• Do Civics Studies in Israel Teach Democracy or Intolerance?

    The Jerusalem Post — October 30, 2013 jp102013
    A new version of a civics textbook emphasizes Israel as a nation state rather than a democratic one—says Dr. Halleli Pinson from Haifa University in her recent Haaretz interview. Pinson will soon publish a report on the civics textbook: To be Citizens in Israel in cooperation with the Dirasat Arab Center for Law and Policy. However, even a superficial examination of the textbook yields an utterly different conclusion: While only 40 pages of the book are dedicated to Israel’s Jewish attributes, its democratic nature is covered by 150 pages. The government in Israel—a subject that relates mostly to Israel’s democratic governmental characteristics—receives more than 300 pages. In 2000, a decision was made to change the book Being Citizens in Israel: A Jewish and Democratic State, because it was argued that it was “pessimistic” and contained too much criticism of Israel, and that not enough emphasis was given to Israel’s Jewish nature and history. However, the changes were minor and a study performed by IMPACT-se on more than 150 current Israeli textbooks found that civics education in Israel, (including the above-mentioned book), fulfills all the standards set by UNESCO for peace and tolerance education.

  • The Palestinian Textbook Fiasco

    The Tower Magazine – June 2013 (PDF version, 472 kb)Flickr IDF Posters of Suicide Bombers Hang in Classroom in Tul Karem
    “Every year, children in Gaza and the West Bank are taught to hate Jews and Israelis, while Israeli schools promote coexistence. A bizarrely biased, State Department-funded study won’t change that fact. […] Victims of Our Own Narratives? [IMPACT-SE claims], simply ignores passages from Palestinian textbooks that are breathtaking in the danger they represent in an educational context, citing texts like the following, found in standard Palestinian textbooks…”

  • "An Opportunity to Educate for Peace: Preliminary Comments on the Council of Religious Institutions Textbook Report"

    By IMPACT-SE – February 7, 2013
    IMPACT-SE, an institute researching tolerance and the attitudes towards the other in textbooks for more than 15 years, welcomes the latest report on Israeli and Palestinian textbooks commissioned by the “Council of Religious Institutions in the Holy Land” as the newest addition to a group of studies on this subject…