Does the Palestinian Education System Prepare Children for Peace with Israel, or for Terrorism and War?

From Palestinain Media Watch
Information on PMW bulletins is posted following the text.

[Posted 16 July 2003]

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Introduction

The following editorial on PA schoolbooks, written by PMW director Itamar Marcus, appeared this week in the Jerusalem Post.

Jerusalem Post Editorial, June 29, 2003.

Planting seeds of the next war: The Truth about the Palestinian schoolbooks

by Itamar Marcus, director PMW

One of the most meaningful gauges of the integrity of a peace process and its likelihood for success is the degree to which the "peace partners" educate towards peace. It is for this reason that the entire Palestinian Authority (PA) education apparatus, both formal and informal, has been such a dismal disappointment. Instead of seizing the opportunity to educate future generations to live with Israel in peace, the PA has done everything in its power to teach hatred to young minds.

Making matters worse, the Palestinian Authority has been spreading two clever lies about the[ir] schoolbooks that have succeeded in deflecting international pressure for change. This week, at a meeting in Jordan, Nebil Shaath answered Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom's complaint about the schoolbooks saying that the PA has "spent five years" rewriting the books, implying that they are now proper. Then he added, that Israel used the same old Jordanian books for educating the local Arab population "for 30 years", and therefore has no valid complaint to the PA. Many European governments, and many Israelis, have come to the PA's defense, citing these and other arguments.

The truth about the PA schoolbooks is first, that both new and old are far from proper - both include anti-Semitism, de-legitimize Israel's existence and incite to hatred and violence. In the new 6th grade book, "Reading the Koran", anti-Semitism is presented openly, as children read about Allah's warning to the Jews that because of their evil, Allah will kill them:

"...Oh you who are Jews ...long for death if you are truthful... for the death from which you flee, that will surely overtake you ..."

In other sections they learn of Jews being expelled from their homes by Allah, and in another, Jews are said to be like donkeys:

"Those [Jews] who were charged with the Torah, but did not observe it, are like a donkey carrying books..." [Reading the Koran, grade 6. p.20, 23, 78].

This religion-based anti-Semitism is the most dangerous, as children are taught that hating Jews is God's choice. And while Islam is not being critiqued, it is very grave that although Islam has positive traditions regarding Jews, the PA educators chose to incorporate only hateful religious traditions.

The new PA schoolbooks that Shaath was so positive about also teach that Israel has no right to exist, de-legitimizing Israel as a foreign occupier, compared to colonial Britain:

"Colonialism: Palestine faced the British occupation after the First World War in 1917, and the Israeli occupation in 1948 ..."[National Education, sixth grade, p. 16].

Since all of Israel is said to be an "occupation", all of Israel's cities, regions and natural resources are presented as being part of "Palestine". For example:

"Among the famous rocks of southern Palestine are the rocks of Beersheba and the Negev" and "Palestine's Water Sources - ... The most important is the Sea of Galilee." [Our Beautiful Language, grade 6, Part A, p. 64, National Education, sixth grade, pp. 9-10]

The Negev, Beersheba and the Sea of Galilee are in Israel and do not border the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria. Yet PA children are taught these are "Palestine". Continuing this ideology a book is dedicated to:

"...Palestinians, so that they would remember their stolen homeland and work for its salvation..."[Our Beautiful Language, sixth grade, Part A, p. 112] It refers not to the disputed territories, but to Israel, pre- 1967.

Educating not to recognize Israel's existence is cemented through tens of maps in the schoolbooks in which "Palestine" encompasses all of Israel. Israel does not exist on any map, within any borders. The PA defense of their schoolbook map, that since there are no final borders the map is not portraying modern "Palestine" but "Mandatory Palestine", is an insult to our intelligence. Are we expected to believe that when Palestinian children see the map called "Palestine" in all their schoolbooks they imagine Britain a half a century ago? And when Beersheba is called Palestine, the children are picturing Biblical history?

Another new book teaches what must be done for "occupied Palestine" and the "stolen homeland":

"Islam encourages this [love of homeland] and established the defense of it as an obligatory commandment for every Muslim if even a centimeter of his land is stolen. I, a Palestinian Muslim, love my country Palestine..." [Islamic Education, sixth grade, Part A, p. 68]

The complete and total message Palestinian children are taught is that Jews, according to Allah, are like donkeys; Israel is a colonial occupier who stole their land; the cities, lakes and deserts of Israel are "occupied Palestine"; and they, the children, have an obligation to liberate it "if even a centimeter is stolen".

All the above messages are found in new schoolbooks written and published by the PA since 2000. [So] the first claim that new PA books are "proper" is flagrantly untrue.

