Palestine's Dream of Independence

The military operation launched by Israel in Gaza has made Palestinian students in Indonesia anxious. They immediately sought information about the fate of their families, relatives and friends. Moreover, not only in Gaza, violence occurred in Hebron, a city in the Israel-occupied West Bank.

"(My parents) in the West Bank can still be contacted, Alhamdulillah," said Mutasem Abuzahra, 33, a Palestinian student who is pursuing doctoral study in Veterinary Science at Airlangga University (Unair), Surabaya, East Java.

However, Mutasem was unable to contact his relatives and colleagues in Gaza due to communication problems. "Many of my friends are dead, some of them were transferred to hospitals in the West Bank," Mutasem's face turned sad.

Israeli military operations were launched following attacks by Hamas militants along the Gaza-Israel border on October 7, 2023 which killed around 1,200 people. Many buildings, including schools, were destroyed.

"The whole world saw what happened in Gaza. This is the true face of them (Israeli Zionists). Half of their victims are children and women," said Mutasem in a conversation with me in a coffee shop on Jalan Arief Rahman Hakim, Surabaya, late November 2023. 

Mutasem wasn't alone. He was accompanied by Ihsan Idrees, 31, a Hebron-born student studying for a Sociology doctoral degree at Airlangga University. Ihsan and Mutasem got married around 2019.

Like other Palestinian students, Mutasem and Ihsan aspire to bring back the knowledge gained in Indonesia to develop their country. 

"That's for sure, but we don't know if we'll go there after graduation or if we'll work first. What is certain is that while studying here, our goal, our target is to help the Palestinian people there. Even if we have to stay here for ten to twenty years to study, our plan is to go back and help Palestine," said Mutasem.

Lack of Access to Education

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has its roots in what is known as the Balfour Declaration of 1917,  a pledge from Britain's then-foreign secretary Arthur Balfour to establish "a national home" for the Jewish people in Palestine. Britain, who then held the mandate in Palestine, facilitated massive Jewish immigration. Conflict after conflict ensued.

In 1947, the United Nations (UN) adopted the Palestine Partition Plan or Resolution 181 which divided Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. A year later, following the end of the British mandate, the Jewish community in Palestine declared the establishment of the state of Israel. 

The Arab-Israeli war broke out. Israel won the war and even expanded its territory. Jordan took control of East Jerusalem and its surroundings, now part of the West Bank, while Egypt ruled the Gaza Strip. 

The war increased the suffering of Palestinians, including children, who were forced to live in refugee camps with limited access to education. Until the late 1990s, the education system and curriculum they received varied.

According to Samira Alayan, a lecturer and researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in “History Curricula and Textbooks in Palestine” in the book she edited Politics of Education Reform in the Middle East, the Egyptian education system and curriculum were introduced in Gaza, while the Jordanian education system was implemented in the West Bank, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) provided its own education in the refugee camps.

This separate education system continued until after the Six-Day War in 1967 when Gaza and the West Bank came under Israeli occupation. The Egyptian and Jordanian curricula were abandoned, and the education system in the West Bank and Gaza was governed by the Israeli Civil Administration.

"Within the West Bank and Gaza Strip after 1967, elements in textbooks relating to Palestinian national identity and the Palestinian question were likely to be censored," Alayan noted.

Independent Curriculum

Situation started to improve when the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was formed to establish a limited government in Gaza and the West Bank. The first president was Yasser Arafat, a founding member of the Fatah political party which led the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a coalition that unites all Palestinian resistance organizations. In 1988, together with the Palestinian National Council (PNC), the PLO declared Palestinian independence.

In 1993, the PLO and the Israeli government sat down at the Oslo Accords or the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, which was signed on that occasion. The plan to implement the two-state solution was approved, followed by the establishment of PNA under the 1994 Gaza-Jericho Agreement.

Since then, control of all public educational institutions was handed to the PNA, which then established  the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. For a time, Egyptian and Jordanian textbooks were again used in Palestinian schools.

"All textbooks used in this period bore a stamp inside them, showing the agreement between the states of either Egypt or Jordan and the PNA," Alayan wrote. However, these books were supplemented by a new series of books on National Education for grade 1-9.

Along with that, there was an effort to develop an independent curriculum. In 1996, the Curriculum Development Center, originally an autonomous body but later under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, rolled out a comprehensive plan with a guiding principle on the philosophy embodied in the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence, where the Palestinian identity is unique in its civilization, religion, culture, and geography.

In A Comprehensive Plan for the Development of the First Palestinian Curriculum for General Education, Ibrahim Abu Lughoud and Ali Jarbawi said the curriculum plan intends to transmit relevant knowledge with values and skills rooted in Palestinian awareness of their national heritage, as well as national history affiliated with the land of Palestine and its Arabic culture. 

"Its philosophy also holds the aspirations of the Palestinian nation towards the 21st century as a productive and equal part of the modern world," they wrote.

The Palestinian curriculum and textbooks were developed in stages starting in 1998 and completed around 2006. After that, the system was applied in all Palestinian schools and was experienced by Mutasem himself during his primary and secondary education in Hebron. "As far as I remember, the Jordanian curriculum was still used until the fifth grade of elementary school. In the sixth grade, it changed into the Palestinian curriculum. It wasn't until in 2006-2007 that all schools applied the Palestinian curriculum," Mutasem recalled.

Jews are different from Zionists. There are Palestinians who are Jewish because there are three kinds of people in Palestine: Muslims, Christians, and Jews.

History Lesson 

How is the Palestinian history lesson in this "new curriculum"? "The Palestinian curriculum is almost the same (with the Jordanian). But the History, Civic and other subjects are more focused on Palestine," said Mutasem.

