In Mideast, Kids Back at School Amid Controversy

A new report issued this week by the United States Institute of Peace states that "teachers and school systems can play a vital role in defusing tensions and helping young Palestinians and Israelis understand their evolving environment and find places for themselves within it."

But as Israeli and Palestinian children returned to school this week, what, when, where, and how they are being taught has stirred controversy and tension.

In Gaza: Hamas Educates In Holocaust Denial

Hamas sent children back to school in Gaza one week earlier than in the West Bank in a move some interpreted as an attempt to further emphasize that the Palestinian split even affects the schooling of children.

Education had been one of the few areas that Palestinian officials in the West Bank and Gaza had continued to coordinate since Hamas' takeover of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas' Deputy Education Minister Yousef Ibrahim denied that his ministry had chosen to stop coordinating with its counterpart in Ramallah, saying "We have agreed to start the school year on August 23 but the Ramallah government" opted out.

Earlier this week, a letter was sent by Hamas' Popular Committee for Refugees in Gaza to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) denying the Holocaust and decrying the organization for attempting to teach about the genocide in Palestinian schools.

The committees' letter described the Holocaust as a "lie created by the Jews and intensified by their media," and charged that "those who added it to the curriculum intended to mess with our children's emotions."

Hamas's official spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, said "We oppose forcing the issue of the so-called Holocaust onto the syllabus, because it aims to reinforce acceptance of the occupation of Palestinian land."

At a news conference meant to respond to the charges, UNRWA's commissioner-general Karyn Abu-Zayd denied that the UN school curriculum would include anything about the Holocaust, saying that it would focus on human rights in general.

In Israel: Officials Reject 'Nakba'; Ethiopians Excluded

Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar unveiled a new education platform prior to the first day of school which emphasizes Jewish and Zionist studies and bans the teaching in Arab schools of the 'Nakba,' the term meaning 'catastrophe' in Arabic used by Palestinians to describe the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

After Sa'ar announced an initiative to promote education of "heritage and Israeli culture," including lessons on the Hebrew calendar, flag and national anthem, Israeli Arabs protested that the government was seeking to "Judaize" the education system. Sa'ar later clarified that the initiative, which also emphasizes the centrality of Jerusalem to Israel and encourages enlistment in the Israeli army, was not meant to apply to Israeli Arab students.

In response to Sa'ar's ban of the teaching of the Nakba, the Follow-Up Committee on Arab Education in Israel pledged to reject the decision. Atef Moaddi, the head of the committee, said that both narratives-Jewish and Arab should be taught in the classroom. "But the Arab pupil is not stupid," he said. "He or she will learn about the Nakba from a variety of other sources, be it on the Internet or on the street. But our position is that we prefer for them to learn about it in the educational framework of the classroom."

Sa'ar's decision seemingly overturns that of Yuli Tamir of the Labor Party, who as Education Minister two years ago approved a third-grade Arabic textbook teaching the subject.

"What Israeli Arabs experienced during the [1948 War of Independence] was certainly a tragedy," Sa'ar said. "But the word 'Nakba,' whose meaning is similar to 'Holocaust' in this context, will no longer be used. The creation of the State of Israel cannot be referred to as a tragedy, and the education system in the Arab sector will revise its studies [regarding this] in elementary schools."

Meanwhile, Sa'ar's Education Ministry reached a deal with the Petach Tikva Municipality this week to send Ethiopian students to three ultra-Orthodox schools in the city.

Last month, the partly state-funded schools had rejected the admission of Ethiopian immigrants on grounds of race, causing a national uproar. It was the second year in a row that the schools tried to ban Ethiopian students.

Last week, President Shimon Peres had condemned the schools' initial rejection of the students as "a disgrace no Israeli can accept." The Education Ministry threatened to withhold funding from the schools unless the students were admitted.

Education Gaps in Jerusalem; Student Demographics Changing

Ha'aretz reported this week that during the 2008-2009 school year, "577 shekels was spent on each primary school student in the predominantly-Arab eastern section of the city, compared with 2,372 for a student in the mainly-Jewish western part. In preschools, spending per student in West Jerusalem was 2.7 times that of East Jerusalem, and in special education 2.5 times."

The Ha'aretz report comes after a new study by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Ir Amim, found that East Jerusalem is short 1,000 classrooms, and that half of its classrooms and preschool facilities do not meet health and security standards.

The ACRI-Ir Amim report also found that over 5,000 school-age students in East Jerusalem are not registered for school, and another 30,000 are forced to enroll in private school due to a lack of available public schools.

Meanwhile, the annual report of the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies found that 48 percent of Israeli students will attend Arab or ultra-Orthodox schools this year, up from 39 percent in 2000.

In the past decade, enrollment has grown in Arab schools by 10 percent, in ultra-Orthodox schools by 51 percent, and in state-run religious schools by 8 percent. Meanwhile, enrollment in secular schools has decreased by 3 percent.

"The state must focus on the curriculums for the students that will soon be the majority," the Taub Center's director, Prof. Dan Ben-David told Ha'aretz. "Rated against 25 countries participating in the OECD exams, the average achievement by the non-ultra-Orthodox Jewish population was at the bottom of the scale, while Israeli Arab students did even worse."

The report issued by the United States Institute of Peace this week, titled "An Education Track for the Peace Process," concludes that as the peace process advances, "with active encouragement from third party mediators, the two governments can play highly positive roles in supporting a changing reality through their educational systems." There is certainly no better time to start than now.