The Israeli Education Ministry has decided to ban a book from high school literature classes for showing a relationship between an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian Arab.
The book, by Dorit Rabinyan, is called “Gader Haya,” or “Borderline” in English. It shows the relationship between an Israeli translator and a Palestinian artist when they meet in New York City.
“Borderline” has been acclaimed across Israel. The book was set to be put into the curriculum for advanced high school literature. A group of teachers and professionals petitioned the Education Ministry to include the novel in the curriculum.
The Education Ministry rejected the suggestion. The Ministry said it was concerned about the potential for “intimate relations between Jews and non-Jews [that] threatens the separate identity.”
A Ministry official, Dalia Fenig, also said a book showing a relationship between an Israeli Jew and Palestinian Arab would warp the minds of the young.
Young Israelis “considerations involving maintaining the national-ethnic identity of the people and the significance of miscegenation” are not developed enough to reject the idea of marrying outside of their race, Fenig said.
Israeli Education Ministry head of literature studies Shlomo Herzig appealed the decision. Herzig said that objecting to the content of a novel was not sufficient to disqualify it from the curriculum.
Unfortunately for Herzig, the decision was upheld. Fenig expanded on her reasoning, saying that many Israeli families would object to their children being taught the book.
Fenig also said that a love affair between a Jew and a non-Jew was unrealistic and could be perceived as a threat to the Israeli national identity.
Herzig was unconvinced of this line of reasoning, writing in his appeal that “the acute problem of Israeli society today is the terrible ignorance and racism that is spreading in it, and not concern over intermarriage.”
It is illegal for Jews to marry non-Jews in Israel. The country does recognize those marriages when they are performed outside of its borders.
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