About a month ago, Yedioth Ahronoth published findings from a report by the prestigious international research and policy institute IMPACT-se, which reviews school textbooks around the world, including those of the Palestinian Authority. According to the report, Palestinian textbooks remain saturated with antisemitic messages and incitement, despite explicit promises made by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to the U.S, the EU and French President Emmanuel Macron to remove violent content from curricula across all subjects (including STEM domain) and all educational frameworks.
The report underscores the “absolute continuity” of content that sanctifies violence, Jihad and death across all age groups, with the curriculum glorifying violence as a religious and national duty. According to the report, the Palestinian education system defines Jihad as a “personal obligation for the liberation of Palestine and the pinnacle of Islam,” accompanied by descriptions of divine reward and 72 women in paradise for those who sacrifice their lives in “combat with the enemy.” All of this stands in stark contradiction to the spirit of the Trump peace framework, UN Security Council resolutions, and the reform agreements the Palestinian Authority signed with the EU in the summer of 2024.
The violent and destructive indoctrination at the very heart of the Palestinian education system once again highlights the stark contrast between the wave of symbolic recognitions of a Palestinian state by countries like UK and France — and the grim reality unfolding on the ground. As argued here several months ago, despite the international community’s misguided fondness for instant solutions to complex crises, haste in this case too is the work of the devil. “Independence,” however hollowed out, for the Palestinians requires the building of Palestinian society through a bottom-up, intergenerational process — not the other way around.
'Those hoping for a European reckoning on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are likely to be disappointed. Social emerging negative trends driving anti-Israeli sentiment continue to intensify, and the post-Trump American landscape offers little reassurance'
And as one development is discussed, another arrives: the UN General Assembly recently decided to extend the mandate of UNRWA, the Palestinian refugee agency, until 2029 - despite fierce American and Israeli opposition, given the fact that agency personnel participated in the atrocities of October 7. Since its establishment in 1948, the agency has become a central actor in shaping a consciousness of refugeehood and revenge within Palestinian identity, effectively perpetuating the Palestinian victimhood narrative not only in Judea and Samaria and Gaza, but across the Middle East, and in recent years also in Europe and Australia.
By further extending the mandate, the UN and its agencies not only once again reflect their inability - even at the most basic level - to adapt to a changing reality, but also once more display a deep-seated and severe bias against Israel, which ultimately fuels instability by encouraging and sustaining the Palestinian refugee narrative. This toxic narrative, among other things, feeds the dark Islamic shadow spreading across Europe and threatening to transform it fundamentally - as recently highlighted by the Trump administration.
Avi KaloPhoto: Aloni MorThose hoping for a European reckoning on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are likely to be disappointed. Social emerging negative trends driving anti-Israeli sentiment continue to intensify, and the post-Trump American landscape offers little reassurance. The implication is that Israel’s next leadership will be obligated to confront the Palestinian issue in depth and to present a cautious, long-term vision for a sober process of separation - while mobilizing relevant international actors and averting the nightmare scenario of a one-state reality.
All of this must be done while keeping Israelis’ fate in their own hands - a value that lies at the very core of the Zionist ethos. As David Ben-Gurion put it:
“It doesn’t matter what the Nations will say; what matters is what the Jews will do.”