The Peace Council that the US government convened on February 19, 2026 has left major Middle East policy questions unanswered.

As a journalist who has covered Middle East negotiations over the past forty years, I posed the following questions to the  spokesman of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs,  who declined comment.

Will the Palestinian Authority cancel its statute that provides a gratuity for anyone who kills a Jew?

Will the new Palestinian State Constitution finally revoke the PLO charter to destroy Israel?

Will there be changes in the Palestinian curriculum, so as to advocate peace with Israel?

CONSIDER MAJOR INDISCRETIONS IN PA EDUCATION

  1. The Palestinian Authority refers to itself as “the State of Palestine,” considering itself a full state under foreign occupation, not restricted to the 1967 lines.
  2. There is no State of Israel on maps or in the texts of PA schools. PA Textbooks declare that “Palestine is Arab and Muslim,” displaying a Palestinian flag.
  1. PA Texts state that Palestine has been occupied since 1948, not 1967. The phrase “the territories occupied in 1948” replaces the term “Israel’s [pre-1967] territority.” The term “Zionist occupation” appears throughout, instead of “the State of Israel.”
  1. Since there is no Israel to the PA. Texts are devoid of any recognition of Jews’ historical or geographical truths. References to religious sites such as the Western Wall and references to cities such as Tel Aviv, are non-existent. The cities of Haifa, Jaffa and Acre are described as occupied, with calls to liberate them.
  1. The UN 1948 resolution regarding the (Arab-Palestinian) refugees return to their homes on the condition of living in peace with their neighbors (on which the current argumentation of the so-called “ (Palestinian) right of return” is based, has never taken place.
  1. Jews and Israel are demonized and described as evil, with genocidal intentions towards Palestinians and accused of war crimes and massacres in 1948. Children are encouraged to write stories and dramas about this.
  1. Muslim religious indoctrination comes out in questions posed: “We all know the Zionists’ extent of cunning and malice towards Al-Aqsa Mosque and their effort to eliminate and destroy it by various means.” The internationally-recognized term of Israel’s Dome of the Rock is renamed to Al-Aqsa Mosque. Jews are demonized as infidels, the devil’s aides, and enemies of God’s (Arab) prophets. Traditional Islamic terms of “Jihad” and “Martyrdom” appear throughout.
  1. There has been no adoption of the notion of peace since one letter from Yasser Arafat to Yitzhak Rabin, prior to the signing of the Oslo Accord in 1993. Instead, example after example advocate a violent struggle, including violent expressions in their national anthem.
  1. As a UN agency, UNRWA is committed to neutrality and peace but its schoolbooks violate that commitment repeatedly. UNRWA IS complicit in anti-Semitic indoctrination and jihad.
  1. UNRWA schoolbooks betray its sacred obligation towards the wellbeing of the Palestinian children and youth under its care, preparing them for war against Israel.

10. Donor states who are funders of UNRWA education should have a say in this. There is currently no accountability to funders or to donor nations considering Palestinian education, which is  focused on Jihad, a Holy War,  to liberate Palestine, all of Palestine, from the Jews

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