Reconciling Biases in History Education and Media in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The History Project, after successful endeavors introducing joint history textbooks to Pakistani and Indian private and government secondary schools, is duplicating the process in the ongoing Israeli and Palestinian conflict. It attempts to mitigate the tension, hatred and hostility at a time of occupation and conflict by changing the public’s misunderstandings of history and current events. Such efforts to confront biases in the collective memories of both sides will likely face adversities from both the public and the government.

Individual citizens don’t recognize their own prejudices unless explicitly pointed out or compared with an opposite perspective. When they read about the portrayal of the enemy, over 85% of which is negative, in their respective textbooks, they are mostly unaware and just blindly accept what’s taught.

Even if they are aware, they have no way to confirm the accuracy of these statements. Israel and the West Bank are physically isolated from each other by the separation wall and numerous checkpoints devised by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The majority of citizens on either side are never allowed on the other, and thus don’t personally know any “enemies.” Unfortunately, neither side wants to publicly interact with the other. Palestinians consider learning about the narratives from ruthless and indoctrinated Israelis a form of normalization of the occupation. Israelis consider Palestinian perspectives extremist and nationalistic. Neither side will consciously prefer to confront the biases, no matter it’s students, activists, or professionals.

Moreover, History education is no longer the prominent channel through which the new generation receives knowledge. The hardest part about conflict resolution in an on-going conflict is that the majority of Palestinians and Israelis experience the daily trauma either through personal experience or through local news that are often mixed with the reporter’s personal emotions and political beliefs. Even a revolutionized history textbook will fail to counteract the accumulating hostility of living in fear, anger, and despair everyday.

The government, on the other hand, too often is more interested in creating polarized arguments through education and media than in helping communities prepare for truces and concessions that need to be made. One-sided histories help states justify the aggressive offenses by the state, foster a shared emotional and national identity among citizens through collective memory, and rally their people around national political causes. What the History Project tries to achieve works well in peaceful post-conflict states because its mission aligns with the government’s. But it won’t in on-going conflicts because reconciliation fundamentally goes against the governments’ goal to reach political dominance and military victories. The government is less concerned about history and more about the public sentiment at the current moment towards the enemy.