The purpose of this study has been to examine how the Israel-Palestine conflict has been conveyed in history textbooks intended for upper secondary school during the period 1956–2017. The focus has also been on identifying which perspectives and identities are revealed in connection with the history textbooks descriptions of the conflict. This study has a historical cultural approach and has been conducted through a qualitative content analysis. The analysis has also been specified by applying research on identity transmission in history textbooks, and has used Jörn Rüsen’s narrative typology, which consists of four narrative categories.

This study shows that there have been changes over time in how the Israel-Palestine conflict is mediated. Until the early 1970s history textbooks were dominated by content that primarily conveyed a great power perspective that focused on portraying the perspectives of Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union. These perspectives can be identified in all textbooks during the entire analysis period. But during the 1970s and onwards, other perspectives began to become visible in the text textbooks, for example a Jewish, Palestinian, and Arab perspective. The study has also shown that the content of the textbooks tends to convey certain perspectives more than others. For example by either focusing on portraying the perspective of Israel or the Palestinians. Furthermore, has this study discovered that in connection with the description ofthe Israel-Palestine conflict, it is possible to identify different identities. In connection with the changing perspectives in the textbooks during the 1970s the Jewish and Palestinian identity becomes more prominent and portrayed in a more multifaceted way. Other identities such as an Arab and European identity can also be made visible in some textbooks. However, not the Christian identity. Some of these identities are based in different memory cultures, where the historical suffering of different groups is highlighted as a unifying factor. This study has shown that these identities tend to be linked to national, geographical, ethnic, or religious contexts.