Palestinian education curricula have long been of interest to scholars of Palestinian identity and nationalist consciousness. They rightly note that during the British Mandate period (1917-1947) Palestinians perceived these curricula as undermining their history and identity. Few scholars, however, have looked at the transition from British to Israeli educational policy for Palestinians. My paper examines this transition, and argues that the ideologies, motivations, and in many cases, the outcomes, of Israeli educational policy closely resembled those of the British during the Mandate. I also examine how the political and ideological motives of the British and Israeli education administrators affected Palestinian curricula. The development of events in the political area during both the British and Israeli administrations significantly influenced their treatment of identity and history in public schools for Palestinians. Using primary and secondary records, and including history textbooks, I argue that both British and Israeli educational policies were first and foremost motivated by a similar concern: that the inclusion of histories which highlighted a uniquely Palestinian identity might lead to a rise in Palestinian consciousness and, in turn, opposition to British and Israeli rule in Palestine. In response to administrational efforts to marginalize, replace, and deny any historical traditions that reinforced the collective identity of Palestinians that was produced by their shared historical traditions, Palestinians persistently demanded the inclusion of these histories in both periods. Repression of the development of Palestinian nationalist consciousness in the classroom did not prevent its expression elsewhere. As such, I argue that the marginalization of Palestinian historical narratives in the educational curricula of both periods only encouraged their articulation in other venues. Understanding Palestinian curricula as the object of a manipulative policy that was carried from the British Mandate period to the Israeli administration further adds weight to the debate on Palestinian identity and its development in the modern period.