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.