Education Minister Yuli Tamir announced Sunday that the ministry has approved a school text describing the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 as 'Nakba', or catastrophe, for use in Israeli Arab schools.

"The Arab public deserves to be allowed to express its feelings," Tamir told Israel Radio.

In an unprecedented move, the ministry approved a text for third grade children that refers to the events of 1948 as catastrophic, saying Arab citizens were expelled from their homes and became refugees after their lands were confiscated by Israel.

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The book also emphasizes that Arabs rejected the United Nations partition plan, calling for the division of the territory between Arabs and Jews, which it says the Jews were prepared to accept.

Tamir informed the Knesset of the Education Ministry's decision on Sunday. Arab factions welcomed the initiative and called for the publication of the same version in Jewish school texts.

"The majority must not be allowed to exist inside its own narrative bubble and deny the existence of other views," said MK Ahmed Tibi of Ra'am Ta'al. MK Hana Sawid of Hadash hailed the move as a positive step towards boosting the Arab community's faith in the education system. He called on Tamir to include classical Arabic poetry in the Jewish school curriculum.

In an interview with Army Radio, Yisrael Beitenu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman slammed the move, calling it an example of the Israeli left wing's "political masochism." Knesset State Control Committee Chairman Zevulun Orlev demanded that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert fire Tamir immediately.