The story of David and Goliath is a central Zionist myth. The case of Ahed Tamimi shows that while Israel still thinks it's David, in reality, it's Goliath. By Gil Gertel After the images from Nabi Saleh surfaced earlier this week, Minister of Education Naftali quickly made himself judge, jury, and executioner, declaring that the two Palestinian girls “should spend their lives in prison.” But why? Young Israeli settlers routinely disrespect soldiers and flout the rule of law. And that’s exactly the point: Ahed Tamimi did what’s reserved for Israeli settlers alone. [tmwinpost] What, for Israelis, was most embarrassing about the…

The Green Line, the boundary between Israel and the Palestinian territories recognized by most of the world, has been all but erased by the Israeli education system. Rami Younis, also of +972 Magazine, talks to educators about how it happened, and what it means.

Ignoring Palestinians, whether the refugees from the 1948 War or those who remained under military rule in the occupied territories, is part and parcel of our Zionist outlook. By Gil Gertel We love to talk about the occupied territories. Because they are silent and they do not throw rocks at us. We have developed a large arsenal of justifications and explanations that we love to repeat to ourselves: this land was promised to us, we were expelled from them, we always yearned for them, they were empty, we bought them with money, we made them bloom, we protected them with…

Back in the 1970s, the deep socioeconomic divide between Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Jews in Israel led to a massive protest movement and the rise of the Israeli Black Panthers. A newly approved official civics textbook in Israel portrays the movement as violent and criminal. We called up three Black Panthers to remind us all of the true nature of their struggle. The following is a chapter in the Education Ministry's newly-approved civics textbook, To be Citizens in Israel: Criminality motivated by ideology — political violence "Political violence is the use of force by an individual of a group in order to attain political…

The violence we are witnessing among Israeli and Palestinian teenagers is a response to a system that limits their independence through power and control. By Gil Gertel Three different news items on teenage violence were aired in the Israeli media recently. The first was a hearing in the Special Committee for the Rights of the Child on violence by teachers toward students. Following that came a report by the Education Ministry that tracked the level of violence in schools. Finally, Channel 10 aired a four-part series that looked into what motives Palestinian teens to carry out violent attacks against Israelis.…

An education system that brings an inherently violent organization in through the front door is failing at its most basic obligation. This policy is the first injection of militarism, ultimately meant to prevent our children from becoming critical citizens. Ten years ago, when my oldest daughter was five years old, I already had the honor of being the mother of a draft refuser. One day, when she was in kindergarten, my young daughter came home with a notice from the kindergarten teacher asking parents to help their children prepare care packages for a soldier. The notice included a list of…

The killing of a young Bedouin man from Rahat and the death of another during the funeral have deepened the city's lack of faith in the authorities. Only anti-racism education for police and young people alike can stop the landslide. By Kher Albaz The Or Commission, which investigated the shooting deaths of 13 Arab demonstrators in October 2000, found serious flaws in the Israeli police's actions against Arab citizens. The atmosphere within the Israeli police, then and apparently now, can be summed up by one sentence from the committee’s recommendations: “The police must implemented an approach that views Israeli Arabs…