Palestinian authority rejects any two state solution

By

David  Bedein

Research: Dr. Arnon Groiss 

Palestinian Authority Schoolbooks used by UNRWA,  convey  a clear message:  The  PA , working under the  aegis  the PLO, show that the PA rejects any  two state solution: The PA won’t recognize Israel.

Preface: the US Ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides,  Ambassador to Israel, declared on March 15, 2022, during a zoom call with Americans for Peace Now that Israel blocks the two state solution when it ads homes to Efrat in Judea and to Ramat Shlomo in Jerusalem. 

Who really blocks the two state solution? 

Look no further than the PA, which will not recognize Israel.

The Palestinian Authority schoolbooks, including those  in UNRWA use, feature three fundamentals of non recognition of Israel, while maintaining an active war against  the Jewish state; :

1. De-legitimization of Israel’s existence and the Jews’ very presence in the country, including the denial of their history and the existence of any Jewish holy places there.
2. Demonization of both Israel and Jews, also religiously – with serious implications regarding the Jews’ image in the eyes of children who come from a traditional society.
3. The absence of call for peace with Israel. Instead, there is a call for a violent struggle for the liberation of the whole country, including pre-1967 Israel. This struggle is given a religious color and terror is made an integral part thereof, with the accompanying meaning of encouraging the murder of Jews. 

.   

1. De-Legitimization

Israel’s Jewish citizens are considered foreign colonialists:

“We will think and discuss: I will compare the tragedy of the Indians, America’s original inhabitants, to the tragedy of the Palestinian people.” 

(Social Studies, Grade 8, Part 2 (2020) p. 34)

2. The country’s Jewish history is denied, including the existence of archaeological items proving that:
   
   “…[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.”
   
   (Arabic Language – Academic Path, Grade 10, Part 2 (2020) p. 68)

3. The existence of Jewish holy places in the country is denied, including the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Please note that the photograph has been cut in a way that would “hide” the Jews who pray there:
   
   “Al-Buraq Wall
   Illumination: The Al-Buraq Wall has been thus named after Al-Buraq [the divine beast] that carried the Messenger [of God, i.e., Muhammad] during the Nocturnal Journey [from Mecca to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem according to Islamic belief] and the Ascension [to Heaven]. The Al-Buraq Wall is part of the western wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Al-Aqsa Mosque, including the wall, is a Palestinian land and an exclusive right of the Muslims.”
   
   (Islamic Education, Grade 5, Part 1 (2020) p. 63)

4. Having been considered foreign settlers, the Jews in the country are not counted among its legitimate inhabitants and the cities they built there, including Tel Aviv, are absent from the maps in the textbooks used in UNRWA schools. The map here, titled “Map of Palestine”, does not show these cities, except the southern city of Eilat that appears under the Arabic name of the desolate place where it was later built – “Umm al-Rashrash”.
   
   (Social Studies, Grade 6, Part 1 (2020) p. 6) 

5. Hebrew – The Jews’ language in the country – is erased, literally, from a British Mandatory coin reproduced in a math textbook:
   
   (Mathematics, Grade 6, Part 2 (2020) p. 65, and see the original coin below)

6. The Jews’ historical and religious ties to Jerusalem are ignored. According to the PA textbooks in UNRWA use, Jerusalem was built by the so-called Palestinians’ Arab ancestors (i.e., the “Arabized” Canaanites and Jebusites) and it is holy to Muslims and Christians alone. Jews are not mentioned in this context:
   “Jerusalem is an Arab city built by our Arab ancestors thousands of years ago.
   Jerusalem is holy to Muslims and Christians.”
   
   (National and Social Upbringing, Grade 3, Part 1 (2020) p. 29)

7. A short historical description of the city’s names features a huge gap of 1000 years between the Jebusites and the Romans, that is, the Jewish historical period. The name “Jerusalem” with its various forms that is used in hundreds of languages around the world is completely absent: 

“The city of Jerusalem was known as ‘Jebus’ after the Arab Jebusites who built it 5000 years ago. When the Romans occupied it they named it ‘Aelia’. Later on it came to be known as ‘Al-Quds’ or ‘Bayt al-Maqdis’, after the Muslims had conquered it at the hands of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab in 637 CE…”

(Geography and Modern and Contemporary History of Palestine, Grade 10, Part 1 (2020) p. 43)

2. Demonization
3. Jews, sometimes referred to as “Zionists” with no real differentiation between these two terms, are demonized and accused of harboring genocidal intentions towards the Palestinians:
   
   “1. The Zionists have established their entity upon terror, extermination and colonialism. We will explain that.”
   
