Arab Israeli teachers’ dilemma: Civics by the book or talk about the Nakba

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Neven Abu Rahmoun, a civics teacher in Bu’eine Nujeidat in the Lower Galilee, has a typical challenge: preparing her students for the school-leaving exams while encouraging them to be critical. But for Arab Israeli teachers, the task is a lot tougher.

Civics lessons ostensibly provide a rare opportunity for students to explore current events and political issues. Abu Rahmoun uses this stage to discuss explosive issues like the Nakba, when more than 700,000 Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1947-49 war.

Then there’s the Al-Aqsa Mosque, violence in the Arab community and the infringement of Arab Israelis’ rights.

Abu Rahmoun is a political activist and a former Knesset member for the Arab-nationalist Balad party. She isn’t afraid to talk about the gap, as she sees it, between the formal civics curriculum and her worldview.

“The curriculum doesn’t reflect my students’ story,” she said. “It ignores the Palestinian narrative and presents only the Zionist narrative. Most of the material is about Israel as a Jewish state – the symbols and laws that reflect this. As a teacher, this puts me in a challenging spot.”

She isn’t alone. Many Arab civics teachers feel conflicted, a problem highlighted in a recent study.

Hadeel Diab and Prof. Nissim Cohen of the University of Haifa’s Department of Public Administration and Policy examined how public servants from a minority group handle the clash between their opinions and official policy. Their study focuses on lower-ranking Arab public servants – those who are in direct contact with people in their daily work.

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The study looks at police officers, medical teams, social service workers and teachers, with a special focus on Arab civics teachers.

Many teachers handle the dilemma by jumping back and forth between the narratives. “I teach the required content according to the book and official texts, but what interests me more is to teach our values, those that characterize Palestinian society,” one teacher said.

Neven Abu Rahmoun, a civics teacher in the north.Abdullah Shama

The Adam Verete case

Some teachers fear that expressing an opinion on the Jewish-Palestinian conflict will get them into trouble with the Education Ministry and put their job in danger. A few participants in the study mentioned the case of civics teacher Adam Verete, who was fired in 2014 after a student complained in a letter to then-Education Minister Shay Piron that Verete was expressing “radical leftist” views.

After the Verete case, the ministry drafted a clause – never approved – that would grant teachers significant autonomy. The education system, it says, must “strengthen students’ involvement in moral and social issues and encourage an educational discussion on controversial issues.”

According to the draft, teachers may express their opinions as long as they don’t “force their positions on the students, and enable them to think critically.”

But this clause was never approved, so at the beginning of last year, the Rishon Letzion municipality fired Meir Baruchin, a senior civics teacher, when students and parents complained about political statements in class.

The material on the establishment of the State of Israel creates a conflict for Arab teachers. The official textbook, “Being Citizens in Israel,” briefly tells the Palestinian point of view, but rejects it quickly.

“Although the Palestinian version claims that most of the refugees were forcibly driven out, the accepted version in Israel today is that most of the refugees fled and a minority of them were expelled, and that such acts of expulsion were not part of a plan.”

The study shows that many Arab civics teachers don’t settle for the laconic sentences in the textbook. They tread carefully, torn between their commitment to the curriculum and the matriculation exams, and their desire to tell another story.

“I tell them that what I’m teaching now is because of the matriculation exams, and they have to know how to answer questions based on this material,” one teacher said.

“But I also say, there’s Independence Day, but there are people who were uprooted from their homes. You have to know this, because these are your cousins, your parents and your grandfather. I explain both sides.”

A teacher from the north adds, “I can’t ignore Nakba Day or teach it in brief. A civics teacher who is part of Arab Palestinian society is expected to teach it.”

Abu Rahmoun said: “I can’t ignore the Palestinian narrative. These students’ grandfathers and grandmothers told them about the Nakba, but it doesn’t appear in the text. They’re already in high school, they know their people’s history, they’re exposed to media that shows this material.

“I believe that if our schools put our narrative into the curriculum, the students will become better adults, with a strong sense of identity and belonging.”

Civics teacher Adam Verete in 2014, when he was fired after a student complained that Verete was expressing “radical leftist” views.Daniel Bar-On

Estrangement and alienation

Not everyone treads carefully between the narratives. A minority of teachers in the study said they provide their own approach in class. “I know there are many prohibitions and restrictions, but in the classroom I’m completely free. Who’s going to criticize me?” a teacher from the Galilee said.

An even smaller minority said they openly breach the Education Ministry’s instructions. This includes handing out pamphlets and showing films about the Nakba, and organizing school events to mark the event.

One teacher said he organized an excursion to the uprooted village Bir’im in the north under the guise of a tour of another community in the area.

In the study, many teachers said at the beginning of the interview that they stick to the matriculation curriculum. Only later did the dilemma surface, and the efforts to deal with it.

According to Diab, most teachers said they do not want to break the law or rile up the students. Most just want to explore the students’ Palestinian narrative, as well as rights and obligations as citizens of the state. “The students don’t understand the material,” Abu Rahmoun said.

One teacher added: “This estrangement is reflected in teaching methods of giving them the material with no discussion.”

Arab teachers are not partners in shaping the civics curriculum. For example, the long list of contributors in the textbook’s table of contents doesn’t include a single Arab Israeli. Diab says this increases the sense of alienation and perhaps even pushes the teachers to bend the curriculum and the ministry’s rules.

“If Nakba Day is mentioned as a term in the curriculum, it could reduce the tension,” she said. “Teachers wouldn’t feel that they have to hide what they’re talking about.”