Introduction

 

 

The Palestinian Authority school books

The books reviewed in this report are published by the Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry of Education. One privately published book is also included: an atlas published in 1998, which was approved by the PA. With this one exception, all the text books quoted in this report are published officially by the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education and are used in their schools.

 

About the Books

Number of Books reviewed: 140

Publisher:                                  Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education

Subjects:                                  National Education (Civic Studies)

                                                Grammar & Syntax

                                                Language & Literature

History

                                                Geography

Islamic Studies

Grades:                                    1-12

 

There are two categories of books: original PA publications and those based on books published in Jordan or Egypt. In the years Israel was responsible for education in the areas now under the PA, Israel likewise republished Jordanian and Egyptian books. However Israel republished them without the anti-Semitic and hateful material. Today it is the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education which is solely responsible for the selection, editing and content of all the school books reviewed in this report.

 

The Study

The selections from the PA school books presented in this report have been chosen from peace-sensitive themes and are representative of a larger body of material with similar messages. Traditional Islamic teaching is not under critique even when it portrays Jews negatively. Nevertheless, it has been included when the editors have used the Islamic material as a basis for instilling explicit or hateful political expression.  For example: “Lessons to be learned… One must beware of the Jews, for they are treacherous and disloyal.” [“Islamic Education for Ninth Grade”  # 589 p79] 

 

Palestinian Authority Television

PA TV is under direct control of the Palestinian Authority. Sporadic viewing of PA TV during the months March – August 1998, revealed that many of the educational messages that appear in the school books are broadcast regularly on PA TV. Some of these have been included in the report.

 

Book editing policy and the appendix of sources

Editing of the text material for the report has been done for the sake of brevity without changing the context. All the texts that appear in the report appear in the appendix often with greater context. In addition the appendix includes numerous other texts with similar and related educational messages.

 

 

The Palestinian Authority School Books

 

 

Contents:

 

Introduction

 

A.    The portrayal of Jews and Israel

1.      Abusive terminology

2.     The evil enemy

3.     Denial of legitimacy

4.     To be fought through Jihad (Holy War)

5.     Israel does not exist on maps. Its place is marked  - “Palestine”

6.     Israeli cities are labeled Palestinian cities.

7.     Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, is called:  the capital of “Palestine”

 

B.    Education to Jihad - Holy War - and Martyrdom

1.     Education to Jihad

2.     Education to Martyrdom

 

B.    Appendixes - Additional sources for in depth study.

1.     Obligation to fight against Israel.

2.  Instruction to fight for Israel’s capital, Jerusalem

3. Hostile portrayal of Jews, Israelis, and Israel.

4.     Denial of Israel’s legitimacy and Jewish history

5. Promotion of Jihad and Martyrdom

6. Glorification of Personal Examples of Jihad and Martyrdom

7.     The fall of the West and its replacement by Islam

8.     Additional texts of interest

 

D.    The PA educational system

1.     Background

2.     Current System

3.     Development

4.     Tables

 

D.    International Aid for the PA Education System


E.    The portrayal of Jews and Israel

1.     Abusive terminology

 

Overview

A telling measure of a government’s genuine interest in peace is the intensity with which it acts to replace hateful stereotypes with positive attitudes. Thus, it is disturbing that the following abusive terminology for Israelis, Jews and Israeli characteristics is being used in Palestinian Authority school books and being aired on Palestinian Authority television.

[All sources and context appear later in the report.]

 

Palestinian Authority School Books

 

Jews and Israelis are:

 

Cunning 

Deceitful

Treacherous

Disloyal

Wild animals

Jewish aggressors

Robbers

Locust

Thief

Enemy

Thieving conquerors

Thieving enemy

 Enemy of prophets and believers

 

Israel and Israeli characteristics include:

A provocation to the Arab world

A racist Jewish administration

Zionist enemy

Oppressors

Occupied Palestine

Israeli danger

Zionist entity

Zionist greed

Zionist occupation

The map that replaces all of Israel is:

       Palestine

Israeli regions cities and towns are:

“Israeli settlements in Galilee in

northern Palestine”

Israel’s Negev is:

         “Southern Palestine”

Palestinian Authority Television

 

Jews and Israelis are:

 

Deceiver

Cheater

Liar

Cancer

Terrorists

Mean

Brutal

Inhuman

Fascist

Racist

Genocidal

 

 

 

Israel and Israeli characteristics include:

Oppressors

Occupier

Israeli entity

Zionist entity

Jewish gangs

 

 

 

 

The map that replaces all of Israel is:

Palestine

 


2.      The Evil Enemy

One)    Overview

Two)    The Evil Enemy

Three)    Islamic Sources used to Create Stereotype

Four)    Misrepresentation of Modern Events

Five)    Palestinian Authority Television

 

a. Overview

Palestinian Authority school children are actively taught that the Jews and Israel are the enemy in a broad range of contexts. The school texts portray the Jew as the enemy of believers, the enemy of Islam, the enemy of the Arabs, as well as generally evil and dangerous. Jews are killers and robbers and have stolen Arab land. Modern events are misrepresented to portray Israel and Jews as the evil force in their world. Zionism is equated to Nazism.  Together they are depicted as the prototype examples of racism.  These themes also appear regularly on PA television.

