The Knesset Education and Culture Committee decided on Monday to summon Education Minister Yuli Tamir to answer questions about her decision to include Israel's pre-1967 border in textbook maps.

During the session, Kadima party and right-wing MKs lashed out at Tamir for her decision made two weeks ago to include the so-called Green Line border which excludes the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights from Israel.

National Religious Party Chairman MK Zevulun Orlev presented the committee with the 1967 Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee decision to remove the Green line -as well as the pre-1948 British Mandate border- from all but historical maps.

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"Tamir's decision is blatantly political," Orlev said. "It has no educational, instructive or scientific basis. As far back as 1967 the government decided that the Green Line had ceased to exist."

MKs Orlev and Ze'ev Alkin (Kadima) drafted a statement calling on the education minister to freeze her decision until a further discussion on the subject be held, but the committee chairman MK Michael Melchior (Labor-Meimad) decided to allow Tamir to respond before a vote was held on the announcement.

"It is not fair or proper to make a political decision without hearing from the minister who is accused of just such a decision," Melchior said.

Senior education ministry official, Professor Anat Zohar, said during the discussion that the green line has current relevance.

"When one is talking about the 'right of return' you need to know where the green line passes," Zohar said. "Students must be familiar with the term and must be put in the study guidelines when the subject committees deem it should."

The official in the education ministry's geography department, Dalia Fenig, said the subject's committee decided to "raise different issues ?like the Green Line, the Land of Israel or the settlement blocs- so that students can make informed decisions."

After the session MK Elkin said "I thought I'd get better explinations about the deicison but after hearing the education ministry representatives I left the session even more confused. It's a shame the education minister, who appeared in all the possible media channels to explain her intentions, did not find it appropriate to show at the committee and defend her decision."