Israel’s education ministry denies inclusion of novel featuring Jewish-Arab romance

• The request to include Borderlife by Dorit Rabinyan in the high school curriculum was denied out of fear of escalating already tense relations between Jews and Arabs in the country as violence continues.
• As teachers and students protested, the ministry relaxed its ruling, saying the work could be studied in advanced literature classes, but that other controversial content—including its depiction of soldiers—and concerns about national identity would keep the book from the general curriculum.
• The book centers on a Jewish Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, who fall in love while overseas in New York.

Read more:
“Israel bars novel about Jewish-Arab love affair from school curriculum” (Reuters)
“Bennett Backs School Ban on Novel About Jewish-Arab Love Affair” (Haaretz)
“Education Ministry under fire for excluding novel about Jewish-Arab love story” (The Jerusalem Post)

(Image Credit: Ofer Vaknin/Haaretz)