The Representation of 'Others' in Israeli Schoolbooks : A Multimodal Analysis

The article uses social semiotic methods of inquiry and multimodal tools of analysis in order to analyse the multimodal texts of Israeli textbooks in the school subjects of History, Geography and Civics. The article's argument is that both non-Jewish 'minorities' and Jewish 'ethnicities' are represented, both verbally and visually, in a racist manner, as stereotypes and not as individuals. Palestinian citizens and those who live under a military regime in the Palestinian occupied territories are presented – if at all - as vile, primitive and dangerous. Jewish 'ethnicities', which include mainly Arab-Jews and Ethiopian Jews, are represented in an 'anthropological' way, mostly as under-developed 'sector'. Both groups are culturally and socially marginalized in textbooks as they are marginalized in Israeli society. The multimodal analysis allows a unified perception of this representation, which reveals ideological undertones and interests.