The False Promise: Citizenship Education in the Eyes of Young Adults in Israel

While Israel declares itself a "Jewish and democratic" state, the enactment of Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People (2018) reveals a different reality. This constitutional law, which states that "The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people," highlights what liberal Israeli commentators often overlook: there is no such thing as an Israeli citizenry, only nations and ethnies. Although many scholars acknowledge the limitations of democracy given the primacy of the state's Jewish character, particularly concerning Arab-Palestinian citizens, they often view citizenship as a path to social and political autonomy. However, from the imposition of Military Administration over Arab-Palestinian citizens (1948-1966) through to the Nation-State Law, the state has clearly delineated separate legal regimes for Jews and Arabs. This construction, according to legal scholar Lena Tatour, effectively renders Palestinian citizens as aliens in their homeland. Since the late 1990s, a universal curriculum for citizenship education has been seen as a potential solution to this structural impasse. There is general agreement that citizenship and civic education serve as means to instill hegemonic values in youth and thus maintain the status quo. In conflict-ridden societies and settler-colonial settings, this often involves prioritizing and imposing the values, history, and viewpoints of the ruling culture, demanding that minority groups assimilate to become "good citizens." Yet, in this case, this option is rejected for Arab citizens. Against this backdrop, our project explores the role of citizenship education in shaping conceptions of citizenship in Israeli society. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, our research examines how young adults (18-24 years old), graduates of all streams of the Israeli education system, recall their citizenship education and understand their citizenship. Our findings, based on focus groups and surveys conducted between 2018 and 2023, reveal similarities in the learning experiences of both Jewish and Arab graduates. Participants reported a pedagogy emphasizing preparation for matriculation exams and avoidance of political issues. Regarding the contents of their studies, while both Jews and Arabs noted the primacy of the state's "Jewish and democratic" character, they differed in understanding its meaning from the standpoint of their citizenship status. For Jewish graduates, the concept of citizenship remains transparent, as they view their relationship with the state primarily through nationalistic identification. In contrast, Arab graduates, aware of the Jewish nationalistic character of citizenship, saw this concept as detached from their daily experiences of structural marginalisation and discrimination. These differences, we argue, demonstrate the need to decolonize citizenship education as a way of decolonizing the concept of citizenship itself, making it relevant to the lives of all Israelis, both Jews and Arabs.