Arabs, Islam and Palestinians in Israeli Textbooks
Preliminary Update by Yael Teff-Seker, November 2009

IMPACT-SE has recently started a review of Israeli schoolbooks used in school year 2009-2010. It has discovered that the encouraging fundamentals found in the previous report persisted and even strengthened, namely: regarding the "other" as first and foremost a human being; overcoming suspicion, hatred and prejudices; knowing and respecting Islam and Arabs; admitting the legitimacy of the rival national movement and; presenting conflict in a balanced way. Despite deterioration of Palestinian-Israeli relations after the second Intifada and the deep disenchantment with the peace process among Palestinians, peace is still considered something that might and should happen one day, and is presented as obviously positive and worthwhile for all sides.

Read the preliminary update:
    English (pdf, 994 kb)

Arabs, Palestinians, Islam and Peace in Israeli School Textbooks
Update for 2000-2001 and 2001-2002

Positive trends noted in the earlier report on Israeli textbooks such as, description of the conflict, presentation of Islam and education to tolerance, have been strengthened.

Read the Full Report:
    English (pdf, 1.53 mb)

Read the Report by Chapter:
    Table of Contents (pdf, 94 kb)
    Executive Summary (pdf, 123 kb)
    Introduction (pdf, 92 kb)
    Content (pdf, 843 kb)
    Conclusion (pdf, 87 kb)
    Appendix (pdf, 710 kb)
    Textbooks Surveyed (pdf, 143 kb)

Arabs and Palestinians in Israeli Textbooks
September 2000

This study reviewed 360 Israeli schoolbooks, from six disciplines,
that were used in three different educational streams of the Israeli
school system in the school year, 1999-2000.

Read the Full Report:
    English (pdf, 2.86 mb)

Read the Report by Chapter:
    Table of Contents (pdf, 123 kb)
    Chapter 1: Executive Summary (pdf, 146 kb)
    Chapter 2: Israel's School System (pdf, 110 kb)
    Chapter 3: Portrayal of Arabs and Islam (pdf, 83 kb)
    Chapters 4-7: Islam, Muhammad, and Holy Sites (pdf, 290 kb)
    Chapters 8-15: Literature on Arab-Jewish Relations (pdf, 311 kb)
    Chapters 16-21: Political Topics (pdf, 370 kb)
    Chapters 22-27: Peace (pdf, 279 kb)
    Chapters 28-29: Information - Maps and Statistics (pdf, 2.08 mb)
    Chapter 30: Social Development (pdf, 166 kb)
    Concluding Remarks (pdf, 107 kb)
    Glossary (pdf, 123 kb)