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Jewish or democratic? A textbook battle for Israel's soul.

Israeli educators and academics are alleging that right-wing religious political appointees have meddled in a revision of a high school civics textbook to water down discussion of democracy.

Question: Can Israel be both Jewish and democratic?

For generations of Jewish Israelis, the answer was presumed to be 鈥測es,鈥� but it鈥檚 no longer so simple.

The issue has already brought down one national government and has deep implications for Israel鈥檚 ability to accommodate Palestinians鈥� political aspirations.

For Israeli high school students, the path to the answer was supposed to start in Israel鈥檚 official civics textbook.

Now allegations of political meddling in a revised version of the schoolbook 鈥� entitled 鈥淏eing citizens in Israel鈥� 鈥� have recently turned the text into the latest front in a struggle over Israel鈥檚 soul.

Civics educators and academics allege that political appointees in Israel鈥檚 Education Ministry 鈥� controlled by the right-wing religious Jewish Home party 鈥� have rewritten the textbook to water down discussion of democracy and Israel鈥檚 Arab minority, while filling it with content emphasizing Israel鈥檚 Jewish religious character.

鈥淎 hostile takeover鈥� of the civics curriculum was how one copy editor who reviewed a final draft for the Education Ministry described the revised book.

Indeed, political battles over civics textbooks and how they teach history and current affairs have been fought around the world, from the United States to South Korea. The problem is especially acute in Israel because liberals, religious nationalists, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Arab citizens share very little common ground in their relations with the state, says a prominent Israeli law professor.

鈥淲hat is special about civics? Civics is a place where one should find what are common denominators of all parts of Israeli society 鈥� both Jewish and non-Jewish parts,鈥� says Mordechai Kremnitzer, a professor of law and a vice president at the Israel Democracy Institute. 鈥淣ot enough thought was given to what brings us together.鈥�

Divisions have prevented constitution

Defending the revised textbook, Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett has said that Israel鈥檚 secular schools need a curriculum with more Jewish content. 鈥淭he book makes significant mention of the Jewish identity of the Jewish state, and we鈥檙e proud of that,鈥� he said. Bennett and his Jewish Home party favor Israeli annexation of the West Bank and oppose creation of a Palestinian state.

The dispute reflects a deepening fissure between the country鈥檚 religious conservatives, more confident and assertive after the right won the last three parliamentary elections under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel鈥檚 secular left, which despite retaining influence throughout much of the government and cultural establishment, feels threatened.

鈥淕iven the depth of the political divide, it鈥檚 not surprising that we should have such controversy,鈥� says Daniel Statman, a professor of philosophy at Haifa University聽and a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Jerusalem. 鈥淓ach political side in this debate wants a say in how to educate the next generation.鈥�

It also highlights a decades-old friction in a country that has never been able to draft a constitution because its Arab, religious, and secular groups are so entrenched in divergent world views that they cannot reach a formal agreement on the basics of Israel鈥檚 system of government.

Taken together with Israel鈥檚 charged daily disputes over the status of Palestinians, settlements, and citizenship, it鈥檚 logical, say analysts, that similar fundamental disputes would arise over a revision in the country鈥檚 civics textbook.

鈥淭he fundamental problem is the lack of a common civic language,鈥� wrote Rabbi Naftali Trachtenberg, a fellow at the Van Leer Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Jerusalem, in an article on the Israeli news website Ynet. 鈥淎 democracy is dependent on a healthy civil society in which a majority of its components share the same civil concepts.鈥�

Authors ask their names be removed

In a five-page protest letter to the ministry leaked to the Israeli media, Yehuda Yaari, the book鈥檚 copy editor, complained that five of the six ministry officials responsible for the updated version were Orthodox Jews and that the book was strewn with right-wing political bias.

He also alleged that the book relies too heavily on rabbinic sources like Maimonides, a revered 12th century Spanish Jewish philosopher, to explain concepts of human rights; gives a misleading explanation on the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin; and falsely accuses Israel鈥檚 Arab citizens of responsibility for a recent wave of stabbing attacks by Palestinians from the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Revision of the 15-year old textbook has been in the works for several years, but in recent months a string of educators who worked on the book have sounded concern about the content.

Tamar Hermann, a political science professor at Israel鈥檚 Open University who advised the ministry on a previous draft, said fundamental concepts about citizenship were relegated to the end of the book. Several authors asked that their names be removed from the book.

The uproar over the civics textbooks is the latest in a series of controversies in the last half year in which religiously observant ministers in the Netanyahu government have been accused of politicizing culture: a novel about a Arab-Jewish romance was removed from high school reading lists, and public funding was removed from a play about a convicted Arab militant.

Left-wing bias in curriculum?

In the case of the textbook and other disputes, Israeli right-wing politicians have insisted that they are simply carrying out their electoral mandate to implement a more nationalist policy.

Some say the existing curriculum suffers from a left-wing bias. Avraham Diskin, a Hebrew University political science professor who has consulted on previous editions of the civics textbook, says civics education curricula in Israel has for decades been dominated by secular 鈥減ost-Zionist鈥� educators who focus on 鈥渟logans鈥� like tolerance and equality. Israeli educators mistakenly believe that democratic systems of government must be liberal by definition, he says.

But critics of the government worry Israeli civics educators are in danger of getting a failing grade in the efforts to create a common ground between Arab, Jewish, and religious students.

鈥淲e are still tribes, and we should be on the way to becoming a nation, but it鈥檚 a slow process,鈥� says Professor Kremnitzer, 鈥渁nd what the ministry is doing now is not in the right direction.鈥