Palestinians in Israel by allowing only a Zionist narrative in the Palestinians’ school books.224 This can be seen as part of Israel’s overall policy of discrimination and exclusion towards the Palestinian citizens of that state which is in place since its creation. The legal and political mechanisms of systematic exclusion goes hand in hand with the public rhetoric of Israeli official and their stated desire to further exclude Palestinian citizens of Israel. Palestinian citizens of Israel became stateless citizens or ‘Present-Absentees’. Although the latter was originally bureaucratically coined to refer to Palestinian internal refugees within Israel, it is an accurate representation of wider Palestinian existence in Israel whereby “the land on which they live is their homeland, but the dominant culture is not their culture and the country is not their country”.225 Israel applies a policy of minimal fairness towards the Palestinians who are not inclined to leave voluntarily in parallel with privileging Jewish migration into Israel.226 In other words, a policy with the purpose of altering the demographic composition of Israel. According to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities of the former Commission on Human Rights, “… the effect or purpose of altering the demographic composition of a territory, particularly when that ideology or policy asserts the dominance of a certain group over another,”227 constitutes a crucial element of forced population transfer. Restrictions on the Right to Religious Freedom Article 18 (1) of the ICCPR states that everyone shall have the right to freedom of religion, including the freedom to manifest ones religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.228 Article 4 (2) of the same covenant stresses the importance of the freedom of religion, as it emphasizes that, not even in times of public emergencies or war, is derogation from Article 224 See Nasouh Nazzal, “Israel imposes curriculum changes: including Jewish Holocaush while ignoring Nakba”, Gulf News, 13 April 2015. Available at: http://gulfnews.com/news/mena/palestine/israelimposes-curriculum-changes-including-jewish-holocaust-while-ignoring-nakba-1.1491185; and Harriet Sherwood, “Academic claims Israeli school textbooks contain bias”, The Guardian, 7 August 2011. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/07/israeli-school-racism-claim 225 Yasir Suleiman and Ibrahim Muhawi, eds., Literature and Nation in the Middle East (Edinburgh University Press, 2006), 34. 226 See BADIl Resource Center, “Denial of Residency”. Available at: http://www.badil.org/ phocadownloadpap/Badil_docs/publications/wp16-Residency.pdf. 227 Al-Khawasneh and Hatano, The Human Rights Dimensions of Population Transfer Including the Implantation of Settlers, Preliminary Report Prepared for Commission on Human Rights SubCommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, Forty-Fifth Session, 27–32. 228 UN General Assembly, “International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”, 16 December 1966. Available at: https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20999/volume-999-I-14668English.pdf 61