Wednesday, January 10, 2007

I Don't Understand The Point

A few weeks ago, Yuli Tamir, Israel's education minister, decided to issue new geography textbooks that contain the Green Line. Last week, the Knesset Education Committee issued a non-binding directive to continue using the old books that don't distinguish between Israel and the territories.

I understand that Israel doesn't want to prejudge a final status agreement by granting the Palestinians rights to the West Bank. But how can they ignore the Green Line completely? Forget for a minute that every single country in the world recognizes the Green Line or that a large number of Israelis consider the West Bank disputed at the very least (and many consider it occupied). As Yehuda Ben Meir correctly points out, every single Israeli government, including those headed by Begin and Shamir, distinguished between Israel proper (including the areas that were annexed) and the West Bank, which is run by a military government. So the country itself recognizes the Green Line, and why shouldn't the children know that?

No comments: