The material in Palestinian school textbooks offers a unique perspective on the Palestinian attitude towards Israel. In many ways, the textbooks mirror the political conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. For example, maps of Israel in these schoolbooks include only Arabic names for major cities and don’t mention the state of Israel. When questioned about this, the Palestinian Ministry of Education said that before anything about Israel can be taught in schools, a political agreement must be reached with the Israeli government. Palestinians also dispute many of the sites holy in Judaism, and textbooks only include references to the Islamic holy sites located within Israel.

One of the most striking issues in the Palestinian textbooks is the glorification of martyrdom. The curricula for even young students contain language which glorifies death. When asked about this specifically, the director of the Palestinian Education Ministry said that Palestine was an occupied country and that there could be no rules or limits for Palestinians in this situation. Investigations by the US State Department and the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI) have concluded that Palestinian textbooks do not incite violence against Jews, but that they are biased and do contain inaccuracies.

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