Detailed information at the first link for those who want a peek at the current educational system. Yes, the gunman is superimposed over the word UNWRA in Arabic, and that's the UN/UNWRA logo at the top.
Palestinian Schoolbooks: An Overview
The Argument in Brief
Our research has led us to 5 distinct and sad messages:
Palestinian children are forced to learn from inflammatory material, much of it containing hidden and/or violent directives. This is an abuse of their basic student rights, as laid down by UNESCO.
It is evident that the texts are designed not to include the name of Israel. When this rule is breached, Israel is only referred to in a negative context. Any connection between Jews and the Holyland is denied emphatically.
The result is that the Palestinian children are encouraged to hate their neighbors. This culture not only fans the flames of violence; it significantly reduces the chances for peace among the next generation.
These books are funded by foreign governments and respected international agencies; in particular Belgium, Italy and UNESCO.
The institutions of the United Nations, in particular UNESCO and UNRWA, are clearly providing services, which only deepen the fostering hatred directed at Israel. There seems to be a general consensus among observers that international funding and the influence that theoretically accompanies it has led to an overall improvement in the education of Palestinian Arab children over the past few years. The baser and more obvious forms of anti-Semitism and anti-Christianity have been expunged but the schoolbooks are still very far from perfect, as is the overall quality of the educational message.
Points to Consider
Our message is that the international community in general, and the European entities mentioned here, along with UNESCO, must make a 180 degree turn. They must require that the Palestinian Arab authorities immediately cease the negative education they have created and need to demand that their aid money be used for positive, peace-directed purposes.
The current substandard material took a considerable time and effort to produce, so we can presume that it is here to stay for at least the current generation.
Blatantly anti-Semitic and anti-Christian materials from previous books are being replaced over time. However even assuming such material has entirely erased (which is plainly untrue) the current material is substandard and worse, and contains themes which repeat themselves in all the books we have examined. Details here.
The key to peace is a change of attitudes - and that starts with education. Several reports exist which show serious deficiencies in the Palestinian Arab education system - a system significantly funded by the international community.
Much has already been written about official sanction of, and incitement to, terror in Palestinian Arab society, starting with the PA and the religious leadership of Palestinian Arab society. But for the purpose of this website, our focus is on the educational core - the teaching materials.
The problem is a serious one, directly affecting people's lives and causing people's deaths. The international community has a role to play. From experience, we know that the role of outsiders can be either positive or negative. Understanding how to get to a desirable result and avoid a tragic one requires that a discerning observer examine the results of international funding and support of Palestinian Arab education.
International bodies and public money are deeply engaged in this process today. To illustrate; UNRWA operates schools and teacher education institutions; European countries and UNESCO have been involved in rewriting textbooks; the European Commission regularly lists education (amongst other items) as among the most important applications of its aid funds to the Palestinian Authority. Here we try to evaluate what all of this support has produced.
Looking at the issue of schoolbooks alone, funding by the international community is at best benign. But on closer examination it is actually detrimental to any hope of future peace. More.
In particular, while the replacement of schoolbooks, funded partially by Europeans, avoids the gross and more odious anti-Semitism of the past, the new generation schoolbooks which have come along to replace them are extremely problematic. They support the Palestinian Authority's mantra of a "Judenrein" Middle East and explicitly deny the historical connection -- indeed any legitimate connection -- of the Jews with the Holy Land. They deny the right of Israel to exist. Astonishingly, they even ignore and deny the existence of the State of Israel as an existing political entity.
UNRWA, wittingly or unwittingly, trains teachers to perpetuate the war against Israeli civilians. Their message denies and negates any rights or any historical connection of the Jews in the Holyland. The outcome of this process is exemplified by a scrapbook project glorifying terrorist "martyrs" found in a UNRWA school.
The EU funds teachers' salaries - so it makes sense to look at what the teachers are doing, and not only at what the schoolbooks are saying. The teaching materials themselves are an important dimension of the problem, but the role of teachers is no less important. What is the narrative that accompanies their teaching?
The PA itself, in internal correspondence documents captured by Israeli forces, complains that operatives of Hamas have grabbed control of the education system and are directly influencing the children with what we would regard as their poisonous outlook. The results are appalling. See the evidence in this report. (Requires Abobe Reader.)
Then there is the tragic problem of the idealization of terror among impressionable Palestinian youngsters. Palestinian children are taught to idealize terror. Some will inevitably become martyrs as a result just as surely as a society which idolizes and idealizes footballers will produce more players. The success of this appalling effort depends on Israel first being delegitimized - and this, we argue, is a central task of the Palestinian Arab education system today.
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Planting seeds of the next war: The Truth about the Palestinian schoolbooks
Jerusalem Post Editorial, June 29, 2003.
by Itamar Marcus, director PMW
Introduction:
One of the most meaningful gauges of the integrity of a peace process and its likelihood for success is the degree to which the “peace partners” educate towards peace. It is for this reason that the entire Palestinian Authority (PA) education apparatus, both formal and informal, has been such a dismal disappointment. Instead of seizing the opportunity to educate the future generations to live with Israel in peace, the PA has done everything in its power to teach hatred to young minds.
Making matters worse, the Palestinian Authority has been spreading two clever lies about the schoolbooks that have succeeded in deflecting international pressure for change. This week, at a meeting in Jordan, Nebil Shaath answered Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom’s complaint about the schoolbooks saying that the PA has “spent five years” rewriting the books, implying that they are now proper. Then he added, that Israel used the same old Jordanian books for educating the local Arab population “for 30 years”, and therefore has no valid complaint to the PA. Many European governments, and many Israelis, have come to the PA’s defense, citing these and other arguments.
