Paper Title
The Presence of the Other in Arabic Textbooks in the Elementary Schools in Middle East

Abstract
There is a huge significance in getting to know the other in elementary school textbooks. The other who is different from us, in terms of race, religion, color, and culture. There is a need to open up to the other, and adopt some of his culture to teach to our kids. this study plans on examining around 50 Arabic textbooks made for elementary pupils, from various Arab countries in the middle East, examining their cultural features from various aspects, such as counting the amount of texts that contain the theme of the other, and noticing in which specific grades this phenomenon is increasing or decreasing. Other aspects include different types of texts and most popular topics and subjects in these texts. In addition to that, the study seeks to explore which foreign cultures are the most popular in Arabic textbooks, and offering explanations for it. The Preliminary results of the study reveal that few Arab countries encouraged the idea of opening up to the other, in their textbooks. It's also worth mentioning that Arabic texts in Arab countries tend to be more traditional, however in Israel and the Palestinian authority. There appears to be an increase in the inclusion of foreign cultures in textbooks, most of which are Western cultures such as America and Europe, in various fields such as sports, inventions, science and religious events, including eastern cultures such as Chinese, Japanese, and Indian. Keywords - The other, Textbooks, Arabic Language, Elementary Schools, Middle East.