However, the majority of the books still in use by the PA schools are books they republished under the symbol of their own Ministry of Education, that were written by Jordan. These books include the following hate promotion:

"One must beware of the Jews, for they are treacherous and disloyal."[Islamic Education for Ninth Grade p. 79, these and below from CMIP report]

"I learned from this lesson: I believe that the Jews are the enemies of the Prophets and the believers."[Islamic Education, Part Two, for Fourth Grade p. 67]

"Remember: "The final and inevitable result will be the victory of the Muslims over the Jews." [Our Arabic Language for Fifth Grade p. 67]

"The clearest examples of racist belief and racial discrimination in the world are Nazism and Zionism. " [The New History of the Arabs and the World, p. 123]

The second great PA lie expressed by Shaath this week, that Israel has used these same old books, is particularly resourceful, as the best lies include a grain of truth. Indeed, Israel did use Jordanian books to educate the local Arab population. However, Israel reprinted the books without the hate education. In fact, Jordan registered a complaint to the UN charging that by changing the schoolbooks, Israel violated international law, but the UN checked what Israel had done and approved it. The PA put back into the old Jordanian books all the hate education Israel had removed.

Moreover, as early as three years ago foreign governments offered money to the PA to reprint the old books without the hateful material. The PA turned down the money and refused to reprint them using a variety of arguments, the first of which was: "Don't get involved in our education - it is our Palestinian heritage." These hateful Jordanian books are republished today unedited by the PA by choice and the PA must stop passing responsibility onto others for the hate content.

Finally it should be stressed that all the books cited here were written during the most optimistic periods of the peace process, before the violence began in September 2000. They are not a reflection of the war, but were a great contributing factor to the war. The ongoing attempts to defend PA schoolbooks are tragic, as the PA is using these arguments to justify their indefensible hate education, and to refuse to improve their books. The PA is planting the seeds of the next war in their youth, and the defenders of PA hate education, including Israelis, are nurturing those seeds of war.

***

Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, [www.pmw.org.il] was Israel's representative to the Tri Lateral [Israeli-Palestinian-American] Anti-Incitement Committee.

Info on PMW:
Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin, July 1, 2003
PALESTINIAN MEDIA WATCH
phone: 972- 2- 625-4140 fax: 972-2- 624-2803
Visit our website, click here: http://www.pmw.org.il
for further information, contact PMW Director, Itamar Marcusmaterial may be quoted, citing PMW as the sourcesubscribe free to PMW reports, details below

to SUBSCRIBE to PMW's reports send an empty e-mail to reports-subscribe@pmw.org.il

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Further Reading

 Emperor's Clothes
Articles on Antisemitism
and the Arab-Israeli Conflict

[Last Updated 14 March 2006]

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**Table of Contents**

(1)  Antisemitism: The Catholic Church, Mahathir of Malaysia, the European Union, the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the Anti-Imperialist Left, and more...

(2) Are the PLO/Fatah (and many others) correct when they charge that Israel is a colonial state, oppressing Palestinian Arabs?

(3) The geopolitical significance of antisemitism and Muslim extremism

========================================================

1. Antisemitism: The Catholic Church, Mahathir of Malaysia, the European Union, the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the Anti-Imperialist Left, Egyptian TV, and more...

========================================================

Did Pope John Paul II oppose or foment antisemitism?

"Part 1. Did the Pope Reject Church Antisemitism? Mr. Foxman’s Mistake,"
Written by Jared Israel, edited by Samantha Criscione
http://emperors-clothes.com/vatican/pope-1.htm

Part 2. Did the Pope Reject Church Antisemitism? Mr. Laughland’s Adulation
Written by Jared Israel, edited by Samantha Criscione
http://emperors-clothes.com/vatican/pope-2.htm

Part 3. As Pope flew to Israel, a Top Adviser Attacked the Jews
Written by Jared Israel, edited by Samantha Criscione
http://emperors-clothes.com/vatican/pope-3.htm
More coming...

* "The Pictures Tell the Tale: The Vatican and Nazism in Germany and Croatia"
by Jared Israel
Photo montage, with text
http://emperors-clothes.com/vatican/cpix.htm

* "As the EU Suppresses its own Report on Antisemitic Violence...
What do the EU, George Bush and Malaysian PM Mahathir have in Common? (Could they all be internationally pushing the politics of antisemitism?)"
by Jared Israel
http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/eureport.htm

* "Jared Israel said Mahathir is an Antisemite. A Reader Argues that he Quoted Mahathir out of Context."
http://emperors-clothes.com/letters/hay.htm

The "Protocols of Zion" - Proven to be a sloppy fabrication 85 years ago, but still going strong...

* "In 1921 Philip Graves Exposed the "Protocols of Zion" as a Phony"
Some thoughts about Philip Graves's London Times exposé, with links to the articles, unabridged, in tecxt and PDF form.
by Jared Israel and Samantha Criscione
http://emperors-clothes.com/antisem/times-pdf.htm

85 years ago, journalist Phillip Graves wrote a series of London Times articles proving that sections of "The Protocols" were lifted, with only slight changes, from a mid-19th century political satire by a French Gentile that had exactly nothing to do with Jews. We have posted Graves's articles in both text and PDF form.

