Becoming a Citizen: Civic Studies in Israel through the 'Cultural Filter' Prism

My research focuses on the analysis of perceptions and mis-perceptions shown in Israeli Civic studies textbooks towards Europe, the EU and the Union's member states. The Israeli Civic Studies Textbook and Curricula are at the heart of a public dispute for the past six years. Not in vain so much importance is attached to civics studies textbooks. Textbooks in general and civic studies textbooks, in particular, are a significant socialization agent in the "citizenship process" in democratic countries. My study examines the way to deepen the discourse on the "Cultural Filter", a theoretical framework that was developed by Catarina Kinnvall in 1995, which was later used by Ian Manners in his 2002 groundbreaking research titled: "Normative power Europe (NPE): a contradiction in terms". The main hypothesis of this paper is that the Israeli Civic Studies textbooks, are being used as "Cultural Filter" that affect Israeli High School students' national identity, not only on the local level, but towards Europe, categorizing certain democratic values as "European Values", thus compiling an artificial connection between the Jewish character of the state of Israel and Democracy, while relying on a European model of both. The main contribution of this Paper is both empirical and theoretical. Regarding the empirical contribution, there was no current study in a European context on the new Civic studies textbook (2016), and a comparative study like this one will contribute to the lack of empirical data. The most significant contribution will be the theoretical one. This research will be the first of its kind in Israel, studying the local "Cultural Filter" in the context of the NPE theory. The research will be conducted in two stages. The first (which is almost completed) is the mapping and analysing of the 2001 and 2016 civic studies textbooks, emphasising European references (countries, cities and personas) while also addressing European related references (The Holocaust, Anti-Semitism, Nazism, Fascism etc.). The second stage will be semi-structured interviews with relevant personas like Knesset Members, Former and current ministry of education employees etc. My findings show that the 2016 textbook is shifting from the ideological line projected in the 2001 book, and thus corroborating my initial hypothesis that the 2016 textbook is an apologetic text, which uses the "cultural filter" to justify Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. In addition, my research found that the book is using an elastic definition of Europe (as a normative concept), mostly for the apologetics purposes I mentioned. This research contains a unique combination of a case study which is THE hottest potato in Israel and an innovative theoretical framework that can shed light on one of the most interesting topics in European Studies today.