The school system of the nascent Palestinian Authority, established in the wake of the Oslo peace process, has fostered the first curriculum since Nazi Germany to train children in the art of war against the Jews. Yet the thorough research of the school books of the Palestinian National Authority remain a secret to most people in Israel. Why?

When the CMIP presented its evaluation of the Palestinian Authority school books at a well attended press conference at the King David Hotel on November 21, 2001, several media outlets were noticably absent: the three main Israeli newspapers were not there: HaAretz, Yediot and Maariv.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, which supplies releases to all the Jewish media and Jewish organization, was also not there. The JTA bureau chief in Israel, David Landau, co-author of the seminal 1993 volume, New Middle East, the book that promoted the Oslo process, has never reported about PA education.

Israel TV was there, yet preferred to delay the news of the press conference from its main 9 p.m. newscast until the less viewed midnite newscast.

Israel Kol Yisrael Radio news ran a story of the press conference on exactly two newscasts.

The people in Israel are therefore left in the dark concerning the PA curriculum.

Two days before the press conference, the Beligian Foreign Minister visited Israel, the PLO press agency WAFA announced that the Belgian government would be funding this year’s set of PA school books.

When I asked the Belgian foreign minister’s press secretary about the reason for the Belgian funding of the school books, she specifically mentioned that she had heard that the CMIP had reported that there had been an “improvement” in the content of the books.

The CMIP could only point to cosmetic improvements in the books, such as the “recognition” of the Jewish connection to Palestine during the time of King David.

Queries to the Israel Foreign Ministry concerning the school books produced a response:

The Israel Ambassador to Belgium, Mr. Shaul Amor, was instructed to discuss the school books with the Belgian Foreign Minister, while the Israel Foreign Ministry issued a release that it would conduct its own inquiry concerning the PA school books.

This would represent the first time that the Israeli government has conducted a study of PA textbooks.

The question remains as to whether the Israeli government will ever protest the content of the PA school books to the funders of PA education.

The Israeli public at large does not yet know about the PA curriculum.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Previous articleIn the Shadow of 1914: The Current Situation
Next articlePalestinian Authority Textbooks: Another View
David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR