MIDDLE EAST:Absurd. Wretched. Defeatist. Bankrupt. Anti-Zionist. These are just some of the expletives that right-wing Israeli political leaders have been levelling this week at the decision by the education minister, Yuli Tamir, to approve use of a textbook in the state's Arab schools that includes a reference to the Palestinian view of the founding of the Jewish state as a "catastrophe".
The textbook uses the word "nakba", which is Arabic for catastrophe. It is the term Palestinians use to describe the founding of Israel in 1948, in a war that resulted in 700,000 Arabs either fleeing or being expelled from their homes.
"The Arabs call the war the nakba, a war of catastrophe, loss and humiliation, and the Jews call it the Independence War," reads the controversial passage in the new edition, which will be used for third-grade Arab students.
The book also contains the Jewish narrative on the establishment of the state of Israel, but the use of the term nakba has long been considered a taboo by many Israeli Jews, who fear that it could undermine their narrative.
That was the view of incensed right-wing politicians, who demanded Ms Tamir's resignation, insisting that the textbook would legitimise debate over the Jewish state's right to exist.
"Shall we inject Arab propaganda into our schools with our own hands?" asked Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of the centre-right Likud party.
Zevulun Orlev, a lawmaker for the hardline National Union Party, called the decision "anti-Zionist" and said it risked spurring a revolt by the country's 1.2 million Arab citizens.
"We lend legitimacy to Arabs seeing our independence as their disaster. How then can we teach the same pupil to be a loyal citizen?"
Strategic affairs minister Avigdor Lieberman said the decision to use the textbook reflected "the masochism and defeatism of the Israeli left".
Ms Tamir, a member of the centre-left Labour Party, was unbowed, arguing that too many Israelis have shut their eyes for too long to the issue. "We have a complex history of two peoples engaged in a struggle and it's time to give the story of this struggle its proper treatment. It will generate debate in the schools and will only contribute to Israeli children's learning about the need to live with one another.
"The Arab public deserves having us give expression to its feelings as well."