Palestinian textbooks
Encyclopedia
Various research institutions have carried out studies into the representation of Israeli Jews and the State of Israel within school textbooks published in the Palestinian territories
, by the Palestinian Authority.
The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem commissioned studies from the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI). In Europe the Georg Eckert Institute performed research. The Hebrew University's Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace has also published papers on this issue. A U.S. Senate subcommittee and the Political Committee of the European Parliament
have both held hearings about Palestinian textbooks.
's ongoing research on how textbooks, exams, and other official course material in the Middle East portray the "Other" concluded in a 2011 report that Palestinian textbooks portray Jews and Israelis in a negative manner.
published 29 new textbooks for the fifth and tenth grades. According to 2006 study by Noa Meridor, a researcher in the Israel Defense Ministry's office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories
, the new Palestinian curriculum "shows a continuing denial of the State of Israel's right to exist
and a continuing cultivation of the values of armed struggle against Israel. The books contain incitement against the State of Israel and the Zionist movement, one of them even employing anti-Semitism."
Among the examples listed in the study:
(PMW) released a report entitled "From Nationalist Battle to Religious Conflict: New 12th Grade Palestinian Textbooks Present a World Without Israel" containing analysis of eight textbooks published by the PA at the end of 2006. The US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
joined with PMW for the release of the report written by PMW director Itamar Marcus and associate director Barbara Crook. Sen. Clinton said that the books, which she called "child abuse" and the "glorification of death and violence", caused her to express skepticism about whether Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas
could be a fair partner for peace.
The Grade 12 texts analyzed in the PMW report are the most recent books to be written by the Palestinian Curriculum Development Center. The director of the curriculum committee, Dr. Naim Abu Al-Humos, is a long-time member of the Fatah party and was appointed PA Minister of Higher Education in 2002, under Yasser Arafat, and continued after PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's election.
The report states, in part:
. In addition, the report describes the Islamic World and the United States as being involved in a "Clash of Civilizations" and describes the Iraqi Insurgency
as being engaged in "brave resistance to liberate Iraq".
Senator Clinton said:
Senator Clinton joined with Elie Wiesel
to speak out about anti-Israel sentiments and antisemitic content in Palestinian textbooks in September 2000. In June 2001, she joined with Senator Charles Schumer
to speak out again on the issue, sending a letter to President Bush urging him to make clear to Yasser Arafat that peace is not possible without a full and immediate cessation of the Palestinian Authority's hateful rhetoric and urging that funding be contingent on the cessation of such incitement. In October 2003, she joined the Senate Labor, HHS and Education Appropriations Sub-committee hearing on Palestinian textbooks and other media that glorifies violence and martyrdom.
, Democrat
member of United States House of Representatives
Peter Deutsch
and other Congressmembers directed the State Department to ask UNRWA to investigate evidence that school books used in UNRWA-run schools in the West Bank
and Gaza
contained anti-Semitic
statements. The allegations surfaced in reports compiled by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, an NGO, which had claimed that the books contained statements such as "Treachery and disloyalty are character traits of the Jews and one should be aware of them". In January 1999, the State Department reported that "The methodologies employed by UNRWA make it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the extent of anti-Semitic content in host authority textbooks used in UNRWA schools. At the same time, UNRWA's review did reveal instances of anti-Semitic characterizations and content in those host authority texts."
, published a study on this subject. Regarding the Palestinian Authority's newer textbooks, he states:
claimed these reports of incitement in Palestinian textbooks were exaggerated and false and had a detrimental effect on funding for new Palestinian textbooks.
, a member of the German delegation to the European Union
Parliament threatened halting EU funding of Palestinian educational institutions "…until all the Palestinian textbook passages antagonistic to Israel are removed." Particular examples of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic indoctrination found in the textbooks includes an Islamic high school text that warns students to be wary of Jews as they are "…deceitful and disloyal." Another textbook stated that European anti-Semitism was caused by Jewish greed and fanaticism. Other examples led Francois Zimeray, a French socialist, to state that there is "…substantial proof that EU funding has wrongly been used to finance school textbooks promoting hatred and inciting to martyrdom.
