July 23, 2007

Israeli school textbook to tell the truth but not to Jews

Here's a fascinating report on the BBC website about how the Israeli education ministry has "approved a school textbook that for the first time presents the Palestinian denunciation of the creation of Israel in 1948." Look at this:
The book, to be used only in Israeli Arab schools, notes that Palestinians describe the event as a "catastrophe"....

The new textbook notes that "some of the Palestinians were expelled following the War of Independence and that many Arab-owned lands were confiscated", the education ministry said.

Palestinians refer to Israel's creation in 1948 - in which hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled in the wake of the independence war - as "al nakba", or the catastrophe.

They blame the Jewish state for usurping their land.

The new textbook also says Arab leaders rejected a UN partition plan for Palestine to be split into Israeli and Palestinian states, and that Jewish leaders accepted it.

Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman denounced the book on army radio, blaming "the masochism and defeatism of the Israeli left, which constantly seeks to apologise, while we did what we had to".

Former Education Minister Limor Livnat of the right-wing Likud party said it would encourage Arabs to take up arms against Israel.
Arabs take up arms against Israel? How come they never thought of that before?

But really, surely telling the truth is a step in the right direction but why are only Arabs to be privy to it?

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