Encountering the Nakba – A learning Packet
“…Education is where we decide whether we love our children enough not to expel them from our world and leave them to their own devices, not to strike from their hands their chance of undertaking something new, something unforeseen by us, but to prepare them in advance for the task of renewing a common world.”
– Hannah Arendt, 1968
The Nakba is the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948; the destruction of localities, the expulsion of inhabitants, and the erasure of Palestinian life and culture as they existed until Israel’s War of Independence. The Nakba is a foundational event in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one that constitutes our lives even today, but it is also an event that has been largely silenced, one that has little place in Israeli society.
Learning about the Nakba raises questions and presents challenges: How can we learn and teach about the Nakba in the Israeli educational system? How can we deal with the fears and uncertainties that arise when we learn about the Nakba? How are we to present historical accounts that are so different from the ones we grew up on? How can we develop tools to critically analyze these new accounts? And how can we bridge the gaps between familiar stories and those we have never heard?
“Encountering the Nakba” is a unique learning packet about the Nakba for the formal and informal Israeli-Jewish educational system. The packet contains 13 units, each of which includes lessons and activities tailored to students aged 15 or older. Three years in preparation, the packet was researched, written, designed, and assessed by teachers and by Zochrot staff.
The learning packet engages students in learning about the Nakba by first raising questions about their identities, about places in Israel that they know well, and about their own collective memory. More advanced units examine hegemonic versus silenced histories, what it means to be a refugee, and reconciliation, among other topics.
The learning packet is grounded in the principles of critical pedagogy. It seeks to provide students with tools for interpreting the reality in which they live, coping with it emotionally and intellectually, and exercising critical thought. Methodologically, the packet is multifaceted, using primary and secondary historical sources, films, photographs, artwork, demonstrations, and computer presentations, as well as unique original materials prepared especially for this curriculum.
The Nakba is the calamity of the Palestinian people, but it is also the story of Jews who live in Israel. Learning about the Nakba challenges the foundations on which many Jewish Israelis were raised. But it also has the potential to create a future based on reconciliation and to establish a new set of relationships between Jews and Palestinians, grounded in respect, mutual acknowledgement, and responsibility.
The materials in the learning packet are catalogued according to the following key words:
Education
Future
Collective memory
Art
Place
Histories
Contents of the learning packet
The learning packet has been organized to work either linearly (progressing from Unit 1 to Unit 13) or modularly (using any combination of units independently). The key words attributed to the different sections allow teachers to combine the different units according to a variety of pedagogical approaches (such as history or geography).
Unit Contents
1. We’re On the Map
What about me? What map am I on? Students draw maps of the country, discussing their personal connection to a place and what they know about the history of that place before 1948.
2. Landscapes of Home
What do we see when we look at the landscape? What don’t we see? A computer presentation of current, familiar landscapes addresses both the presence and absence of traces of the Nakba.
3. Gentlemen, History is Histories
One place – three narratives. A historical episode from 1948 is examined from three different perspectives, using archival materials and primary and secondary historical sources.
4. Nakba – Shu hada?
It’s not just Palestinian history. A computer presentation provides a historical overview of the Nakba through testimonies, photographs, and quotes.
5. Both of Us, and One Village
Tup’aha and Dov talk about the village of ‘Amqa. Students watch two video testimonies about the Nakba, one by a Jewish Israeli and one by a Palestinian survivor, and discuss oral history as a lens to the past.
6. And You Shall Recount it to Your Sons and Your Daughters
How shall we talk about the Nakba? Testimonies about the Nakba, and a clip from a documentary film that depicts a family talking about it, are a stepping stone to confronting questions raised while studying the Nakba.
7. Arise, and Walk Through the Land
What used to be here? Students take a tour of a destroyed Palestinian village, led by a refugee who once lived there.
8. Searching the Home Page
Individual research. Students conduct an independent research project (for example, about the Palestinian history of their hometown) using the internet, books, photographs, and maps.
9. The Land of Sad Oranges
A story about the Palestinian refugees. Reading and responding to The Land of Sad Oranges, a novel by the Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani.
10. Atten-shun!
Remembering and forgetting in national commemorative ceremonies. Clips from a documentary film about commemorative ceremonies in Israel form the basis for a discussion about the construction of collective memory.
11. Time Passes, a Place Changes
The story of Haifa’s Wadi Salib neighborhood. The multiple historical layers of a single place is revealed through photographs, readings, and clips from a television series.
12. "That’s Not Something We Talk About"
The Palestinian refugees’ right of return. A photography exhibit by Palestinian youth, quotes by Palestinians, and other sources elicit questions about the meaning of return for Palestinians and Israelis.
13. Forever and Ever is a Very Long Time
Paths to reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. Students view a segment of a film on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commissions and discuss possibilities for reconciliation.
Learning more about the learning packet
There are a number of ways to learn more about the curriculum and practice using it:
A one-session workshop: Includes an overview of the learning packet and its individual units, and an exercise using one of those units.
Seminar or multi-day training course: Training in the packet’s critical pedagogical approach, overview of the curriculum, and methods of applying the packet in different educational settings. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and pose dilemmas about the packet’s subject matter from both a professional and personal standpoint.
Participants in both the one-session workshops and the training courses will receive a complimentary copy of the Nakba learning packet.
Individual or group supervision sessions: Ongoing support for those using the learning packet can help teachers address challenges that arise during the school year.
“Hot line”: Zochrot’s education staff is available to respond to any question, problem, idea, suggestion, or difficulty. Contact us by telephone, 03-695-3155, or by email, zochrot@netvision.net.il.
Website: Updates and activities related to the learning packet can be found on Zochrot’s website, www.zochrot.org.
To obtain a copy of “Encountering the Nakba" and for additional information, contact Zochrot’s educational coordinator: 61 Ibn Gvirol St., Apt. 2, Tel Aviv 64362, tel. 03-695-3155, fax 03-695-3154, email zochrot@netvision.net.il.