israel, not palestine, we should study: high school students in the US

19Aug10

Nearly 2 million high school students worldwide are taking Advanced Placement tests this May, hoping to impress college admissions counselors with high scores and, perhaps, earn a few college credits. But one test question citing the late Palestinian-American scholar and activist Edward Said on the theme of exile is prompting protests from some Jewish students.

[…]

“I was really startled to see that quote because both of the practice questions didn’t mention the writers’ nationalities,” said a senior at New York’s Bronx High School of Science. “For me including this one clearly had political implications.”

The Said quote on the AP test reads: “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and its native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.”

“I’m in a public school and most students here have the impression that Israel is the one attacking [the Palestinians],” the 17-year-old said. “To put a quote in like this subconsciously reinforces the idea that Israel’s the antagonist, the aggressor, the one in the wrong.”

More from the Jewish Daily Forward here.