Incitement rife in Palestinian textbooks
Not recognizing Israel as a state and constant war, among others, are common themes being taught to Palestinian children in PA controlled schools.
Researchers have been surveying Palestinian school textbooks frequently over the past few decades to see if they have inciting material, such as the non-recognition of Israel as a sovereign state or the glorification of terror attacks and terrorists.
The schools researched in the various surveys are all public schools under the control of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Ministry of Education.
It turns out that in the vast majority of Palestinian textbooks, Israel isn't on any maps in any form. Israeli cities within the 1967 Green Line - such as Acre, Haifa, Nazareth, Jaffa, and others – are presented as being Palestinian cities. There are only a few schools which use textbooks that show a difference between PA controlled areas and Israel.
The IMPACT-se group looks into the issue of what governments teach their children and put in their textbooks worldwide in an attempt to determine how peaceful and tolerant a society is. They also looked into the school curriculums in the PA.
When asked about the results of the organization's findings, Sheff didn't have good news.
"The word 'peace' isn't mentioned at all in the education system," he said.
Did you find any signs of hate or incitement?
"There is no direct call to go out and kill Israelis or Jews. However, there's a narrative of constant struggle, constant war, Jihad, of sacrificing ones life. This is very dangerous. What we're seeing is that Palestinian children are being educated and told that political violence is completely legitimate on the one hand, and that Israel doesn't exist on the other. Israel only exists as an enemy, but doesn't exist in reality."
So the next generation isn't going to respect its neighboring country because it simply doesn't exist.
"Its very basic. These children need to be educated on the concept of peace from a young age, especially if we're talking about the Middle East, about the two state solution - according to which two states will be able to exist side by side in peace."
Are there any signs of religious radicalization in these textbooks? To respect Muslims more than non-Muslims?
"The narrative is primarily nationalistic, but over the last year or two, we've seen that the waqf religious authority textbooks have become very important in the Palestinian Education Ministry, and that they indeed have a tendency to be more extreme."
