The Palestinian Issue as Constructed in Jordanian School Textbooks, 1964–94

This article will discuss the school textbooks in history and civic in the elementary and secondary schools of Jordan between 1964 and 1994 and will show that the changes in the narrative manifested in the school textbooks in the course of these years were influenced by the political, ideological and national needs of Jordanian regime in this period and especially in the light of the Palestinian component in the Jordanian society that presented not only a national-ideological, but also a physical and existential challenge to the integrity of the kingdom. The article will show how, in view of the developments in the Palestinian arena, the school textbooks reflect an attempt on part of the Jordanian regime to forge a national Arab and Jordanian-Palestinian identity up to the end of the 1960s whereas since the beginning of the 1970s, the emphasis is placed on a separate Jordanian territorial identity. Notes 1. D. Bar-Tal, Shared Beliefs in a Society: Social Psychological Analysis (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications 2000), pp.55–60. 2. R. Brown, Group Processes: Dynamics Within and Between Groups (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000), pp.336–8; G. Johnson, ‘The Evolutionary Roots of Patriotism’, in D. Bar-Tal and E. Staub (eds.), Patriotism in the Life of Individuals and Nations (Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1997), pp.60–66. 3. A. Smith, The Nation in History: Historiographical Debates about Ethnicity and Nationalism (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2000). 4. P. Hammak, ‘Narrative and the Cultural Psychology of Identity’, Personality and Social Psychology, Vol.12 (2008), p.225. 5. J.K. Olick and J. Robbins, ‘Social Memory Studies: From “Collective Memory” to the Historical Sociology’, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol.24 (1998), pp.105–40. 6. B. Anderson, Imagined Communities (London: Verso, 1983), pp.6–7; E. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1870 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp.90–91. 7. E. Podeh, Bignut Hamevuha (Jerusalem: Truman Institute, 1997), p.5 (in Hebrew). 8. Y. Zerubavel, Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition (Chicago: Chicago University Press,1995), pp.3–8. 9. E. Podeh, The Arab–Israeli Conflict in Israeli History Textbooks, 1948–2000 (Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 2002), p.1. 10. M. Apple, Official Knowledge (New York: Routledge, 1993); P. McLaren, Life in Schools (New York: Longman, 1989); H. Giroux, Teachers as Intellectuals (New York: Bergin and Garvey, 1988); see also R. Nasser, Palestinian Identity in Jordan and Israel: The Necessary ‘Other’ in the Making of a Nation (New York: Routledge, 2005), pp.46–8. These books create a misrepresentation of objective knowledge but actually are nothing but a reflection of the legitimate knowledge that the dominant group wishes to instil in the generation of students. Cleo Cherryholmes maintains that the school textbooks are a body of knowledge that grew within the context of power. They determine what is legitimate and what is not, what is supposed to be said and what is not, what should be studied and what not. See C. Cherryholmes, Power and Criticism (New York: Teachers College Press, 1988), p.59. 11. As Baruch Kimmerling stated in a similar context, school textbooks serve as ‘a high court of history’, selecting out of pieces of the past the true collective memory that deserves to be included in the canonic national historical narrative. See B. Kimmerling, ‘Academic History Caught in the Cross-Fire: The Case of Israeli–Jewish historiography’, History and Memory, Vol.7 (1995), p.57. 