ISRAEL'S EDUCATION minister Gideon Saar yesterday banned from Israeli-Arab school textbooks the word nakba, or catastrophe in Arabic, used to describe the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, writes MARK WEISSin Jerusalem
The term is widely used by Palestinians and throughout the Arab world to describe Israel’s war of independence and the accompanying exodus of some 700,000 Palestinian refugees to neighbouring states.
Israel’s education minister in the previous government, Yuli Tamir, from the Labor party, approved usage of the term in Israeli-Arab history schoolbooks used by eight- and nine-year-olds. The term is not used in Jewish school textbooks.
Mr Saar said it was unreasonable for Israeli textbooks to describe the establishment of the state as a catastrophe. “I can tell you that many Arabs do not see Israel as a catastrophe, and I don’t think it is right to feed eight-year-old children with this viewpoint – and certainly not in an official, state-sponsored manner. It would simply legitimise the de-legitimisation of Israel.”
The minister also said the term strengthens extremist elements in the Israeli-Arab community and therefore harms efforts to foster coexistence.
MK Jamal Zahalka, a member of the Knesset parliament from the Arab Balad party, slammed the decision to remove the term from textbooks. “If the word nakba scares them, then they have a problem. This is the only country in the world that legislates a law to rewrite history. Anyone afraid of the word nakba is like a criminal afraid of their victim,” Mr Zahalka said.
Jafar Farrah, director of Mossawa, an Israeli-Arab advocacy group, said the move “complicated the conflict”, terming it an attempt to distort the truth and to seek confrontation with Israel’s Arab population.
Israeli-Arabs make up a fifth of Israel’s population of seven million. Israelis celebrate independence day each year in May .
In recent years Israeli-Arabs have marked the occasion with Nakba Day events, stressing the community’s solidarity with the plight of the Palestinians.
The Knesset recently passed a Bill banning public funding to bodies which mark Independence Day as a day of mourning, although a clause to criminalise such activity was withdrawn after a wave of criticism from Arab pressure groups and Israeli human rights organisations.