The PA response was delivered by Peter Hansen
, at the time the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, gave the response for the PA in the daily Al-Hayat al-Jadida
: "We cannot expect a people under occupation to have textbooks which idealize, praise and express love for their occupiers." This statement caused outrage and fury among many circles. The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise
answered to his response: "Israeli texts do not 'idealize, praise and express love' for the Palestinians, but they do not malign or disseminate hatred against them either."
While the PA deputy minister for education denied that books with these statements were used in the schools, Yasser Arafat
did confirm their usage. Arafat excused their use claiming that these were old Jordanian textbooks and that the PA lacked sufficient funding to replace them with more modern ones. To this claim, Laschet responded that as the EU was donating 300 million Euros to the PA, that the PA "…certainly can bear the cost of publishing new textbooks."
Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
and Sami Adwan, a professor of education at Bethlehem University
in Bethlehem
compared Palestinian and Israeli textbooks in 2002. Of the Palestinian textbooks they found that "According to the everyday experience of Palestinians, modern-day Israelis are presented as occupiers. The texts include examples of Israelis killing and imprisoning Palestinians, demolishing their homes, uprooting fruit trees, and confiscating their lands and building settlements on them. The texts also talk about the right of return for the 1948 Palestinian refugees when describing how those refugees live in camps." The Israeli textbooks, are generally presented without the national-political debate." Their 2004 study of 13 Israeli textbooks and 9 Palestinian textbooks found that "neither side's books tell the story of the conflict from the other's viewpoint, both ignore the other side's suffering and each counts only its only victims."
requested the United States Department of State
to commission a reputable non-governmental organization
(NGO) to conduct a review of the new Palestinian curriculum. The Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI) was thereby commissioned by the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv
and the US Consul General in Jerusalem to review the Palestinian Authority's textbooks. Its report, completed in March 2003, stated the "overall orientation of the curriculum is peaceful despite the harsh and violent realities on the ground. It does not openly incite against Israel and the Jews. It does not openly incite hatred and violence. Religious and political tolerance is emphasized in a good number of textbooks and in multiple contexts."
However, its June 2004 follow-up report stated that "the practice of "appropriating" sites, areas, localities, geographic regions, etc. inside the territory of the State of Israel as Palestine/Palestinian observed in our previous review, remains a feature of the newly published textbooks (4th and 9th Grade) laying substantive grounds to the contention that the Palestinian Authority did not in fact recognize Israel as the State of the Jewish people."
Regarding maps, it noted that "a good number... show Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as one geographic entity (without demarcation lines or differentiated colorings). Historically Palestinian cities (e.g., Akka, Yafa, Haifa, Safad, al-Lid, Ar-Ramla, Beer As-sabe’) are included in some maps that lump together the areas controlled by the PA with those inside the State of Israel. No map of the region bears the name of "Israel" in its pre-1967 borders. In addition, Israeli towns with a predominantly Jewish population are not represented on these maps."
The Summary also stated that the curriculum asserts a historically contentious ancient Arab presence in the region, while reflecting an inadequate and imbalanced representation of the Jewish connection: "The Jewish connection to the region, in general, and the Holy Land, in particular, is virtually missing. This lack of reference is perceived as tantamount to a denial of such a connection, although no direct evidence is found for such a denial." ... "terms and passages used to describe some historical events are sometimes offensive in nature and could be construed as reflecting hatred of and discrimination against Jews and Judaism."
reported that the United States State Department was going to fund a comprehensive, independent study of incitement caused by bias in both Israeli and Palestinian textbooks. The study was commissioned by the Council for Religious Institutions in the Holy Land, an interfaith association of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim leaders in Israel and the Occupied Territories, which plans on making recommendations to both sides' Education Ministries based on the report.
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...
, by the Palestinian Authority.
The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem commissioned studies from the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI). In Europe the Georg Eckert Institute performed research. The Hebrew University's Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace has also published papers on this issue. A U.S. Senate subcommittee and the Political Committee of the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
have both held hearings about Palestinian textbooks.
Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE)
The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School EducationInstitute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education
The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education , formerly known as the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace , is a non-profit organization that monitors the content of school textbooks...
's ongoing research on how textbooks, exams, and other official course material in the Middle East portray the "Other" concluded in a 2011 report that Palestinian textbooks portray Jews and Israelis in a negative manner.