12. I. Westbury, ‘Textbooks Bias’, in T. Husen (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Education, Vol.9 (Oxford and New York: Pergamon Press, 1985), p.59. Mark Ferro stated in this context that history fulfilled and is still fulfilling a double role: it is both ‘therapeutic’ and ‘militant’. See M. Ferro, The Use and Abuse of History or How the Past is Taught (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984), pp.9–12. 13. Dhuqan Al-Hindawi, for instance, the author of many Jordanian school textbooks in the 1960s and 1970s, served as minister of propaganda, minister of education and minister of labour in the Jordanian governments during that period. 14. B. Anderson, ‘Writing the Nation: Textbooks of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan’, Comparative Studies of South Africa and the Middle East, Vol.21, No.1–2 (2001), p.5. 15. R. Nasser, ‘The Necessary Others in the Making of a Nation: National Identity in Jordanian and Israeli School Textbooks’ (PhD thesis, University of Maryland, 2001), p.297. 16. A. Shryock, Nationalism and Genealogical Imagination: Oral History and Textual Authority in Tribal Jordan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), p.321. 17. Anderson, ‘Writing the Nation’, pp.9–10. 18. From school textbook for the 4th Grade: S. Al-Dura et al., Watani Al-Saghir (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1966), p.7. 19. H. Lazarus-Yafeh, ‘An Inquiry into Arab Textbooks’, Asian and African Studies, Vol.8 (1972), pp.1–19. 20. A. Al-Kird et al., Al-Mujtamaʿ Al-Arabi Al-Urduni (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1967), Introduction. 21. The Acadians, the Assyrians, the Amorites, the Cena’anites, the Aramites, the Moabites and the Edomites. See A. Al-Kird, Al-Hadarat Al-Kadima Fi Al-Shark wa Al-Gharb (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, n.d.), pp.7–9. 22. H. Aeish et al., Al-Taarikh Al-Arabi Al-Hadith wa Al-Muasir (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1966), p.2. 23. M. Winter, ‘The Self-Image as Reflected in Jordanian Textbooks’, in A. Susser and A. Shmuelevitz (eds.), The Hashemites in the Modern Arab World (London: Frank Cass, 1995), pp.216–17. 24. D. Al-Hindawi, Al-Qadiyya Al-Filastiniyya (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1966), p.177. 25. Aeish et al., Al-Taarikh Al-Arabi Al-Hadith wa Al-Muasir, p.96. 26. Winter, ‘The Self-Image’, p.218. 27. Al-Hindawi, Al-Qadiyya Al-Filastiniyya, p.7. 28. Winter, ‘The Self-Image’, pp.216–17. 29. Al-Hindawi, Al-Qadiyya Al-Filastiniyya, p.177. 30. Aeish et al., Al-Taarikh Al-Arabi Al-Hadith wa Al-Muasir, p.96. 31. J. Derrida, Writing and Difference (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1978). 32. R. Nasser, ‘The Necessary Others in the Making of A Nation: National Identity in Jordanian and Israeli School Textbooks’ (PhD thesis, University of Maryland, 2001), p.293. 33. A. Al-Kird, Taarikh Al-Arab wa Al-Muslimin (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1967), p.340. 34. Winter, ‘The Self-Image’, p.108. 35. Winter, ‘The Self-Image’, p.85. 36. N. Bashur, Al-Qadiyya Al-Filastiniyya Wa Al-Wahda Al-Arabiyya Fi Manahij Al-Taʿ lim fi Al-Urdun wa Suriya wa Lubnan (Beirut: Al-Muasasa Al-Arabiyya Lil-Dirasat wa Al-Nasher, 1978), pp.20–22. 37. Nasser, The Necessary Others, p.183. 38. Al-Dura et al., Watani Al-Saghir, p.21. 39. Nasser, The Necessary Others, p.176. 40. S. Al-Din Al-Kilani et al., Al-Mujtama Al-Urduni (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 2004), p.17. 41. Yoram Bar-Gal stated that a map is not a reality. It is not objective but rather a representation of reality that the creator of the map wishes to present. The average person and certainly the young student are unaware and unable to understand all the manipulations inherent in producing the map by selecting the information and presenting it the way it is presented. See Y. Bar-Gal, ‘Al Hakir Tluya Mapa’, in Y. Bar-Gal and N. Kliot (eds.), Eretz Israel Studies – Aviel Ron Book (Haifa: University of Haifa, 2004), p.248 (in Hebrew). See also Anderson, ‘Writing the Nation’, p.13. 