A new study in Israel reveals that this year's high school graduates, who will be eligible to vote in the upcoming Knesset elections , are more racist and less committed to democratic values. According to the study, this generation of young Jewish graduates has grown up under exceptional circumstances: the COVID-19 pandemic, the political upheaval, the Al-Aqsa Mosque conflict, and successive wars.
Among the study's quotes, a sixteen-year-old boy says that there are those who "sabotage" the state more than religious people, and they are the Arab citizens, and the solution in his opinion is "a death sentence for the saboteurs and expulsion from the country."
There has been a rise in hatred towards Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel since October 7th, as well as a rise in fear of them.
The study, which involved a number of education researchers, says that there has been an increase in the level of hatred towards Palestinian Arab citizens in Israel (19% of the total population) since October 7, as well as an increase in the level of fear towards them.
Conversely, the study indicates that this younger age group of Jews is increasingly aware of individual rights and of certain minority groups, such as LGBTQ+ individuals. This finding regarding attitudes toward LGBTQ+ people contrasts sharply with the attitudes of Jewish graduates toward Arab citizens, who also constitute a distinct national and cultural minority.
However, the findings of this study are unsurprising. Racism is rampant within Israel, and has become a pathological condition even among Israelis themselves: racism against Mizrahi Jews, women, Russian immigrants, Ethiopian Jews, and others. Racism against Arabs, Muslims, Mizrahi Jews, and non-Jews in general also exists among Israelis and has worsened since October 7th.
The brutal war
There is no doubt that the war of extermination in Gaza has encouraged and multiplied racism and hatred and given it legitimacy in the eyes of the younger generations who see and hear how tens of thousands of women and children are killed and injured, which contributes to normalizing the idea of savagery and violence in word and in practice.
This also applies to the war waged by settlers, with the direct support of the government and the army, against Palestinian civilians—against people, property, and trees—amidst the silence of the vast majority of Israelis. This recalls the warning of the Jewish philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who said, in the aftermath of the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories, that the occupation would corrupt Israelis as well, turning against them in the form of violence, hatred, and racism among themselves.
Education curricula are a source of racism
But the phenomena of hatred, racism and violence are widespread and deeply rooted within Israel, predating October 7 and 1967, and are fueled by several profound factors, including the ideas of Zionism, which are also embodied in the educational curricula adopted to this day.
Hebrew school curricula are rife with content that fuels racism of all kinds, and contain prejudices about Arabs, Palestinians, and Muslims. This was previously confirmed by the leading Jewish researcher in education, Professor Nurit Elhanan-Peld, in an interview with several months ago.
This researcher asserts that the roots of the massacres committed in Gaza lie in the textbooks used in Jewish schools. She emphasizes that, everywhere and at all times, the educational process plays a role in shaping the minds of students, and through them, in shaping society, its identity, and its orientations.
The sources of the massacres committed inside Gaza are found in the educational books inside Jewish schools.
She continues regarding the situation presented here: “But in the Israeli case, the Ministry of Education, known as the ‘Ministry of Knowledge,’ is working to build a Spartan society through what goes beyond education to brainwashing, instilling the veneration of power, glorifying the self, demonizing the other, and stripping him of his humanity.”
Young people and students imitating adults, politicians, and religious figures
Alongside Zionist ideas, wars, and educational curricula, role modeling plays an important role in raising racist Israeli generations in light of the practices and statements of politicians and religious figures against Arabs, Muslims, and non-Jews.
Students and young people see and hear such statements and actions in the halls of government, the Knesset, and the media. How can young people not be affected when they hear prominent Israeli journalists say they wish they could wake up one morning to find the cemeteries in the Gaza Strip have expanded?
Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, who are subjected daily to attacks against people, stones, and trees, and the same in Jerusalem, where Jerusalemite bus drivers are subjected to bloody attacks for no reason, and the list is long.
It is very likely that the imitation of adults by the young plays an important role in fostering and deepening racism, for “if the master of the house is playing the drum, then all the members of the household will dance.”
The result of all these factors is the creation of a sick atmosphere and condition in Israel, manifested in the spread of hatred and the escalation of racism against all non-Jews, even within Jewish society itself, as well as in the prevalence of the poisonous language of discourse exchanged between the conflicting groups and camps.
All of this poses challenges for Palestinians inside Israel, who are under increasing pressure at all levels.
Or when they see and hear about crimes of robbery, looting, and killing of