2006 Israeli Defense Ministry study
In the 2004-2005 school year, the Palestinian Education MinistryEducation Minister of the Palestinian National Authority
The Ministry of Education and Higher Education of the Palestinian National Authority is the branch of the Palestinian government in charge of managing the education in the Palestinian territories. It was established in 1994 after the formation of the Palestinian National Authority...
published 29 new textbooks for the fifth and tenth grades. According to 2006 study by Noa Meridor, a researcher in the Israel Defense Ministry's office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories
Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories is a unit in the Israeli Ministry of Defense that engages in coordinating civilian issues between the Government of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces, international organizations, diplomats, and the Palestinian...
, the new Palestinian curriculum "shows a continuing denial of the State of Israel's right to exist
Right to exist
The right to exist is said to be an attribute of nations. According to an essay by the nineteenth century French philosopher Ernest Renan, a state has the right to exist when individuals are willing to sacrifice their own interests for the community it represents. Unlike self-determination, the...
and a continuing cultivation of the values of armed struggle against Israel. The books contain incitement against the State of Israel and the Zionist movement, one of them even employing anti-Semitism."
Among the examples listed in the study:
- The books claim that the only ancient inhabitants of Israel were Arabs, ignoring any ancient Jewish presence: "Concentrated...in the land of Al-Sham [Greater Syria]...was the culture of the CanaanCanaanCanaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
ite and Aramaic peoples who migrated there from the Arab peninsula." - The books teach that the First Zionist CongressFirst Zionist CongressThe First Zionist Congress was the inaugural congress of the Zionist Organization held in Basel , Switzerland, from August 29 to August 31, 1897. It was convened and chaired by Theodor Herzl, the founder of the modern Zionism movement...
fostered the Zionist State based on a secret decision of what came to be known as the"Protocols of the Elders of Zion." - Zionism is presented only as an enemy movement: "The Palestinian people are under an oppressive siege, limiting their movement and way of life."
- The false claim is made that an "extremist Zionist" set fire to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969 when in reality it was a mentally unstable fundamentalist Christian from Australia.
- Sites in Israel are "annexed" to Palestine: "Haifa is a Palestinian seaport", "Galilee, Nazareth and Beit She'an are regions in Palestine",
- The new Palestinian school books stress the importance of "return" of refugees to all of Palestine by violence: "Returning to the homes, the plains and the mountains, under the banners of glory, jihadJihadJihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
and struggle."
2007 Palestinian Media Watch report
In February 2007, the Palestinian Media WatchPalestinian Media Watch
Palestinian Media Watch is an Israel-based media watchdog organization. Established by Itamar Marcus in 1996, PMW monitors Palestinian Arabic media and schoolbooks....
(PMW) released a report entitled "From Nationalist Battle to Religious Conflict: New 12th Grade Palestinian Textbooks Present a World Without Israel" containing analysis of eight textbooks published by the PA at the end of 2006. The US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
joined with PMW for the release of the report written by PMW director Itamar Marcus and associate director Barbara Crook. Sen. Clinton said that the books, which she called "child abuse" and the "glorification of death and violence", caused her to express skepticism about whether Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas , also known by the kunya Abu Mazen , has been the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation since 11 November 2004 and became President of the Palestinian National Authority on 15 January 2005 on the Fatah ticket.Elected to serve until 9 January 2009, he unilaterally...
could be a fair partner for peace.
The Grade 12 texts analyzed in the PMW report are the most recent books to be written by the Palestinian Curriculum Development Center. The director of the curriculum committee, Dr. Naim Abu Al-Humos, is a long-time member of the Fatah party and was appointed PA Minister of Higher Education in 2002, under Yasser Arafat, and continued after PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's election.
The report states, in part:
The teachings repeatedly reject Israel's right to exist, present the conflict as a religious battle for Islam, teach Israel's founding as imperialism, and actively portray a picture of the Middle East, both verbally and visually, in which Israel does not exist at all.The report also indicated several instances within these textbooks of Holocaust denial
The following description of Israel's founding represents the dominant dogma about Israel in Palestinian schoolbooks: Defining Israel's founding as a "catastrophe unprecedented in history," "a theft perpetrated by "Zionist gangs," together with numerous other hateful descriptions of Israel as "colonial imperialist" and "racist", compounded by the presentation of the conflict as a religious war, leaves no latitude for students to have positive or even neutral attitudes towards Israel. This negative imagery and religious packaging are compounded by hateful presentations of Israeli policy. The young students are imbued with a Palestinian identity as "victims" just by virtue of Israel's existence. The well-meaning student is left with no logical justification or religious option to accept Israel as a neighbor or to seek coexistence. Given the total rejection of Israel's right to exist, on nationalistic and religious grounds, Palestinian terror against Israel since Israel's founding in 1948 is defined as: "resistance … acts of most glorious heroism."
