MIDEAST: A Divisive Word Surfaces
MIDEAST: A Divisive Word Surfaces By Peter Hirschberg JERUSALEM, Jul 30 (IPS) -
...Right-wing lawmakers in Israel are fuming over a decision by Israel's education minister to permit use of a textbook in state-run Arab schools that includes the word "nakba" -- Arabic for "catastrophe", the term Palestinians use to describe the founding of the Jewish state. "The Arabs call the war the nakba, a war of catastrophe, loss and humiliation, and the Jews call it the Independence War," reads the passage that includes the controversial phrase used by Arabs to describe the creation of Israel in 1948, which sparked a war that left 700,000 Arabs displaced, some having fled and others having been expelled from their homes. The book will be used by third-grade (8 to 9-year-old) Arab students. Incensed right-wing lawmakers, who fear the use of the "nakba" term in a state-approved Israeli textbook could legitimise debate over the right of the Jewish state to exist, have called for the resignation of the education minister, Yuli Tamir, a member of the centre-left Labour Party. "The education minister should go home," railed Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the centre-right Likud party. "Should we be injecting Arab propaganda into our schools with our own hands." ...
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