the israeli incorporation regime89 spheres of Israeli society.93 This severely discriminates against PalestinianArabs as it impedes their ability to participate in political, social and cultural activities on an equal basis with Israeli Jews. Budgetary discrimination against the Arab community fuels the unequal distribution of resources to Arab and Jewish localities, thus furthering the limited economic development of the Arabs in Israel (Ghanem 1998, 429, 435). In the education sector, Palestinian-Arabs are denied participation in setting educational directions, subjected to discriminatory allocation of state funding and educational resources, and are severely underrepresented in policy-making positions in the Israeli Ministry of Education. Systematic, structural, and institutionalized discrimination hampers the ability of Palestinian students in Israeli state-run schools to participate and contribute politically, socially, culturally, and economically. An analysis of illiteracy rates in Israel according to ethnicity and gender indicates that the Palestinian-Arab population has higher percentage of illiteracy than the national average on both counts.94 In fact, in 2008, around 13.4 percent of Arab women were considered illiterate, relative to 3.4 percent of Jewish women, and 5.5 percent of Arab men were illiterate compared to only 1.9 percent of Jewish men.95 Further, the Israeli education system is based on The State Education Law (1953). Amended in February 2000, this law sets educational objectives for state schools that emphasize Jewish history and culture. Stated in Article 2 of the law, the education system seeks primarily to advance the understanding of Zionist ideology and preserve the Jewish nature of the state by teaching its history, culture and language.96 This deficient educational focus is also framed by a deficient educational structure. While Arab schools have a separate curriculum, it is designed and overseen by the Israeli Minister of Education. Within this ministry, Arabs account for only 6.2 percent of the total number of employees and, consequently, there are 93 In fact, the previous eighteenth Knesset, was looking at a draft bill which proposes the removal of Arabic as an official language in Israel. This initiative requires a rescission of a British-Mandate era law in Palestine from 1922 that which adopted Arabic, Hebrew and English as official languages. 94 For a thorough account and up-to-date statistics on the state of Arab education in Israel, see Katie Hesketh and Sawsan Zaher, “New Data on Educational Access/Attainment of Arab Students in Israel,” Adalah’s Newsletter 63 (August 2009), http://www.adalah.org/ features/education/New_Data_on_Education_August_2009.pdf. 95 Ibid. 96 Khaled Abu-Asbeh, “Arab Education in Israel: Between the Discourse of Struggling Identity and Low Achievement,” Adalah’s Newsletter 63 (August 2009), http://www.adalah .org/features/education/Arab_Education_in_Israel_English_for_Khaled_FINAL.pdf.