PA educators teach that fighting Israel is not merely a territorial conflict, but also a religious battle for Islam. The schoolbooks define the conflict with Israel as "Ribat for Allah" – "one of the actions related to Jihad for Allah, and it means: Being found in areas where there is a struggle between Muslims and their enemies".
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
. In addition, the report describes the Islamic World and the United States as being involved in a "Clash of Civilizations" and describes the Iraqi Insurgency
Iraqi insurgency
The Iraqi Resistance is composed of a diverse mix of militias, foreign fighters, all-Iraqi units or mixtures opposing the United States-led multinational force in Iraq and the post-2003 Iraqi government...
as being engaged in "brave resistance to liberate Iraq".
Senator Clinton said:
"I believe that education is one of the keys to lasting peace in the Middle East... Ever since we first raised this issue some years ago there still has not been an adequate repudiation of incitement by the Palestinian Authority. It is even more disturbing that the problem appears to have gotten worse. These textbooks don't give Palestinian children an education, they give them an indoctrination."
Senator Clinton joined with Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
to speak out about anti-Israel sentiments and antisemitic content in Palestinian textbooks in September 2000. In June 2001, she joined with Senator Charles Schumer
Charles Schumer
Charles Ellis "Chuck" Schumer is the senior United States Senator from New York and a member of the Democratic Party. First elected in 1998, he defeated three-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato by a margin of 55%–44%. He was easily re-elected in 2004 by a margin of 71%–24% and in 2010 by a...
to speak out again on the issue, sending a letter to President Bush urging him to make clear to Yasser Arafat that peace is not possible without a full and immediate cessation of the Palestinian Authority's hateful rhetoric and urging that funding be contingent on the cessation of such incitement. In October 2003, she joined the Senate Labor, HHS and Education Appropriations Sub-committee hearing on Palestinian textbooks and other media that glorifies violence and martyrdom.
1998 UNRWA review
In 1998, two years before the Al-Aqsa intifadaAl-Aqsa Intifada
The Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada and the Oslo War, was the second Palestinian uprising, a period of intensified Palestinian-Israeli violence, which began in late September 2000...
, Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
member of United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Peter Deutsch
Peter Deutsch
Peter R. Deutsch is an American politician from the U.S. state of Florida. Deutsch was a Democratic Representative from Florida's 20th congressional district from 1993 until 2005.- Background :...
and other Congressmembers directed the State Department to ask UNRWA to investigate evidence that school books used in UNRWA-run schools in the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
and Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
contained anti-Semitic
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
statements. The allegations surfaced in reports compiled by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, an NGO, which had claimed that the books contained statements such as "Treachery and disloyalty are character traits of the Jews and one should be aware of them". In January 1999, the State Department reported that "The methodologies employed by UNRWA make it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the extent of anti-Semitic content in host authority textbooks used in UNRWA schools. At the same time, UNRWA's review did reveal instances of anti-Semitic characterizations and content in those host authority texts."
2000 Nathan Brown's study
Since 1994 the Palestinian Authority had been replacing older textbooks, and in 1999 and 2000, Nathan Brown, Professor of Political Science at George Washington UniversityGeorge Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
, published a study on this subject. Regarding the Palestinian Authority's newer textbooks, he states:
"The new books have removed the more blatant anti-Semitism present in the older books while they tell history from a Palestinian point of view, they do not represent the State of Israel and often label it as "Palestine"; each book contains a foreword describing the West Bank and Gaza as "the two parts of the homeland"; the maps take some other measures to avoid indicating borders; the books avoid treating Israel at length but do indeed mention it by name; the new books must be seen as a tremendous improvement from a Jewish, Israeli, and humanitarian view".
2001 Moughrabi: "The Politics of Palestinian Textbooks"
In 2001 Fouad Moughrabi in The NationThe Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
claimed these reports of incitement in Palestinian textbooks were exaggerated and false and had a detrimental effect on funding for new Palestinian textbooks.