   (Arab Language – Academic Path, Grade 10, Part 2 (2020) p. 28)

2. The next item has been taken from a teacher’s guide. The teachers’ guides, printed in 2018, clearly show the indoctrination methods used, including the intensification of Jew-hatred.
   
   Here we can see an example of a student evaluation sheet covering three items of which the last one (marked in red) talks about the reasons for massacres perpetrated by Jews against Arabs in 1948. The highest grade is given to the student who connected the massacres to the Jewish religious thinking. A lesser grade was given to the student who connected the massacres to the Zionist thinking. The “unsatisfactory” grade was given to the student who wrote the reasons for the massacres but did not connect them to the Jewish or Zionist thinking! Following is the sheet:  

“Chart 2: Matrix of Accomplishment Levels [The chart is read from right to left]

Subject Tested/ Good (3) Satisfactory (2) Unsatisfactory (1)

Accomplishment

Level

– – – – – – – – – – – –

– – – – – – – – – – – –

Clarifying the [The student] [The student] [The student]

Zionist gangs’ connected correctly  defined correctly

goal of massacre accurately the connected the the Zionist gangs’

perpetration perpetration of thinking of goal of 

Zionist massacres the Zionist gangs perpetrating

to the Jewish to their massacres 

religious thinking perpetration

of massacres

(Teacher’s Guide, Geography and Modern and Contemporary History of Palestine, Grade 10 (2018) p. 164. Emphasis added)

3. Jews are demonized as infidels and as the Devil’s aides. A verse taken from a poem:
   
   “Where are the horsemen [who will ride] to Al-Aqsa [Mosque] to liberate it from the grip of infidelity, from the Devil’s aides?”
   
   (Arabic Language, Grade 7, Part 1 (2020) p. 67)

4. The Jews are also demonized outside the context of the conflict, as enemies of Prophet Muhammad and Islam in its early years. They are given negative traits such as treachery and hostility, which makes them eternal enemies of Muslims today: 
   
   “But the Jews [in the city of Medina] did not respect the treaty [they had concluded with Muhammad] and resorted to all types of treachery, betrayal and aggression which forced the Muslims to fight them.”
   
   (Islamic Education, Grade 7, Part 1 (2020) p. 52)

5. Moreover, Jews are presented as enemies of God’s prophets and, by implication, enemies of God himself, with grave influence on students who come from a traditional society: God’s enemies should be fought against until their utter destruction. The following example features the first out of several lessons to be learned from a chapter about Jesus Christ, who is considered a prophet in Islam:
   
   “1. Exposing the nature of the Children of Israel and their hostility to the prophets.”
   
   (Islamic Education, Grade 9, Part 2 (2020) p. 21)

3. Encouraging the Murder of Jews
4. The murder of Jews is an integral part of the liberation struggle. Following is the first page of a four-page lesson exalting the female-commander of a terrorist attack against an Israeli civilian bus on Israel’s Coastal Highway in 1978 where over thirty Israelis – men, women and children – were murdered:
   
   “Dalal al-Mughrabi
   In front of the text:
   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, which has made her memory eternal within our Hearts and minds. The text in front of us talks about one aspect of her struggle journey.”
   
   (Arabic Language, Grade 5, Part 2 (2020) p. 51)

2. A rare clear message answering the question: “What should be done with the Jews who will survive after the liberation of Palestine?”
   The answer: Extermination!
   
   “We will sing and learn by heart:   The Land of the Noble Ones

I swear! I shall sacrifice my blood 

In order to water the land of the noble ones 

And remove the usurper [Israel] from my country 

And exterminate the defeated remnants of the foreigners 

O, land of Al-Aqsa and the holy site [haram], O, cradle of pride and nobility 

Patience, patience, for victory is ours and dawn is peeping out of darkness”

(Our Beautiful Language, Grade 3, Part 2 (2019) p. 66. Emphasis added)

Note
This poem has been replaced in the 2020 edition of this textbook by another one with no expressions of extermination, probably as a result of our criticism. 

This poem has been sung in class and outdoors in many schools. Following is a screenshot of the beginning of a YouTube clip by “the Group of Palestine’s Teachers”. The inscription here says: “The song of ‘The Land of the Noble Ones’, Grade 3 Elementary, Music by Rabi’ Abu Bakr”:

The link to this clip was found inaccessible on March 15, 2022 but we have an independent copy thereof: https://vimeo.com/390503872/

And see another link and its screenshot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5P7W860CTg 

One cannot be sure that singing that poem has been stopped following its replacement in the schoolbook.