News sources in Israel have reported that a new high-school civics textbook which is set to be released in the coming weeks presents a religiously skewed view of the country’s political life and an inaccurate narrative of its history. Channel 2 News and the daily Haaretz newspaper quoted sections of the book on Monday and Tuesday of this week (January 25 and 26) that contends “most terror attacks were carried out by Israeli Arabs,” and significantly downplays the role of religious and right-wing incitement in the assassination of former PM Yitzhak Rabin. The textbook first made headlines after reports last month said that it had replaced a segment from the Declaration of Independence with a Jewish prayer.

MK Ayman Odeh (Photo: Al Ittihad)

During a December meeting of the Knesset’s Education, Culture, and Sports Committee, several left-wing lawmakers objected that, under the guidance of Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the far-right Jewish Home party, the mandatory school curriculum has been highlighting Israel’s religious “Jewish identity” while de-emphasizing its democratic character. Responding to the latest reports, Hadash MK Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List, said Tuesday that Bennett sees democratic values as a threat. “This book is a continuation of the government campaign of incitement against Arab citizens,” he said. “It’s a mixture of lies and hatred.”

The head of the Meretz party, MK Zehava Galon, said in a statement Tuesday that the book “erases Israel’s democratic character and entirely subjugates it to its Jewish one.” She maintained that “subjects such as minority rights were limited or erased in the new edition, [and] there is a distinction made between ‘bad Arabs’ and ‘good Arabs’ who are loyal and serve in the army.” She called for the establishment of a parliamentary committee of inquiry into the book.