2001 European Union threatens to halt aid
Armin LaschetArmin Laschet
Armin Laschet is a German politician.Laschet was born in Aachen-Burtscheid. He has three children, Julius, Eva and Johannes Laschet, and is married with Susanne Laschet. He attended Pius-Gymnasium in Aachen and studied law at the universities of Bonn and Munich. In Munich he became a member of...
, a member of the German delegation to the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
Parliament threatened halting EU funding of Palestinian educational institutions "…until all the Palestinian textbook passages antagonistic to Israel are removed." Particular examples of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic indoctrination found in the textbooks includes an Islamic high school text that warns students to be wary of Jews as they are "…deceitful and disloyal." Another textbook stated that European anti-Semitism was caused by Jewish greed and fanaticism. Other examples led Francois Zimeray, a French socialist, to state that there is "…substantial proof that EU funding has wrongly been used to finance school textbooks promoting hatred and inciting to martyrdom.
The PA response was delivered by Peter Hansen
Peter Hansen (UN)
Peter Hansen , a Danish national, was Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East from 1996-2005.-Academic career:...
, at the time the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, gave the response for the PA in the daily Al-Hayat al-Jadida
Al-Hayat al-Jadida
Al-Hayat al-Jadida , is an official daily newspaper of the Palestinian National Authority.- External links :*...
: "We cannot expect a people under occupation to have textbooks which idealize, praise and express love for their occupiers." This statement caused outrage and fury among many circles. The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise
American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise
The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise is a non-profit 501, "non-partisan" organization in the United States established in 1993 "to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship by emphasizing the fundamentals of the alliance." It is a member of the Israel on Campus Coalition. Its Executive...
answered to his response: "Israeli texts do not 'idealize, praise and express love' for the Palestinians, but they do not malign or disseminate hatred against them either."
While the PA deputy minister for education denied that books with these statements were used in the schools, Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
did confirm their usage. Arafat excused their use claiming that these were old Jordanian textbooks and that the PA lacked sufficient funding to replace them with more modern ones. To this claim, Laschet responded that as the EU was donating 300 million Euros to the PA, that the PA "…certainly can bear the cost of publishing new textbooks."
2002 George Eckert Institute comparison
The George Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research compared Palestinian and Israeli textbooks in December 2002. According to Jonathan Kriener of the institute, "The crucial difference between both sets of textbooks lies in the overall unanimity of the Palestinian textbooks which conveys a constant underlying message of delegitimization versus the broad spectrum of different approaches in Israel, ranging from Ultra-orthodox school books, to books in which highly controversial political issues are discussed quite openly."2002 and 2004 Firer-Adwan comparisons
Ruth Firer of the Harry S. TrumanHarry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
and Sami Adwan, a professor of education at Bethlehem University
Bethlehem University
Bethlehem University is the first university founded in the West Bank, Palestine. Bethlehem University traces its roots to 1893 when the De La Salle Christian Brothers opened schools in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Nazareth, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt....
in Bethlehem
Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...
compared Palestinian and Israeli textbooks in 2002. Of the Palestinian textbooks they found that "According to the everyday experience of Palestinians, modern-day Israelis are presented as occupiers. The texts include examples of Israelis killing and imprisoning Palestinians, demolishing their homes, uprooting fruit trees, and confiscating their lands and building settlements on them. The texts also talk about the right of return for the 1948 Palestinian refugees when describing how those refugees live in camps." The Israeli textbooks, are generally presented without the national-political debate." Their 2004 study of 13 Israeli textbooks and 9 Palestinian textbooks found that "neither side's books tell the story of the conflict from the other's viewpoint, both ignore the other side's suffering and each counts only its only victims."
2002 review and 2004 follow-up report by IPCRI
In 2002, the United States CongressUnited States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
requested the United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
to commission a reputable non-governmental organization
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
(NGO) to conduct a review of the new Palestinian curriculum. The Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI) was thereby commissioned by the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
and the US Consul General in Jerusalem to review the Palestinian Authority's textbooks. Its report, completed in March 2003, stated the "overall orientation of the curriculum is peaceful despite the harsh and violent realities on the ground. It does not openly incite against Israel and the Jews. It does not openly incite hatred and violence. Religious and political tolerance is emphasized in a good number of textbooks and in multiple contexts."
