JERUSALEM – A new range of textbooks used in Canadian-funded Palestinian schools has failed to fulfill promises to the international community to modify Palestinian hostility to the Jewish presence in Israel and promote peace in education.

According to 58 new textbooks and two teachers’ guides for grades 1, 2, 6, 7 and 11 published in the past two years by the Palestinian Authority, Israel does not exist — nor does the concept of peace, a U.S. study has found.

Children are encouraged from the earliest school age to hate Israelis, glorify “martyrs” and seek the “liberation” of all of Palestine, including Israel.

The analysis of the textbooks, published this week, was carried out by the New York-based Center for Monitoring Impact of Peace (CMIP), a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging a climate of tolerance and mutual respect between peoples and nations.

The study reveals the Palestinian Authority (PA) has removed some anti- Semitic stereotypes that were featured prominently in Jordanian and Egyptian textbooks previously used in the West Bank and Gaza, but no positive or even neutral images of Jews and Israelis have been introduced.

“The PA curriculum does not teach the acceptance of Israel’s existence and instead of working to erase hateful stereotypes, it is instilling them into the next generation’s consciousness,” said Yohanan Manor, CMIP’s vice-chairman.

When presented with the report’s main findings, a spokes- man for the Palestinian Education Ministry, which published the textbooks, refused to comment. “I have nothing to say about this,” he said.

The new textbooks are being used throughout the Palestinian-controlled areas in the West Bank and Gaza in 1,300 schools administered by the Palestinian Authority and 261 run by the United Nations Relief & Works Agency (UNRWA).

Since 1993, Canada has contributed $165-million in direct aid to Palestinian development programs, including education, plus a further $10-million annually to UNRWA.

An additional grant of $5-million, announced in May by John Manley, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, is about to be distributed through the World Bank to a series of projects, including new schools and libraries.

The offensive textbook material has been included despite commitments made by the Palestinian Authority in the May, 1994, Cairo Agreement, where both parties undertook to “ensure that their educational systems contribute to the peace between Israel and the Palestinian people.”

“Incitement in Palestinian media and schools betrays any interest in peace and must come to an end if Palestinians are to be credible as partners for peace-making,” Dennis Ross, a former U.S. Middle East envoy, wrote this week.

While there is recognition in the Palestinian textbooks of a sovereign Jewish state under King David in ancient times, the modern state of Israel is never shown. Every map in every subject — from Grade 2 math to Grade 7 geography — marks the entire area of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza as Palestine and fails to show any modern Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv or Hadera.

The Oslo peace process, which brought the Palestinian Authority into existence, is hardly mentioned and nowhere is the idea of peace with Israel promoted.

A similar report by CMIP a year ago on 360 textbooks used in Israeli schools found dozens of examples where Israeli children were being taught to recognize Palestinian claims and problems and where an effort was made “to prepare the younger generation for openness and peace.

“Islam, the Arab culture and the Arabs’ contribution to human civilization are presented in a positive light,” the report on Israeli textbooks found.

“No book calls for violence or war. Many books express the yearning for peace between Israel and the Arab countries.”

Mr. Manor said CMIP did find some isolated examples of “prejudice, patronizing expressions and disrespect to Arabs” in books used in ultra- orthodox Israeli schools and the organization raised objections with representatives of those educational systems.

But the Palestinian textbooks are replete with images of violence and hatred in all contexts, reinforcing negative views of Israelis even in subjects far removed from history or politics, the new study found.

A Grade 2 language textbook prompts young children to describe a series of brightly coloured pictures in which Israelis uproot trees, expel Palestinians and destroy their houses. A Grade 1 science book illustrates a magnifying glass by enlarging a text which reads “Palestine is Arab.”

Mr. Manor expressed particular concern at the representation of Jews and the Hebrew language and their connection to the Holy Land.

Jewish immigration to Palestine since the 16th century is described in negative terms as “infiltration” and Hebrew is referred to as a dialect rather than a language.

A Grade 7 “national education” textbook lists Christian and Muslim holy places in Palestine but no Jewish ones.

The same book refers to “the attempt to Judaize some of the Muslim religious places” such as the Western Wall in Jerusalem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron — both were built by the Jewish King Herod

A population table for Palestine in a Grade 6 National Education textbook lists 1.9 million people on the West Bank, 1.1 million in Gaza, 1.1 million “Palestinians of the Interior” (i.e. Israeli Arabs) and 4.4 million “Palestinians of the Diaspora.” The five million Jews living in Israel are not mentioned at all.

This article ran in the National Post of Canada on November 25th, 2001

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