A blunder in a matric exam paper has caused outrage among political and religious organisations, who slammed it as a “blatant disregard” for the sensitivities surrounding the genocidal attacks on Palestine.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has now launched an investigation into how the term “Mandatory Palestine”, used to refer to the State of Palestine, ended up in the Grade 12 Mathematical Literacy Paper 1 exam.
Al Jama-ah party labelled it a deliberate act and called for harsh action to be taken against those responsible.
Party MP, Ganief Hendricks, says: “This is unacceptable and only demonstrates to what extent supporters of Zionism use opportunities to perpetuate their trash.”
The term was used in a currency conversion question, in which learners were asked to calculate the values of the South African rand and the new Israeli shekel.
The DBE on Tuesday said it was probing how the term got to be used in the paper.
The department says: “The DBE regrets the use of the term Mandatory Palestine, which certainly does not take cognisance of the rooted political sensitivities surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the DBE will put mechanisms in place to ensure that this unfortunate incident does not recur.”
ANC spokesperson for Education in the Western Cape, Khalid Sayed, said the party welcomed the investigation into the matter.
Sayed says: “Mandatory Palestine was a geographical entity established between 1920 and 1948 following the end of World War I, when the League of Nations granted the UK a mandate to administer the territory.
“The inclusion of such terminology within an educational context is highly inappropriate and reflects a lack of consideration for the suffering of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli apartheid state.”
The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) adds: “We demand that those responsible apologise and be reprimanded and educated about the brutal history of Palestine under Israeli occupation for the past 75 years.”
francesca.villette@inl.co.za