"Previously, in secondary school, the Jordanian curriculum focused on Jordan, and the Egyptian curriculum focused on Egyptian history."

The arrangement of lesson content in the history curriculum is slightly similar to Indonesian curriculum, starting from prehistory to modern history. When the curriculum changed into Palestinian curriculum, Mutasem added, some of the content was still similar. 

"So, we started from the first civilizations of Canaan, Babylonia, Assyria around 10 thousand years ago, the times before the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and the Islamic era," said Mutasem.

Alayan in her other article, "Zionism as the Other in Curricula and Textbooks of the Palestinian National Authority" revealed that a series of histories linking Arab and Islamic civilizations in Palestine in the history curriculum began to be taught in grade 8. 

"The centers of this civilization were in Palmyra, Yemen, Petra and Palestine. This civilization grew and prospered with Islam, and even became one of the most important civilizations that have contributed to the progress of human civilization," Alayan said, quoting one of the chapters on the History of Arab-Islamic Civilization textbook in the 8th grade.

Phases of world history, especially related to Palestine, are also included in the textbooks. For example, the Ottoman Empire era that ended in 1917, the UN Resolution 181, and the controversy over the establishment of the state of Israel.

According to Mutasem, the history textbooks also discuss the Crusades, World Wars I and II, and Resolution 181. "We learned about the UN Resolution 181, discussing the articles, who voted, who didn't vote," he said.

Meanwhile, Zionism is included in one of the chapters in the Modern and Contemporary Arab History subject in grade 9, the Modern and Contemporary World History subject in grade 10, and the Modern and Contemporary Palestinian History subject: Part I-III in grade 11. According to Alayan, these lesson content illustrate that Zionism, which initially existed in Europe, touched Palestine due to the impact of British colonialism that began after the cession of Palestinian land from the Ottoman Empire in 1917.

The story of the Palestinian struggle is presented in textbooks for the Arab and World History in the 20th Century subject in grade 12, focusing on the resistance of Yasser Arafat's group with a tendency to delegitimize the existence of Israel. In addition, it illustrates that the Palestinian struggle to liberate their land is a ribat or part of jihad, and that Israel, which is supported by Western countries, is the one that occupies and steals Palestinian land.

Full Freedom

Apart from Fatah, there is a large faction Hamas in Palestine that has a strong influence. Hamas does not recognize the state of Israel and opposes the Oslo Accords, and they are committed to establishing a Palestinian state on its own territory.

Hamas gained important momentum after the death of Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian president who was also an important Fatah figure, in 2004. Hamas won the 2006 parliamentary elections and installed its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, as Prime Minister of Palestine. In 2007, the PNA president dissolved the cabinet and fired Ismail Haniyeh, a decision that was rejected by Hamas. Until now, Gaza has been controlled by Hamas and the West Bank by Fatah. 

This change in the political landscape affects the education curriculum in Palestine. The Ministry of Education changed the curriculum in 2008, 2016, 2018-2019, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022. A number of lesson content about history are scattered in the Social Studies, History, and Islamic Education taught after grade 8. However, there have not been many changes or revisions.

This can be seen from a report by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE), an Israeli non-profit organization that monitors the content of school textbooks sponsored by the European Commission. 

The report, entitled "Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education Study Cards 2021-2022 Grades 1-11: Selected Examples" published in January 2022, said that in the 2021-2022 curriculum in the Social Studies subject in grade 9, students are taught about the colonial conspiracy against Arabs which began with the Balfour Declaration (1917). There are also teaching materials about occupation, detention, torture of detained Palestinian children, and the right to self-determination through armed resistance movements.

In the grade 9 Islamic Education subject, the obligation of jihad is emphasized and martyrdom becomes an honor. This is reinforced by the narration of the victory in the Battle of Khaibar (628 AD) between the Muslim forces led by the Prophet Muhammad and Ali bin Abi Thalib against the Arab Jewish coalition.

Meanwhile, in grade 10, there are Geography and History of Palestine subjects that discuss the Zionist movement as part of the great conspiracy that overthrew the Ottoman Empire, and that Israel is a product of colonialism that aims to divide the Arab world and separate Asia from Africa.

One of the chapters of the grade 11 history textbook emphasizes that the establishment of the Jewish state or Israel which was based on racist ideology was the colonialist answer to the "problem of Jewish" who were massively expelled from Europe.

On the other hand, the two-state solution and having peaceful coexistence with Israel do not appear in Palestinian textbooks. There are also no references or suggestions regarding the possibility of peaceful resolution of the conflict. Moreover, the most prominent case for peace advocacy in the new post-2017 curriculum has now been removed from the 2019 and 2020 editions.

With the Palestine curriculum, the desire to liberate the country is embedded in the hearts and minds of students and school graduates. They want Palestine to be free from Israeli occupation and Zionist settlers. They also reject the two-state solution by establishing two states for two peoples; Israel for the Jews and Palestine for the Palestinians.

"We cannot agree with the two-state solution. People outside Palestine think we only hate Jews. But that's not true," said Ihsan.

"Jews are different from Zionists. There are Palestinians who are Jewish because there are three kinds of people in Palestine: Muslims, Christians and Jews. Well, the Jews in Palestine also disagree with the two-state solution. Because they believe it is the state of Palestine, not the Zionist Israel."

"Every time we negotiate, looking for an agreement, they (Israel) keep taking our land until finally the Palestinian territory is only the West Bank (and Gaza). So how can we believe in a two-state solution," said Mutasem.

"We want full freedom, like before British colonialism in 1917. So even if we have to fight for another 200-300 years, we will keep fighting for only one state, the state of Palestine."