UAE begins teaching about normalization with Israel to grades 1-12
The UAE is fully supportive of future efforts of reconciliation between the Israeli and the Palestinians.
By ZACHARY KEYSERThe flags of the U.S., United Arab Emirates, Israel and Bahrain flutter along a road in Netanya(photo credit: NIR ELIAS / REUTERS)
The United Arab Emirates has already begun including mention of the recent agreement between the UAE and Israel in the 2020 Islamic Studies curriculum and textbooks, according to an IMPACT-se report.The textbook, which covers the Moral Education curriculum for grades 1-12 introduced into the UAE in 2016, commends the Abraham Accords and teaches the importance of peace initiatives in real world settings.It also adds that the UAE is fully supportive of future efforts of reconciliation between the Israeli and the Palestinians."It is remarkable that a textbook that teaches about the UAE-Israel treaty was on the desks of schoolchildren in the Emirates just two weeks after the announcement of the agreement," said IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff.The chapter regarding the UAE-Israel agreement states that the "historic" agreement "stems from the values of our true Islamic religion" which pushes towards creating and "building bridges of cooperation."Along with the lesson plan, students are tasked with creating a presentation focusing on the importance of peace initiative and their country's specific role in achieving peace."The treaty is not just presented as a fact in the textbook. Students are presented with the religious, ethical and national reasons to support the agreement and employ critical thinking in completing an exercise about the importance of peace-making," Sheff added.The Moral Education curriculum has been an effort of the UAE to push towards modernization and national development, according to the report."The Moral Education curriculum is ambitious and it reveals the UAE’s considerable effort and motivation to provide a more holistic curriculum that focuses on personal development as well as traditional subjects," the report states."Moreover, the Moral Education initiative indicates that UAE links its economic and technological progress to a broader process of modernization – that is, progress comes along with modern and global values – and morals. It also reflects UAE’s national strategic ambition to ensure social cohesion in an ethnically and culturally mixed society."
"Clearly, the citizens of a country that teaches peace-making, conflict resolution and the acceptance of the 'other' at school, will be more likely to embrace peace treaties signed by their leaders," concluded Sheff.
