Israel Matzav: Do 'Palestinian' school textbooks promote hatred of Israel?

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Do 'Palestinian' school textbooks promote hatred of Israel?

A claim by Republican Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich that 'Palestinians' teach subtraction by positing how many Jews in a group have been killed (which claim is - according to YNet - unsubstantiated) has led to a debate over whether 'Palestinian' school textbooks promote incitement. And you thought that had been settled already.... This is from the first link.

Two NGOs, one Israeli and one international, support the view of Israeli officials that the texts promote hatred of Israel. For example, Israel is not included in a list of the countries of the Levant, and Hebrew writing was removed in a depiction of a stamp from British Mandate rule of the Holy Land.

A joint Israeli-Palestinian study takes a softer view, saying that there is no direct attempt to delegitimize Israel, but that "the way and contexts in which Israel is presented may give rise to the impression of an implicit denial of its legitimacy."

The books must be seen in the context of ongoing conflict, said Nathan Brown, a George Washington University political scientist who has written about the issue. While highly nationalistic, government texts do not glorify violence, explicitly deny Israel's right to exist or portray Jews as villains, he said.

"I think the textbook critics have cause and effect mixed up – when there is a viable political process it may be possible to introduce a process to revise the books in a reciprocal way," Brown said.

Hello? There was a viable political process from 1993-2009 and the 'Palestinian' textbooks continued to incite against Israel! What is "Israel is not included in a list of the countries of the Levant, and Hebrew writing was removed in a depiction of a stamp from British Mandate rule of the Holy Land" if not an attempt to delegitimize Israel? And here are some more tidbits about the 'Palestinian' textbooks that attempt to delegitimize Israel:

Since it took control of parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1994, the PA has been working to replace the Egyptian and Jordanian books used in its schools for decades previous.

Under intensive scrutiny from Israel and the international community, the Palestinians developed their own curriculum and purged their new textbooks of some controversial references, but kept the focus on the Palestinian narrative.

Palestinian Media Watch and IMPACT-SE harshly criticized the Palestinian textbooks: "There is a lot of jihad, martyrdom, a complete ignoring of anything Israeli," said Pardo, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor and member of IMPACT-SE. "There is no education for peace, there is education for conflict."

Shelley Elkayam of IMPACT-SE said the religious school students are influential since they go on to be religious teachers and preachers.

The textbooks include statements glorifying martyrdom. One 8th-grade text says Muslim fighters must "get rid of the usurping Jews from the usurped lands in Palestine and in the Levant."

And in 17 years, they still cannot replace the textbooks? What are jihad and martyrdom education but an attempt to incite against Israel?

"Although there is no direct instruction for immediate violence against Israelis ... hate, rejection and a vision of one Greater Islamic-Arab Palestine are fostered," said the study, which was released in May and reviewed 70 government textbooks and 25 religious school texts. "An imaginary geography in which Israel does not exist is being taught."

That's not incitement against Israel?

For those who have forgotten, here's some of the IMPACT-SE report released in April:

“There is generally a total denial of the existence of Israel – and if there is an Israeli presence it is usually extremely negative,” said Eldad Pardo, an IMPACT-SE board member, and head of the organization’s Palestinian textbook research group. “For the next generation, there is no education at all about collaboration and no information about the many collaborations that already exist between Israelis and Palestinians in environmental and other areas.”

In geography textbooks, Israel usually does not appear in maps of the Middle East, instead “Palestine” is shown to encompass Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Jaffa is also shown on maps of Palestine, but Tel Aviv and other predominantly Jewish cities, such as Ramat Gan, kibbutzim and moshavim, are not displayed.

One of the Palestinian textbooks reviewed by IMPACT-SE, History of Ancient Civilization, published in 2009 and used to teach fifth-graders, states that the Levant consists of the states of Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Israel is not mentioned.

Other textbooks read for the study asked students to “color the Negev Desert on the map of Palestine,” and to solve the following mathematical word problem: “An independent Palestinian state was declared in 1988. How many years have passed since the declaration of independence?”

Another textbook included a map of the Old City of Jerusalem – which did not contain the Jewish Quarter. Meanwhile, in an additional example, a textbook printed a British Mandate postage stamp, but erased the Hebrew inscription “Palestine: The Land of Israel” that appeared on the original.

In addition, some textbooks described the Canaanites as an Arabic-speaking people whose land was stolen by Jews, and stated that Jews came from Europe to steal Palestine after the British conquered it in 1917.

...

IMPACT-SE noted many Palestinian textbooks included references to a ribat, an outpost on the borders of Muslim territories where wars against infidels occur. A 12thgrade Islamic education textbook, published in 2010, tells students that “the people of the Levant in general, and in Palestine in particular,” are in a state of ribat until the day of resurrection.

Pardo said that while there are some positive developments in the Palestinian educational system, such as emphases on democratic values and respect for women, elders and authority – no Israeli is depicted as a friend or partner. Furthermore, the Oslo Accords are rarely mentioned, and political agreements in general are presented as resulting from Arab and Muslim weakness.

Gingrich may have cited a specific example that was wrong (and it wouldn't surprise me to discover that it was not wrong), but he certainly got the general tenor of 'Palestinian' textbooks right: They preach hatred and non-acceptance of Israel.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Newt Gingrich, Palestinian textbooks