Separate and unequal: the role of the state educational system in maintaining the subordination of Israel's Palestinian arab citizens

Abstract

The state educational system in Israel functions effectively to maintain the cultural, socioeconomic, and political subordination of Israel's Palestinian Arab citizens through the imposition of aims, goals and curricula to which the students cannot relate, and the substandard and discriminatory provision of educational resources, programmes and services; all of which result in markedly poorer levels of educational achievement and lower rates of students qualified to enter higher education. As with every other aspect of the education system in Israel, these inequitable outcomes are not a matter of chance, but rather a matter of policy. In this paper, I will explore the ways in which racially derogatory attitudes towards the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel have been translated into discriminatory practices in the state-run educational system. I will examine the mechanisms by which these practices have placed Palestinian Arabs on an unequal footing with regard to their social, economic and political development vis à vis the Israeli Jewish majority, and have led to the institutionalisation of an education system that perpetuates racist attitudes and practices.Nearly one in four of Israel's 1.6 million schoolchildren are educated in a public school system wholly separate from the majority. The children in this parallel school system are Israeli citizens of Palestinian Arab origin. Their schools are a world apart in quality from the public schools serving Israel's majority Jewish population. Often overcrowded and understaffed, poorly built, badly maintained, or simply unavailable, schools for Palestinian Arab children offer fewer facilities and educational opportunities than are offered other Israeli [Jewish] children. (Human Rights Watch, 2001, p. 11) [Institutional racism is] the collective failure of an organization to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantages minority ethnic people. (MacPherson of Cluny, 1999, p. 684)

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“…The 1 350 000 Arab Israelis that make up 19.5% of the population reside within the internationally recognized borders of Israel generally have less education and a lower income due to political, cultural and historical reasons beyond the scope of this paper (40).…”

Palestinians in the Israeli Labor Market

“…Second, although the two (primary and secondary) educational systems are centralized and run from Jerusalem by the same Ministry of Education, they are far from being equal. The Arab system is greatly underfinanced relative to the Jewish one (Abu-Sa'ad 2004;Al-Haj 1995;Golan-Agnon 2006), and the Arab students, especially those from public schools, must compete with Jews who have graduated from much richer high schools. 6 Third, due to the JewishPalestinian conflict, Palestinian students often feel isolated, discriminated against, and even threatened in colleges and universities.…”