 

b. The Evil Enemy

·1     “Complete the following blanks spaces with the appropriate word:

The Zionist enemy  - - [attacked] - -  civilians with its aircraft.

[Our Arabic Language, Part 2 for Third Grade #523 p..9]

·2    “Why do the Jews hate Muslim unity and want to cause division among them? Give an example of the evil attempts of the Jews, from events happening today.”                                                                                        [Islamic Education for Seventh Grade p. 19]

·3    “The Jews … have killed and evicted Muslim and Christian inhabitants of Palestine, whose inhabitants are still suffering oppression and persecution under racist Jewish administration.”                         [Islamic Education for Ninth Grade  # 589  p. 182]

·4    “Who is the thief who has torn our homeland?”

[Our Arabic Language for Sixth Grade Part One #553 p. 15]

·5     “Write in your exercise book: An event showing the fanaticism of the Jews in Palestine against Muslims or Christians.”              [Islamic Education for Ninth Grade p. 182]

·6    “One must beware of the Jews, for they are treacherous and disloyal.”

[Islamic Education for Ninth Grade p. 79]

A section on Zionism is entitled:

?1     “Zionist Greed.”

[‘Modern Arab History and Contemporary Problems, Part Two, for Tenth Grade #613 p. 49].  

 

Even racism is defined through the Jews, while Nazism and Zionism are equated:

?1        “Racism: Mankind has suffered from this evil both in ancient as well as in modern times, for, indeed, Satan has, in the eyes of many people, made their evil actions appear beautiful... Such a people are the Jews…”

 [ Islamic Education for Eighth Grade p. 95]

?1      “The clearest examples of racist belief and racial discrimination in the world are Nazism and Zionism.”

[The Contemporary History of the Arabs and the World,  P. 123]

?1     “Understanding the racist and aggressive character of the Zionist Movement.

           Summary of the similarity between Nazism, Fascism and Zionism.”

[The Contemporary History of the Arabs and the World,  P. 92]

 

 

c. Islamic Sources used to Create Stereotype

 

At times, the hateful portrayal is based on Islamic sources. The children are taught to apply the traditional narratives to hateful teachings regarding Jews and Israelis today. Five examples:

 

?1       “I learn from this lesson: I believe that the Jews are the enemies of the Prophets and the believers.”               Islamic Education, Part Two, for Fourth Grade #531  p. 67]

 

?1      “From the Uhud expedition… a number of lessons can be learned…: Treachery and disloyalty are character traits of the Jews and therefore one should beware of   them.”                                             [Islamic Education for Ninth Grade  #589 p. 87]

 

?2      “The Jews adopted a position of hostility and deception towards the new religion. They called Muhammad a liar and denied him, they fought against his religion in all ways and by all means, a war that has not yet ended until to day, and they conspired with the hypocrites and the idolaters against him and they are still behaving in the same way…”                 [Islamic Education for Seventh Grade p. 125]

 

?1     “In many cases these Jews acted according to their known cunning and deceit, and they incite wars [between Arab tribes]…”

[Islamic Education for Ninth Grade  # 589 p. 78]

 

?1      “Lessons to be learned: One must beware of civil war, which the Jews try to incite, and of their scheming against the Muslims.”

 [Ibid. p. 94]

 

d.   Misrepresentation of modern events

Modern events are misrepresented to portray Israel as active in an ongoing attack against Islam and the Arabs. Two examples: In 1969 an Australian [non-Jew] set the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on fire. Yet, the children are taught that Israel did it.

?1       “This arson is a further chapter in the Zionist plot, whose aim is to take control of this Islamic holy place, the Dome of the Rock and the whole area of the Jerusalem sanctuary and to destroy all that is holy to Islam.”

