A Binational Society: The Jewish-Arab Cleavage and Tolerance Education in the State of Israel

Author: Soen D.

Source: Israel Affairs, Volume 9, Numbers 1-2, Numbers 1-2/Winter 2003 , pp. 97-120(24)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

This article focuses on the fact that Israel is a binational society with a Jewish majority constituting about 80 per cent of the population, and an Arab minority comprising roughly 20 per cent of the population. It then explains that the country faces a deep cleavage between these two sectors. The article tries to evaluate to what extent the ministry of education has really tried to facilitate tolerance between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority through subtle manipulation of the contents of readers and primers used in Israeli elementary schools in the 1990s. Various techniques of content analysis have been used in order to evaluate these primers and readers. The article reaches the conclusion that the ministry failed in its mission to try and foster at least a common civic identity uniting Jews and Arabs living in Israel under an acceptable common denominator.

Keywords: binational society; Israel; ministry of education; tolerance education; common civic identity

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2003-12-01