Educating Against Hate (Le-hanekh neged sin’ah)
Ghassan Abdullah
Middle East Children’s Association, 2005
Educating Against Hate (Le-hanekh neged sin’ah), the most recent project by internationally recognized human rights advocate Ghassan Abdullah, is a well-meaning but feeble attempt to counteract “nationalist and religious zealotry” in mainly Israeli, but also Palestinian students, in grades four through twelve. The textbook, which was also published in Arabic and minimally distributed in the West Bank, offers a brief (110pp.) selection of theories about hatred and a set of classroom activities designed to raise students’ consciousness of self and other. Yet, however intensely one supports its goals, its weaknesses should make those of us interested in reconciliation consider the strengths and limitations of various approaches to “peace education.”
There are three major problems with the textbook. First, Abdullah’s pedagogic suggestions are broad to the point of being useless. One classroom activity involves asking: “Who am I, who would I like to be?” The more simplistic exercises will be ineffective with older children; the more abstract are too advanced for younger ones. The author makes no attempt to designate activities for particular age groups, raising doubts as to whether his curriculum is sufficiently refined to be an effective teaching tool.
Second, Abdullah’s religious commitments, especially his partiality to Islam, will alienate the vast majority of his target audience, the predominately secular Israeli Jewish population. He insists that one root of hatred is “weak faith,” and argues that piety lowers the chances of “develop[ing] bad thoughts.” In addition, he sprinkles his sociological reflections with quotes from the Koran (though, curiously, none from the Torah, for his Jewish readership).
The third, and most glaring problem, is that the book makes no mention of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Abdullah never mentions the social and psychological effects of suicide bombings, wars, roadblocks, fences, and hate literature on children’s development. Nor does he consider the role of nationalist rhetoric, collective memory, political ideologies and religious movements in individual and group identity. These omissions are puzzling, since Abdullah has written extensively on the effects of the Israeli occupation on Palestinians. Progressive educators should acknowledge the role of the regional conflict in forming discriminatory attitudes. In a climate suffused with deeply rooted hatred, an effective textbook must engage children in a far more focused discussion than the one Abdullah suggests.
Some on the right rely on simplistic “myths vs. facts” books and reject any personal responsibility for ongoing hatred. An insistence on self-awareness may be an important corrective. But doves can fall into an equally futile trap; their vague reflections about the possibilities for peace often fail to recognize the specific and pernicious roots of violence. Educating Against Hate, though it will certainly please many well-meaning progressives, fails to present the tools to address a living, festering and historically rooted conflict.