[Reader and Literary Texts for Eighth Grade #578   p. 97]  

 

The Zionist movement has never called for the expulsion of Israel’s Arab citizens. Yet the books teach that Zionism calls for this “expulsion”:

?1     “Zionism is a political, aggressive and colonialist movement, which calls for the Judaisation of Palestine by the expulsion of its Arab inhabitants …

[Modern Arab History and Contemporary Problems, Part Two, for Tenth Grade #613 p. 49]

 






e.   Palestinian Authority Television

The same hateful portrayal of Jews and Israel found in the school books is promoted regularly on Palestinian television. There too, Israel is the cruel enemy:

?1     “Israel’s mean, brutal, inhuman, fascist, racist, genocidal, cleansing wars…” 

[PA television May 14, 1998]

?2     “The Jewish gangs waged racial cleansing wars against innocent Palestinians… large scale appalling massacres saving no women or children.”

[PA television May 14, 1998]

 

?1     “One day they attacked… Attacked my country,

They killed the old and slaughtered the young

They burned the Koran and destroyed the house

They marched upon my heart, you are my country”

[summer camp song - Palestinian Authority TV, July 19, 1998]

 

The Jewish-Israeli character is maligned:

?1     “The occupier as you all know is a deceiver, a cheater, moreover, he is a liar…”

 [PA television May 14, 1998 , speech by Khalid Mismar, Deputy Political representative]

?1     Zionism is presented as “a cancer in the body of the nation”.

[PA television May 14, 1998]  

?2     Israeli soldiers are “those terrorists”.                                                [ PA television May 24, 1998]

?3     “…the terrorism that the occupying Israeli forces put into practice against our Palestinian nation since 1948.”                                     [PA television  May 19, 1998]

 


3.   Denial of Legitimacy

 

One)    Overview

Two)    Fabrication of racist  “Talmudic quote”

Three)    Denial of Jewish nationhood

Four)    Denial of ancient Jewish history

Five)    Denial of modern Jewish history

Six)    Denial of religious history

Seven)    Creation of Palestinian history

Eight)    Palestinian Authority Television

 

a.   Overview

The Palestinian Authority school books have erased Jews from all contexts in Israel that are not negative and have even fabricated viciously racist statements, attributing them to Jewish sources. PA books describe Muslim and Christian religious, historical, and archeological sites but omit any reference to Jewish sites. Tourists who visit are Christian and Muslim but there is no mention of the Jewish tourists. The Western Wall of the Temple is called “al-Buraq Wall” but there is no mention of its Jewish history. A history book describes World War II, Hitler and Nazi racism while ignoring the Jews and the Holocaust.

[“World History on Modern Times for Eighth Grade” #586 pp. 34-45]

 

b.    Fabrication of  racist “Talmudic quote”

“It is mentioned in the Talmud: “We [the Jews] are God’s people on earth…[God] forced upon the human animal and upon all the nations and the races that they serve us, and He spread us through the world to ride on them and hold their reigns. We must marry our beautiful daughters with kings, ministers and lords and enter our sons into the various religions, thus, we will have the final word in managing the countries. We should cheat them [the non-Jews] and arouse quarrels among them, then they fight each other… Non Jews are pigs who God created in the shape of man in order that they be fit for service for the Jews, and God created the world for them [the Jews].”

 [The Contemporary History of the Arabs and the World,  P. 120]

 

c.     Denial of Jewish nationhood

As part of the overall de-legitimization, the books deny the continuity of the Jewish nation and their place in Israel, by severing modern Jewry and modern Israel from their history in the land. The children are taught that the Jews are not a nation, but rather, a religious group:

?1       “who deluded themselves that their religious faith was sufficient to turn them into one nation.”

[Modern Arab History and Contemporary Problems, Part Two, for Tenth Grade #613 p. 49].

 

d.   Denial of ancient Jewish history

Thousands of years of Israeli - Jewish history and traditions and 2000 years of yearning to return to Israel, are likewise brushed away with:

?1     “The Zionists turn[ed] their attention towards Palestine as the national homeland of the Jews, while relying on false historical and religious claims.”

[Modern Arab History and Contemporary Problems, Part Two, for Tenth Grade p. 50].

 

e. Denial of modern Jewish history

The establishment of the state of Israel is portrayed not as the authentic Jewish national movement but as a colonialist anti-Arab plot to split the Arab world. Though similar to imperialism, the chart below shows it is far worse:

?1     “The colonial powers regarded the Zionist Movement as the means for the attainment of their greedy colonial aspirations and saw Palestine as the base for the setting up of a Jewish state, thus tearing the Arab Homeland asunder and imposing their rule on it in order to exploit its natural resources. The European colonial powers spread the idea of Zionism among the Jews….”

[Modern Arab History and Contemporary Problems, Part Two, for Tenth Grade #613 p. 48].

 

?1                        “The difference between Zionism and Imperialism:”

Zionism

Imperialism

Zionism is not linked to land or country

Colonies are an extension of the motherland

A tool for establishing a non-existent State