However, its June 2004 follow-up report stated that "the practice of "appropriating" sites, areas, localities, geographic regions, etc. inside the territory of the State of Israel as Palestine/Palestinian observed in our previous review, remains a feature of the newly published textbooks (4th and 9th Grade) laying substantive grounds to the contention that the Palestinian Authority did not in fact recognize Israel as the State of the Jewish people."
Regarding maps, it noted that "a good number... show Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as one geographic entity (without demarcation lines or differentiated colorings). Historically Palestinian cities (e.g., Akka, Yafa, Haifa, Safad, al-Lid, Ar-Ramla, Beer As-sabe’) are included in some maps that lump together the areas controlled by the PA with those inside the State of Israel. No map of the region bears the name of "Israel" in its pre-1967 borders. In addition, Israeli towns with a predominantly Jewish population are not represented on these maps."
The Summary also stated that the curriculum asserts a historically contentious ancient Arab presence in the region, while reflecting an inadequate and imbalanced representation of the Jewish connection: "The Jewish connection to the region, in general, and the Holy Land, in particular, is virtually missing. This lack of reference is perceived as tantamount to a denial of such a connection, although no direct evidence is found for such a denial." ... "terms and passages used to describe some historical events are sometimes offensive in nature and could be construed as reflecting hatred of and discrimination against Jews and Judaism."
2009 Human Rights report, US State Department
In its 2009 Human Rights report, the U.S. State Department wrote that after the 2006 revision of textbooks by the PA Ministry of Education and Higher Education, international academics concluded that books did not incite violence against Jews but showed imbalance, bias, and inaccuracy. Some maps did not depict the current political reality, showing neither Israel nor the settlements. Palestinian textbooks used in Palestinian schools and schools in East Jerusalem run by the Jerusalem municipality were inconsistent in defining the 1967 borders, and did not label areas and cities with both Arabic and Hebrew names.2011 Plans
On 29 June 2011, HaaretzHaaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
reported that the United States State Department was going to fund a comprehensive, independent study of incitement caused by bias in both Israeli and Palestinian textbooks. The study was commissioned by the Council for Religious Institutions in the Holy Land, an interfaith association of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim leaders in Israel and the Occupied Territories, which plans on making recommendations to both sides' Education Ministries based on the report.
See also
- Israeli textbooks
- Saudi textbooksSaudi textbooksThe Saudi Arabian textbook controversy refers to criticism of the content of school textbooks in Saudi Arabia since the September 11 attacks. The United States demanded that Saudi textbooks be reviewed and revised to remove material perceived as spreading intolerance and hatred.After the bombing of...
- Pakistani textbooks/Pakistan Studies
- Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School EducationInstitute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School EducationThe Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education , formerly known as the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace , is a non-profit organization that monitors the content of school textbooks...
- Racism in the Palestinian territoriesRacism in the Palestinian territoriesRacism in the Palestinian territories refers mainly to campaigns of discrimination and intolerance. According to many observers, racism and ethnic discrimination against Jews, Palestinians, Christians and blacks, have existed in the Palestinian territories, or in Palestine, from the mid-19th...
External links
- Israel Foreign Ministry: Behind the Headlines: Hamas’ Mickey Mouse teaches children to hate and kill - Important article from MFA, as well as links to several important non-governmental groups, including PMW.
- Center for Monitoring the Impact on Peace
- Teach Kids Peace
- On The Palestinian School Curriculum: Erasing Israel By David Bedein (The Evening Bulletin) August 28, 2006
- A Regional Perspective on the Arab-Israel Conflict
- Teaching Hatred of Israel and Jews in the New Palestinian Authority Schoolbooks by Itamar Marcus (EUFunding.org), 2003
- Palestinian Education and the Debate Over Textbooks by Aaron D. Pina. April 27, 2005. CRS Report for Congress. Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division. Order Code RL32886
- The Portrayal of Israel and of the Jew in the Palestinian Authority School Textbooks
- Analysis and Evaluation of the New Palestinian Curriculum; Reviewing Palestinian Textbooks and Tolerance Education Program Grades 5 & 10 by Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI) Submitted to: The Public Affairs Office US Consulate General Jerusalem, July 2006]
- Palestinian Textbooks: A Hindrance to Peace
- Palestinian Children: What are they being Taught?
- Palestinian Maps Omitting Israel