Palestinian textbooks rife with anti-Semitism and violent propaganda: study
Palestinian school kids are given textbooks rife with anti-Semitism and violent propaganda against Israel, according to reports of a study commissioned by the European Union.
The damning study — running almost 220 pages — was delivered earlier this year to the European Commission, which pays for the textbooks, according to the Jerusalem Post and German newspaper Bild, both of which obtained copies.
The 156 Palestinian Authority textbooks and 16 teachers’ guides that were studied showed “an antagonism towards Israel” — with “frequent use of negative attributions in relation to the Jewish people,” the yet-unpublished study found, according to the Jerusalem Post.
There was a “conscious perpetuation of anti-Jewish prejudice, especially when embedded in the current political context,” the report said of the books, which were mostly from 2017 to 2019 but included 18 from last year.
One religious studies textbook asks students to discuss the “repeated attempts by the Jews to kill the prophet” Muhammad and asks who are “other enemies of Islam,” the outlet said.
“It is not so much the sufferings of the Prophet or the actions of the companions that appear to be the focus of this teaching unit but, rather, the alleged perniciousness of the Jews,” the report allegedly states.
“Resistance” is a recurring theme in many, along with calls for a revolution — with one book carrying a photo of five masked men toting machine guns, calling them “Palestinian revolutionaries,” the report said.
It was not just limited to history, social studies and religion — with a math book using an image of Palestinians hitting Israeli soldiers with slingshots to describe Newton’s second law of motion, the report said.
Dead terrorists are also called “martyrs” throughout the books — with one ninth-grade math book using the term for Fatah leader Khalil al-Wazir, who led the 1978 massacre of 38 civilians, including 13 children, Bild noted.
Most maps used in the books entirely erase the state of Israel, dubbing it a “Zionist occupation” and calling the entire region of Israel, Gaza Strip and the West Bank “Palestine,” the reports said.
The investigation was first commissioned by Federica Mogherini, then EU foreign affairs representative, in 2019, the reports said. It was carried out by the Georg Eckert Institute in Germany, which delivered it earlier this year. It has still not been published publicly, both outlets said.
The European Commission told the Jerusalem Post that it “takes this study seriously and will act on its findings as appropriate.”
They plan to work with the Palestinian Authority to promote compliance with the UNESCO standards on peace, tolerance and nonviolence, which the commission said are nonnegotiable.
The commission also “reiterates its unequivocal commitment to the fight against anti-Semitism.”
The report will be presented to the European Parliament “shortly,” the commission said.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the findings “prove Israel’s consistent claim that incitement is constantly present in Palestinian Authority textbooks.”
“This is a claim that Israel has raised with the EU and its member states for many years,” the ministry said in a statement.
It also noted how the EU ” is continuing to invest millions in the funding of the Palestinian Authority’s educational system … with no monitoring of the content that appears in the textbooks.”
“The EU must demand that the Palestinian Authority amend its textbooks and stop the incitement,” the ministry insisted.