Adoptive Witness - The Transmission of Collective Memory and Identity in the Israeli History Curriculum

Discussions on formal education in Israel focus more on debating whether violent undertones, negation, othering and incitement exist in resources, and less on how curriculum fosters democracy and tolerance. This thesis study investigates how the adoptive witnessing of history embedded within mandated secular Jewish-Israeli history curriculum may be used as a tool of political indoctrination, through its reinforcement of psycho-cultural narratives and dispositions that perpetuate an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ siege mentality. This study analyzes one part of the Israeli Ministry of Education mandated history curriculum intended for use within Israeli state schools. Central topics within the examined Unit 5: Modern Israel’s teaching focus emphasize the birth of the “new-Jew” and a dominant narrative of Jews seeking to no longer be victims at the hands of oppressive Others. All data was coded according to four guiding themes, examining how the intended content may (or may not) legitimize and humanize the Other and their national aspirations, how it may be used to overcome suspicion of the Other, and whether the curriculum provides a balanced presentation of the Arab (Palestinian) – Jewish Israeli conflict. Findings reveal that the curriculum appears explicitly intended to promote the acknowledgement, legitimization, and humanization of a Palestinian Other, an understanding of causes and effects of decisions made at the time, and an awareness of the Palestinian perspectives during the events of 1948. Although findings show a shared responsibility perspective, the use of Jewish-Israeli force is presented as defensive security measures and aligned to similar perspectives on experiences Jews endured within Islamic countries in the same time period. This thesis reveals that the creation and reinforcement of a dominant collective Jewish-Israeli identity through formal education depends on the selective nature of the Other’s narrative that is presented within the discussion of key episodic events. As of the time of writing this thesis, it is concluded that while the secular Jewish-Israeli official history curriculum has made efforts to acknowledge, legitimize and humanize the Palestinian Other, this can only happen so long as the curriculum explicitly exposes students to the interconnectivity between their accounts of history and those of the Other.Ph.D