Knesset members from Hadash expressed outrage on Wednesday evening, December 30, following reports that the Education Ministry has decided to disqualify a novel depicting a romance between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man from being taught in Israeli high schools. Dorit Rabinyan’s book Gader Haya (“Living Fence,” but published in its English translation under the title Borderlife) was rejected by the Ministry because of the need to maintain what it calls “the identity and heritage of students in every sector” and the belief that “intimate relations between Jews and non-Jews threatens this separate identity.”

Dorit Rabinyan, author of the novel Gader Haya (Borderlife) (TV Footage)

Officials at the Ministry expressed concern that “young people of adolescent age don’t have a systemic view that includes considerations involving maintaining the identity of people and the significance of assimilation” was also cited as a reason for the novel’s disqualification, according to the daily newspaper Haaretz. MK Dov Khenin (Hadash – Joint List) blasted the decision, saying, “Today the Education Minister disqualified Dorit Rabinyan’s book because it contains a love story between a Jew and an Arab. Tomorrow he will disqualify the Bible because it contains a love story between a Moabite and a Jew. And this they call the Jewish Home?”