42. Nasser, The Necessary Others, p.96. 43. Al-Hindawi, Al-Qadiyya Al-Filastiniyya, Introduction. 44. A. Al-Kird, Taarikh Al-Arab wa Al-Muslimin (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1966), p.102. 45. Aeish et al., Al-Taarikh Al-Arabi Al-Hadith wa Al-Muasir, p.96. 46. See for example Al-Kird, Taarikh Al-Arab wa Al-Muslimin (1966), p.93. 47. Al-Kird et al., Al-Mujtama Al-Arabi Al-Urduni, p.1. 48. See for example A. Al-Kird, Taarikh Al-Arab wa Al-Muslimin (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1969). 49. M. Al-Sakran et al. (eds.), Al-Mujtama Al-Arabi (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim,1990), p.118; R. Al-Khatib Iyad et al. (eds.), Al-Tarbiyya Al-Igtimaiyya wa- Al-Wataniyya (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1993), pp.5–23; H. Riyan, Taarikh Al-Arab Al-Hadith (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1991), pp.59–66. 50. Al-Sakran et al., Al-Mujtama Al-Arabi, p.125. 51. Al-Khatib Iyad et al., Al-Tarbiyya Al-Igtimaiyya wa- Al-Wataniyya, p.16. 52. D. Ubidat et al. (eds.), Al-Tarbiyya Al-Wataniyya Wa-Al-Madaniyya (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1994), p.1. 53. Anderson, ‘Writing the Nation’, p.5. 54. See for example H. Riyan and M. Tuwalba (eds.), Taarikh Al-Arab Al-Hadith (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1991), p.87. 55. D. Bar-Tal and O. David, ‘A Sociopsychological Conception of Collective Identity: The Case of National Identity as an Example’, Personality and Psychology Review, Vol.12 (2009), p.362. 56. D. Al-Hindawi, Al-Qadiyya Al-Filastiniyya (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1976), p.38. 57. See for example A. Al-Kird and R.A. Al-Hadi (eds.), Taarikh Al-Arab Wa-Al-Muslimin (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1971). 58. Ibid., p.102. 59. D. Al-Hindawi, Al-Qadiyya Al-Filastiniyya (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1975), p.152. 60. D. Al-Hindawi, Al-Qadiyya Al-Filastiniyya (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1982), p.177. 61. S. Al-Dura, S. Al-Din Al-Kilani and M.H. Ali (eds.), Al-Taarikh Wa-Al-Jagharfiyya (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1962), p.41. 62. H. Riyan and M. Tualbah (eds.), Mudhakarah Fi Taarikh Al-Arab Al-Hadith (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1991), p.67. 63. The names of the Karak, Wadi Mussa, Tafila and other tribes are also mentioned in the textbooks as having taken part in the Arab Revolt ‘in the course of sixteen months in which the Jordanian land served as an arena of battle’. See D.A. Ubidat et al. (eds,), Taarikh Al-Urdun Al-Muasir (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1995), pp.49–51. 64. Ibid., p.52. 65. Ibid., pp.1, 8–10. 66. Al-Sakran et al., Al-Mujtama Al-Arabi, p.120. 67. Ubidat et al., Taarikh Al-Urdun Al-Muasir, p.60. 68. Ibid. See also Al-Sakran et al., Al-Mujtama Al-Arabi, p.120. 69. Ibid., p.121. 70. S.I. Al-Hababa, Al-Tarbiyyah al-Igtimaiyyah wa al-Wataniyya (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 1994), p.17. 71. Anderson, ‘Writing the Nation’, p.9. Thus, the school textbooks devote much attention to the history of the rulers of the state and not to that of the people ruled by them. The reader, therefore, receives the impression that the rulers are detached from the people. 72. See for example G.M.T. Abdallah, Al-Thaqafa Al-Ama (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 2008), pp.117–18; Y.K. Shadifat et al. (eds.), Al-Tarbiyya Al-Igtimaiyya Wa-Al-Wataniyya (Amman: Wizarat Al-Tarbiyya wa-al-Taalim, 2007), pp.25, 31–2

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