Israel's education system 'denies existence of occupation'

Israeli high school graduation exams in history and civic studies have avoided all reference to the occupation of Palestinian territories, a report has found.

Exam papers in the two subjects from 2000 to 2015 did not include a single question relating to the occupation, according to research by Professor Avner Ben-Amos of Tel Aviv University.

The ommision is fuelling a "continuation of the occupation", he said.

"This is not an accidental development but an intentional policy, meant to create a simplistic and one-sided worldview for the students," Ben-Amos said at a conference marking 50 years since the Six-Day War, where he presented his findings.

"In this view there is only one player – the Jewish people – while the Palestinians remain behind the curtain and emerge only when they interfere with the efforts for Jewish settlement.

"In practice, the Education Ministry, which denies the existence of the occupation, contributes to its continuation by doing so. If you do not know that something exists, you cannot fight it."

Only one question concerning the occupation has ever appeared on the final history exam - but even this was addressed indirectly, when students were asked to relate to the effects of the Six-Day War on Israel, Ben-Amos said.

"Even in this case, the occupation was pushed to the margins of awareness and the focus of the historical discussion remained the ideological dispute in Israeli society within the [1967 borders]," the professor said, quoted in Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

In this view there is only one player - the Jewish people - while the Palestinians remain behind the curtain and emerge only when they interfere with the efforts for Jewish settlement.

An analysis of the history curriculum shows that it mentions the Palestinians in a throwaway manner and avoids discussing the 1993 Oslo Accords, said Ben-Amos.

Last summer's graduation exams did not cover the issue, either.

"The significance of the matter is that even if the chapter appears in the textbook, the teachers do not bother to teach it," said Ben-Amos.

"Civics studies, whose backbone is the definition of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, focus almost exclusively on the population within the [1967 borders], even though it is impossible to deny any more the centrality of the occupation in the understanding of the development of the government and society in Israel," he said.

The Education Ministry spokesman declined to comment on the matter.