Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
Photo: EPA
Report: PA fails to meet UNESCO's education standards
UN's cultural agency grants Palestinian membership bid despite Ramallah's failure to meet minimum educational requirement
Exception to the rule? UNESCO decided to grant the Palestinian Authority full membership despite the fact that it does not meet the basic educational requirements outlined in the organization's codex, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Wednesday.
The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization has clear prerequisites which every nation must meet before it is accepted into its ranks, such as: Do its textbooks recognize certain nations and religions, do they include anti-Semitic or racist references etc. The PA, it seems, is not exactly up to par.
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A study by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE) found that Palestinian textbooks are far from meeting the requirements.
The report, which examined 117 Palestinian textbooks, was commissioned before the Palestinians filed their UNESCO application.
The report stresses the fact the Palestinian textbooks and maps are largely devoid of any reference to Israel, geographic or otherwise.
IMPACT-SE also found that many of the Palestinian schoolbooks glorify jihad ("holy war"), death and acts of violence, predominantly against Jews.
"Presenting Israel as the 'ultimate evil,' preaching violence and war and omitting any reference to peaceful collaborations does not coincide with UNESCO's principles," Dr. Eldad Pardo of the Hebrew University, who heads IMPACT-SE, said.
The institute's CEO Shelley Shandor-Elkayam added that the PA's "education to violence through terror and martyrdom crosses all age sectors in Palestinian schools."
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