* "'The Protocols of Zion,' Part One: Weapon Against Democracy"
by Jared Israel
http://emperors-clothes.com/antisem/protocols-1.htm 

* "'The Protocols of Zion,' Part Two: Illogical, Sloppy, and Incoherent..."
by Jared Israel
http://emperors-clothes.com/antisem/protocols-2.htm 

* "'The Protocols of Zion,' Part Three: Reader Comments: 'I am no Antisemite. Why do some parts of "The Protocols" Ring True?'"
Jared Israel comments
http://emperors-clothes.com/letters/ringstrue.htm 

"Yea is Yea and Nay is Nay; Anything Else Smacketh of Evil,"
Letter from a reader, reply by Jared Israel
http://emperors-clothes.com/letters/yay.htm

A self-described Leftist says he no longer trusts Emperor's Clothes because we have said the 'wrong' things about Israel
Jared Israel Comments

 "'I refuse to be tainted by association with Fascism'
Colin Meade's statement regarding attacks on Emperor's Clothes."
http://emperors-clothes.com/letters/meade.htm 

* "Pakistani Student Asks: Was the Egyptian TV Miniseries Really about 'Protocols of Zion'"?
Jared Israel replies. With Quotes from Egyptian Press.
http://emperors-clothes.com/letters/hardball.htm 

* EU Report on Antisemitism
http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/eurepantisem.htm

========================================================

2. Are the PLO/Fatah (and others) correct when they charge that Israel is a colonial state, oppressing Palestinian Arabs?

========================================================

* "1948 Nation Magazine Memorandum to the United Nations on the  British Role in  Partition"
- Text copy of the Memorandum, unabridged, with comments by Jared Israel
http://emperor.vwh.net/history/br.htm

- PDF file, scanned from hard copy of The Nation
http://emperors-clothes.com/history/pdf.htm

After the United Nations proposed partitioning what remained of the Palestine Mandate Territory into a Jewish and an Arab state, Arab irregular troops, backed by the Arab League, launched an undeclared war against Palestinian Jews. This lasted about half a year, until the all-out Arab invasion in 1948. Using British intelligence documents, The Nation magazine produced a Memorandum for the United Nations, proving that the British Colonial Office had proposed and was aiding and helping coordinate the Arab League's undeclared war, even as the British publicly shed crocodile tears over the violence and smeared the Jews. The Nation document explodes the Palestinian foundational myth, namely that Israel was a creation of Western colonialism, which used the Jewish state to thwart Arab national liberation.

The transcribed text of the Memorandum at
http://emperor.vwh.net/history/br.htm
presents some additional material, including an excerpt from a 1946 Nation column by former Spanish Foreign Minister Julio Alvarez del Vayo, who describes the Arab leaders as Fascists. Also the scanned image of a London Times article, in which an Arab spokesperson accuses Palestinian Jews of being agents of Bolshevism, thus echoing Hitler's "Jewish Bolshevism" line.

* "What Occupied Territories? (Refuting Arab League Information Minister Hanan Ashrawi & others)"
by Prof. Efraim Karsh
Comments by Jared Israel
http://emperors-clothes.com/israel/karsh-occ.htm

* "Nathan Weinstock on Marx, the Arab-Jewish Conflict and Lazy Thinking"
Weinstock wrote perhaps the leading Trotskyist attack on Israel. He explains why he now believes he was wrong.
Comment by Jared Israel
http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/weinstock.htm
in Italiano * auf Deutsch

* "Readers Ask: 'Aren't Israeli Jews Exposed to the Same Sort of Racist Propaganda as Arabs?'"
Jared Israel Replies
http://emperors-clothes.com/letters/arabracism.htm 

* "Is it Antisemitic to Criticize Israel? Is Israel an Apartheid State?" 
by Jared Israel
[Posted 27 January 2004]
http://emperors-clothes.com/letters/land.htm

========================================================

3. The geopolitical significance of antisemitism and Muslim extremism

========================================================

* "U.S. & Iran: Enemies in Public, but Secret Allies in Terror,"
by Jared Israel
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/deja.htm

* "As the EU Suppresses its own Report on Antisemitic Violence...
What do the EU, George Bush and Malaysian PM Mahathir have in Common? (Could they all be internationally pushing the politics of antisemitism?)"
By Jared Israel
http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/eureport.htm

* "Jared Israel said Mahathir is an Antisemite. A Reader Argues that he Quoted Mahathir out of Context."
http://emperors-clothes.com/letters/hay.htm

* "A Los Angeles Reader Asks: Are you For or Against Saddam Hussein? Are you For or Against the Proposed war?
Jared Israel Replies: Emperor's Clothes is Against the Projected War *and* Against Hussein."
http://emperors-clothes.com/letters/shussein.htm

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