Abstract:
This research seeks to identify and analyze features of maps in Israeli curricula and academia to analyze the potential for maps to produce certain narratives. The paper will recommend amendments to certain functions of geography and cartography in the education systems that are antithetical to general notions of peacemaking. The methods of analysis will employ toponymyic, color related and border related frames that seem to be used as agents of narrative production on maps. The research relies heavily on theories of conflict relating to productions of geography. These theories represent differing takes on the role maps play in society and in conflict. While there may be many examples of maps creating conflict, this research seeks to reject the notion espoused by postmodernists and realists alike: the argument that geography and maps operate as harbingers of conflict. Could this weapon be whittled into an olive branch if utilized appropriately? This research seeks to demonstrate that if we rethink the way we draw maps in conflict zones, this could play a constructive role on conflict resolution.
