Assessing People's Knowledge Of the Middle East

By Saleem Ahmed

Fewer than one-third of the people surveyed in Hawaii in recent years know that Israel was created as the result of a United Nations resolution rather than a referendum in Palestine. Others believe either that the UN held a referendum (56 percent of the respondents), or that Jews migrated to an uninhabited land and established Israel (26 percent), or that local people of the area voted to create Israel (16 percent). Similarly, most of the respondents believe that Jews were a majority in that general area even before Israel was created, that Palestinians are people from neighboring Arab countries, and that Christians and Muslims living in Israel do not suffer from any form of discrimination.

These findings are based upon responses received from 516 people I have informally surveyed in Honolulu during the past four years. Whenever I am invited to speak on the Middle East, I try to conduct a five-minute, five-question survey prior to the talk to assess the level of people's knowledge on some important historical developments in the Middle East. This serves two purposes. It increases people's interest in the talk. After all, we are always interested to know how "well" we did in any quiz in which we participated. Also, it startles people when they learn how ill-informed they have been. They begin to listen more carefully.

Fewer than one-third of the people surveyed in Hawaii in recent years know that Israel was created as the result of a United Nations partition rather than a referendum in Palestine. Similarly, most of the respondents believed that Jews were a majority in that general area even before Israel was created, and that the Palestinians are people from neighboring Arab countries. This misinformation need not continue.

The number of people I may have addressed during this period at schools, colleges, universities, churches, and at service organizations probably exceeds 2,000. However, it was not possible to conduct the survey on all occasions. At other times, people did not return the questionnaire. I suspect that many in the latter group may have had no knowledge at all.

For that reason, and because of the types of organizations which invited me to speak, it is safe to assume that many, or perhaps most, of the people I addressed are above the average educational and economic level of Hawaii's population. It is possible, therefore, that even higher percentages of the general population are uninformed about what has transpired in the Middle East over the years. Many people's knowledge of that area may be limited to what they learned in high school, which in itself may be inaccurate and, at best, be incomplete. Statements such as "after 3,000 years of wandering and suffering, Jews at last got back their homeland in 1948" abound. Generally, no mention is made of how this homeland was obtained, nor what happened to the local people as a result. The romanticizing of Israel's creation is reinforced by guilt feelings about the holocaust and what I believe to be misinterpretations of Biblical texts.

From this, non-Americans like myself can begin to understand what seems at first glance to be a stubborn American tendency to support Israelis, even when they are wrong, and an almost racist opposition to Arabs, even when they are right.

This situation, based more on lack of information than religious or ethnic prejudice, need not continue. Americans are basically a very fair-minded and objective people. They can be won over with education. Besides exposing Americans directly to other points of view, as in my talks, there are two other areas that are equally important for everyone concerned with creation of a better-informed image of the Middle East in US public opinion.

First, efforts to counter the pro-Israel bias of the media should continue. In many cases media people already do understand the facts. They have been intimidated, however, by readers and advertisers alert to complain and even threaten after any real or perceived slight to Israel, and the lack of any comparable reader or advertiser negative reaction to criticism of Arabs.

Second, pressure also needs to be applied at all local levels to correct inaccurate or incomplete information found in textbooks. Priority should be given to educating tomorrow's decision-makers. The response can be swift and gratifying. Fair-minded Americans can be mobilized speedily to support reasonable causes. For example, although we are far removed from the Middle East in Hawaii, in April 1984 we were able to obtain more than 300 signatures within a week on a petition requesting Hawaiian representatives in Congress not to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. A small step, perhaps, but also the beginning of a long journey.

Table 1. Hawaiian Audience Knowledge of Middle East History

Question % Respondents

1. Israel was created as an independent country in 1948. Prior to that, who, would you say, were the majority people living in that area?

a) Jews 74

b) Arabs 26*

2. What do you think happened to this majority people after Israel was created?

a) They became citizens of Israel and occupy a status higher than others 26

b) They became citizens of Israel and occupy a status equal to that of others who migrated there 37

c) They live in Israel as second-class citizens 17*

d) They voluntarily moved to other countries 5

e) They had to move to other countries for safety 13*

3. How do you think the state of Israel was created?

a) People living in that area before 1948 voted for it 16

b) The United Nations created Israel after holding a referendum there 56

c) The United Nations voted to partition Palestine between Jewish and Arab inhabitants without holding a referendum there 29*

d) Jews migrated to an uninhabited land and established Israel 26

4. From what you know, who are the Palestinians?

a) Majority people now living in Israel 4

b) Majority people who lived in that area before and who voluntarily moved to other countries after Israel was created 20

c) Majority people who lived in that area before but had to move to other countries for safety after Israel was created 20*

d) People who belong to neighboring Arab countries 54

e) Mercenaries from various parts of the world 10

5. From what you know, do the Christians and Muslims living in Israel suffer from any form of discrimination?

a) Yes 21*

b) No 79

(* the correct answers)

Dr. Saleem Ahmed is a Pakistani-born scientist working at the East-West Center in Hawaii