by Peter Fernandez
Do Israeli grade school texts advocate hate against Arabs? They do, according to Israeli author, Nurit Peled-Elhanen, who wrote Palestine in Israeli Schoolbooks, Ideology and Propaganda in Education. Book review: how Israeli school textbooks teach kids to hate | The Electronic Intifada.
In her 2012 book, she wrote, “Palestinians are often referred to as ‘the Palestinian problem.’ …The books studied here present Israeli-Jewish culture as superior to the Arab-Palestinian one, Israeli-Jewish concepts of progress as superior to Palestinian-Arab way of life and Israeli-Jewish behavior as aligning with universal values. ”
But if you read Elhanen’s book, you should also peruse Princeton University’s Dr. Arnon Groiss’ essay rebuttal- Comments on Nurit Peled (impact-se.org): “It is astonishing that her peremptory general statements are actually based on a study of only seven textbooks,” stated Groiss. “Since Israeli schools use a large variety of textbooks and new ones appear every year, one wonders how such a small number could be regarded as a solid base for the kind of claims made by Dr. Peled-Elhanen.”
In contrast, a Palestine Authority Grade 5 textbook provides a four-page lesson glorifying Dalal al-Mughrabi, 18, a female terrorist commander who led a murderous assault against an Israeli civilian bus on March 11, 1978: “Our Palestinian history is replete with many names of martyrs who sacrificed their souls for the homeland, among whom is the martyr, Dalal al-Mughrabi, who painted with her struggle a picture of challenge and bravery that has made her memory eternal within our hearts and minds. The text before us shows her struggle and journey.” Her struggle and journey climaxed in the murders of 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children, before she was killed.
According to a June 15 2021 UN Human Rights Council letter to the General Assembly, “Regrettably, Palestinian Authority (PA) textbooks continue to incite antisemitism and terrorism. In May this year, the European Parliament condemned the PA in this regard, expressing concern ‘that problematic material in Palestinian school textbooks has still not been removed.’” AHRC47NGO145_150621.pdf (un.org)
In October 2021, The George Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, Braunschweig, Germany, concluded its studies of 174 Palestinian Authority textbooks and 16 teachers’ guides for 2017-20, grades 1-12. The research was launched by members of the European Parliament “who had expressed concern about antisemitic and anti-peace contents found in the books.”
Another excerpt from a PA 2020 Grade 10 Arabic Language text reads: “…[The occupier] has built for himself an artificial entity that derives its identity and the legitimacy of its existence from tales, legends, and phantasies and has tried in various methods and ways to create live material evidence for these legends, or archaeological architectural proofs that would determine their truth and authenticity, but in vain.” The ancient and archaeologically based history of the Jewish people, the Old Testament, is being canceled and replaced by Palestinian grade school curricula.
In a grade 6 mathematics textbook, the photo of a 1927 Mandate of Palestine coin minted by the ruling British government is provided. The Arabic and English wording for ‘Palestine’ is evident, but the original coin(s), as located by the institute, clearly show that the Hebrew wording for Palestine was edited out for “educational purposes.” See Dr. Arnon Groiss’s JEWS in PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY SCHOOLBOOKS In UNRWA USAGE. But it isn’t only the Palestinian Authority that prints inciteful curricula.
In 2000, PBS Frontline researched religious textbooks for Saudi Arab middle school children. According to Frontline, the textbooks printed in 2000 were verified to be “part of the official curriculum for Saudi students and are a fundamental part of their education.” Here is a textbook extract, a saying, or a “hadith” of the prophet Mohammed: “The last hour won’t come before the Muslims would fight the Jews and the Mus- lims will kill them so Jews would hide behind rocks and trees. Then the rocks and tree would call: oh Muslim, oh servant of God! There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”
Religious Textbooks | PBS – Saudi Time Bomb? | FRONTLINE | PBS
School textbooks, grades 1-12, used by Israeli students, have been scrutinized by American and European education boards and new sources, but there doesn’t seem to be much to criticize unless you are Peled Elhanen.
So what does all of this mean? Just that the Islamic-based idea for the violent liberation of Palestine will never go away as long as Palestinian and Arab children are taught to hate and kill. A minority of texts in Israeli curricula were found to be questionably racist but none were found to advance murder, rape, pillaging, and kidnapping. Life and human dignity are sacred in Judaism. But Islam? Attitude towards your Islamist “neighbors” is one thing, but deadly actions are another.
Hamas attacked some leftist-progressive kibbutzim in southern Israel and butchered its members. Bastions of the Left, Kibbutzim Are on Front Lines of War – Haaretz Com – Haaretz.com But terrorists do not quiz whether you are sympathetic to their cause or not. Had author Nurit Peled-Elhanan, a left-wing progressive, been a member of the Be’eri Kibbutz, where 150 Israeli civilians were killed, her ideals would not have shielded her. A Be’eri Kibbutznik, Vivian Silver, 74, a Canadian/Israeli peace activist, was murdered on October 5th.
Further reading:
Palestinian girl’s goal: “to reach the level” of terrorist who killed 37 PMW Analysis (palwatch.org) Palestinian Textbooks Don’t Vilify Jews, New Study Reveals, The Forward 2/4/2013
The roots of Hamas’ terror attack can be found in Gaza’s schools-The Forward
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