What are we doing to our children?

GEOFF SIFRIN

All societies at war, or after it, face the dilemma of educating children amidst rage about what has happened. What should Jewish educators teach about Germans after the Holocaust? Or Rwandan Tutsis about the Hutus who killed 800 000 Tutsis in the 1994 genocide?

After apartheid’s end, what should black South Africans teach their children about white South Africans? As conflicts continue to erupt and the phrase “never again” becomes hollower, the problem gets worse.

German writer Gunter Grass, a Nobel Laureate who as a child was forcibly conscripted to the Hitler Youth, was a careful thinker on this topic. With books like The Tin Drum, he created a child character that looked to the previous generation with horror at its hypocrisy. A thread in this novel is exactly this: whatever shall we teach our children in the wake of such atrocities for which we are responsible?

A United States-funded study in 2013, carried out by the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land, found that both Israeli and Palestinian textbooks depicted the other as “the enemy” while presenting their own culture in positive terms.

It maintained that both teach their children little about the other’s religion, culture, or economy. It said most maps in Israeli textbooks make little reference to the West Bank or Gaza, and Palestinian maps often ignore Israel’s existence.

How can a school child be expected to distinguish between what is accurate and what is not? A Grade 4 textbook in a state-supported ultra-orthodox religious school says Israel is “like a little lamb in a sea of seventy wolves…” A Grade 12 Palestinian textbook says, “Zionist occupation and its usurpation of Palestine and its people’s rights comprise the core of the conflict in the Middle East.”

Should we believe Israel’s repeated complaints about Palestinian textbooks, or is it propaganda? The textbooks released in September 2018 are supposedly more radical than previous ones, encouraging jihad (a fight against enemies) and demonisation of Israel and Jews rather than engagement with peace-loving Israelis.

Past peace negotiations between Palestinians, Israel, and Arab states, such as the Roadmap, Wye Agreement, and Israel-Jordan peace treaty are omitted. So is the Jewish historical presence in Jerusalem and the land of Israel.

Even maths education contains negative references to Israelis.

International agencies are getting more involved. The European Union gives massive aid to the Palestinian Education Ministry, but with a condition that programmes financed should “reflect common values such as freedom, tolerance, and non-discrimination within education”.

The EU parliament passed legislation in April 2018 intended to prevent European aid funds to the Palestinian Authority (PA) from being used to teach hate.

Marcus Sheff, the Chief Executive of the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, says the PA misuses EU money for the “abuse of children” rather than “meaningful education for peace and tolerance”.

While adults rage, children are victims. Entire generations are conditioned to hate each other. It is supremely difficult to undo. But it must start with adults, and Israel and the Jews are the stronger side. Jewish institutions would be a good place to start.