The truth about the PA schoolbooks is first, that both new and old are far from proper - both include anti-Semitism, de-legitimize Israel’s existence and incite to hatred and violence. In the new 6th grade book “Reading the Koran”, anti-Semitism is presented openly, as children read about Allah’s warning to the Jews that because of their evil Allah will kill them: “...Oh you who are Jews ...long for death if you are truthful... for the death from which you flee, that will surely overtake you ...”In other sections they learn of Jews being expelled from their homes by Allah, and in another Jews are said to be like donkeys: “Those [Jews] who were charged with the Torah, but did not observe it, are like a donkey carrying books...” [Reading the Koran, grade 6. p.20, 23, 78]. This religious based anti-Semitism is the most dangerous, as children are taught that hating Jews is God’s choice. And while Islam is not being critiqued, it is very grave that although Islam has positive traditions regarding Jews, the PA educators chose to incorporate only hateful religious traditions.
The new PA schoolbooks that Shaath was so positive about, also teach that Israel has no right to exist, de-legitimizing Israel as a foreign occupier, compared to colonial Britain: “Colonialism: Palestine faced the British occupation after the First World War in 1917, and the Israeli occupation in 1948 …”[National Education, sixth grade, p. 16]. Since all of Israel is said to be an “occupation”, all of Israel’s cities, regions and natural resources are presented as being part of “Palestine”. For example: “Among the famous rocks of southern Palestine are the rocks of Beersheba and the Negev” and “Palestine’s Water Sources - ... The most important is the Sea of Galilee.” [Our Beautiful Language, grade 6, Part A, p. 64, National Education, sixth grade, p. 9-10]
The Negev, Beersheba and the Sea of Galilee are in Israel and do not border the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria. Yet PA children are taught these are “Palestine”. Continuing this ideology a book is citing dedicated to “...Palestinians, so that they would remember their stolen homeland and work for its salvation...”[Our Beautiful Language, sixth grade, Part A, p. 112] and it is referring, not to the disputed territories, but Israel pre 1967.
Educating not to recognize Israel’s existence is cemented through tens of maps in the schoolbooks in which “Palestine” encompass all of Israel. Israel does not exist on any map, within any borders. The PA defense of their schoolbook map, that since there are no final borders the map is not portraying modern “Palestine” but “Mandatory Palestine”, is an insult to our intelligence. Are we expected to believe that when Palestinian children see the map called “Palestine” in all their schoolbooks they imagine Britain a half a century ago? And when Beersheba is called Palestine, the children are picturing Biblical history?
Another new book teaches what must be done for “occupied Palestine” and the “stolen homeland”: “Islam encourages this [love of homeland] and established the defense of it as an obligatory commandment for every Muslim if even a centimeter of his land is stolen. "I, a Palestinian Muslim, love my country Palestine...” [Islamic Education, sixth grade, Part A, p. 68]
The complete and total message Palestinian children are taught is that Jews, according to Allah, are like donkeys; Israel is a colonial occupier who stole their land; the cities, lakes and deserts of Israel are “occupied Palestine”; and they, the children, have an obligation to liberate it “even if a centimeter is stolen”.
All the above messages are found in new schoolbooks written and published by the PA since 2000. The first claim that new PA books are “proper” is flagrantly untrue. However, the majority of the books still in use by the PA schools are books they republish under the symbol of their own Ministry of Education, that were written by Jordan. These books include the following hate promotion: “One must beware of the Jews, for they are treacherous and disloyal.” [Islamic Education for Ninth Grade p. 79, these and below from CMIP report] “I learn from this lesson: I believe that the Jews are the enemies of the Prophets and the believers.”[Islamic Education, Part Two, for Fourth Grade p. 67] “Remember: “The final and inevitable result will be the victory of the Muslims over the Jews.” [Our Arabic Language for Fifth Grade p. 67] “The clearest examples of racist belief and racial discrimination in the world are Nazism and Zionism. “ [The New History of the Arabs and the World, P. 123]
The second great PA lie expressed by Shaath this week, that Israel used these same old books, is particularly resourceful, as the best lies include a grain of truth. Indeed, Israel did use Jordanian books to educate the local Arab population. However, Israel reprinted the books without the hate education. In fact, Jordan registered a complaint to the UN charging that Israel’s changing the schoolbooks was a violation of international law, but the UN checked what Israel had done and approved it. The PA has put back into the old Jordanian education all the hate education that Israel had removed.
Moreover, as early as three years ago foreign governments offered money to the PA to reprint these old books without the hateful material. The PA turned down the money and refused to reprint them using a variety of arguments, the first of which was: “Don’t get involved in our education - it is our Palestinian heritage.” These hateful Jordanian books are republished today unedited by the PA by choice and the PA must stop passing responsibility onto others for the hate content.
Finally it should be stressed that all the books cited here were written during the most optimistic periods of the peace process, before the violence began in September 2000. They are not a reflection of the war, but were a great contributing factor to the war. The ongoing attempts to defend PA schoolbooks are tragic, as the PA is using these arguments to justify their indefensible hate education, and to refuse to improve their books. The PA is planting the seeds of the next war in their youth, and the defenders of PA hate education, including Israelis, are nurturing those seeds of war.
Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, [www.pmw.org.il] was Israel’s representative to the Tri Lateral [Israeli-Palestinian- American] Anti- Incitement Committee.