Handala’s Return: A Children’s Story and Workbook 

The "Handala’s Return” workbook and story’s only coverage of the historical background to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is contained in two short comic strips (5 pages out of the 28 total) which omit any information on the history of the region or the origins of the current conflict. The deliberate omission of additional historical facts results in an inaccurate and one-sided portrayal of the conflict in which Israel subjugates and oppresses the powerless Palestinian people. For example:

• The workbook omits any background on the origins of the modern conflict, instead summarizing decades of history in a single accusatory sentence on page 9: “A group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land so they stole it by force and hurt many people.” This sentence minimizes a complex and multifaceted conflict into something presented as a simple binary of bullies and bullied.
  • In order to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the wider Arab-Israeli conflict, students need to understand:
    • Jewish nationalism (Zionism) — the belief in the right of Jewish people to a sovereign state in their ancestral homeland or simply Israel’s right to exist.
    • Arab and Palestinian nationalism.
    • And the series of events that led up to the founding of the State of Israel, including the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, British control over the region, and the United Nations vote to partition the land into independent Jewish and Arab states.
  • Without this foundational knowledge, students cannot develop an accurate and nuanced understanding of this complicated history, the competing claims, and the ongoing conflict. The conflict cannot and should not be presented in a single sentence.
• Several sections of the workbook establish the relationship between Palestinians and the region which today contains Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, the first explicit example coming on page 6. However, the workbook makes no mention of the 4,000-year-old Jewish connection to the region or the continuous Jewish community which dwelt there through several expulsions and into the modern day. This omission deliberately minimizes the Jewish claim to the land of Israel and perpetuates the misconception that the Jewish people are “colonizers” in a land that is not their own. 

It is important that educational materials, particularly those about complex and multifaceted conflicts, present information without bias towards one party alone. “Handala’s Return” not only omits historical fact for the purposes of communicating a specific narrative, but also the workbook and story deliberately depict Israel and the people who support its right to exist as evil bullies.

• Without historical context, "Handala’s Return” depicts the conflict as one-sided, with Palestinians as the innocent victims of unprovoked aggression from “Zionists”--i.e. Jews-- who stole their land. This gives students the impression that Israel and those who support its right to exist should be morally condemned. These language choices also imply one side is “good” (Palestinian) while the other is “bad” (Israeli), which avoids exploring the deeper complexities to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• The narration claims on page 16 that “children like [Handala] keep having their homes taken by the Zionist bullies. They are always scaring them and arresting them.” This is the only detail presented to students about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict post-1948. The use of the terms “Zionist bullies” serves only to demonize an entire group of people – Jews --and simplifies an incredibly complex history. While the term “bully” is age-appropriate for an elementary school-aged child to understand, the connotation of it implies a power-imbalance and villainous nature, which only serves to demonize Israelis.
  • Additionally, the claim inaccurately implies that children are specifically targeted in the conflict.
• The purpose of such statements is not to teach history. If it were, "Handala’s Return” would mention Palestinian violence against Israelis as well as multiple attempts at peace negotiations. Instead, it encourages students to believe that one side is righteous and the other evil and illegitimate. As history educators know, the history of this conflict is much more nuanced and must be presented as such. 

Instructional materials in public schools should provide students with historical information to help them think critically about current events, without imposing an agenda or opinion. “Handala’s Return” fails in this regard, instead encouraging students to engage in one-sided political activism and to embrace an ideology that calls for the elimination of the State of Israel.

• In multiple instances, the workbook uses the phrase “Free Palestine.” While the phrase "Free Palestine" on its own is not considered to be antisemitic, its use in specific contexts (like this one) can be. The map on page 25 reveals what this innocuous-sounding phrase really means to the authors: it labels the entire region–including Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza–as “Palestine.” The implication is clear: the establishment of a Palestinian state in place of the Jewish state of Israel.
• The workbook explicitly encourages students to engage in partisan activism. An activity on page 18 asks students to fill in the blank after statements like: “I will write a letter to,” “I will raise funds for the children of Palestine by,” “I will chant this at a Palestine protest,” etc. These asks are not appropriate for elementary school-aged children to be engaging in while in a school setting—they encourage activism (and solicit monetary commitment) rather than educate on a topic.

Instructional materials in public school classrooms should not be used to promulgate one-sided political perspectives, much less explicitly encourage students to engage in partisan protests that they are too young to comprehend.