Israel still not on the map in Palestinian textbooks
Instead of educating school children towards an era of peace and reconciliation, new Palestinian textbooks introduced this year foster a multi-faceted rejection of Israel's existence. According to a survey conducted by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP), PA school texts instill animosity and the implicit aspiration to replace the State of Israel with the State of Palestine.
The CMIP's evaluation of Palestinian schoolbooks was presented at a press conference last week in Jerusalem by its chairman, Andre Marcus, and vice-chairman, Dr. Yohanan Manor. The Center reported that the Palestinian Authority introduced 58 new textbooks and two teachers' guides for grades 1,2,6,7 and 11 in the academic years 2000-2001 and 2001-2002.
"The PA curriculum does not teach the acceptance of Israel's existence and instead of working to erase hateful stereotypes, it is instilling them into the next generation's consciousness," Manor said.
The CMIP, founded by Manor and Andre Marcus in 1998 with the mission of encouraging tolerance and mutual respect between nations and people, previously conducted a survey of Israeli textbooks dealing with this issue (published in September 2000), as well as a survey of Palestinian textbooks. At the time, many of the textbooks in use in Palestinian schools had been published by the Jordanian and Egyptian Ministries of Education, and the PA claimed it had no responsibility for their contents. While some grades continue to use Jordanian and Egyptian texts, the books reviewed in this year's survey, which evaluated various subjects such as Language, Mathematics, Islamic Education, National Education, History, Geography and Civics, were all published by the Palestinians.
Examples of the findings include:
Peace - The concept of peace with Israel is not to be found anywhere in the Palestinian schoolbooks. The peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, based on the Oslo Accords, is not mentioned. The books fail to teach the youth to see Israel as a neighbor with whom peaceful relations should be desired.
Tolerance - Palestinian textbooks do encourage tolerance, both in a historical and a contemporary context, using in their examples references to tolerance between Moslems and Christians. The Jews are not mentioned.
Jewish connection to the land - The Jewish connection to the Holy Land is confined to antiquity. The Jews' return to Palestine is described as "infiltration". Zionism is mentioned in a negative context only.
Israel - The State of Israel is not recognized in Palestinian schoolbooks. It is referred to by substitute names such as the lands within the "green line", "interior" or "1948 lands." Arab citizens of Israel are referred to as "the Palestinians of the interior."
Maps - The maps appearing in the textbooks continue to disregard the existence of the State of Israel. In most cases no names are given at all. Palestine stretches from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and is exclusively Arab.
Jews - There is no information providing pupils with at least a basic knowledge of Jews and Judaism, as one of the three monotheistic religions. Several books list negative generalizations attributing traits of trickery, greed and barbarity to the Jews, and insinuation that they do not keep agreements and treaties as Muslims do.
"There is no reference to Jewish holy places. Holy places in Palestine are exclusively Moslem and Christian, and are often presented as Moslem holy places which the Jews have attempted to 'Judaize,'" Manor said.
According to the survey, Palestinian textbooks present Jerusalem as belonging to the Palestinians alone, and the struggle for the "liberation of Palestine" is portrayed as a military battle against Israeli occupation, with no reference to terror. Even so, Jihad continues to be glorified and martyrdom is praised, with special attention given to the martyrs of Palestine.
"We are going to teach the truth," promised Palestinian Deputy Minister of Education Naim Abu Humus in September 2000. At the time he said the books' focus on Palestine, not Israel, was intentional. The political leaders had decided to omit Israel from the maps, he claimed. "What will change the situation will be to give the Palestinians their rights," he said. "Without that, no newspaper, no textbook, will change the situation."
In its report last year on Israeli school textbooks, the CMIP found dozens of examples where Israeli children were being taught to recognize Palestinian claims and problems and where an effort was made "to prepare the younger generation for openness and peace. Islam, the Arab culture and the Arabs' contribution to human civilization are presented in a positive light," the report on Israeli textbooks found. |
