ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how Palestine was framed as a concept and teaching object in the period after Oslo. It examines an organisation born out of the Oslo peace process, IPCRI (Israeli/Palestinian Centre for Research and Information), and the way IPCRI analyses and criticises Palestinian textbooks, allegedly in an attempt to contribute to a more solid peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The chapter claims that deconstruction of the analysis exposes the weakness and incompatibility of the Oslo process with the ideas of peace and reconciliation. Drawing on Foucault’s deconstruction of the relationship between power and knowledge this explores two different perceptions of power at play. The power of education over politics appears as a perception held by those criticising Palestinian text books, and the power of politics over education is imposed indirectly through a discourse of peace and democracy, which denies the right for a Palestinian narrative in the name of two noble ideals of peace and reconciliation.
