to Muslims. An example of this is found in a textbook that talks about the importance of the land of Israel, and Jerusalem in particular, to Islam, citing the two mosques built on the Temple Mount, known as the Haram al-Sharif in Arabic (the Noble Sanctuary).
 Figures calculated from "Israel in Figures," Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, 2009, http://www.cbs.gov.il/publications/isr_in_n09e.pdf, p. 10.