PA Education Ministry: “The occupation's schoolbooks are full of incitement, as opposed to the Palestinian schoolbooks, which educate the students to love life, knowledge, creativity, entrepreneurship, and other lofty values”
Headline: “The [PA] Ministry of Education exposes a new Israeli campaign against the Palestinian curriculum”
“The [PA] Ministry of Education and Higher Education yesterday [Feb. 2, 2019] exposed a new frantic Israeli campaign, whose goal is to harm the national Palestinian [PA] curriculum, and to stain it with incitement. The ministry explained in a statement that this campaign is taking place as part of the occupation’s plans to stop the international aid to the Palestinian education sector, on the pretext of incitement in the curriculum, and in a way that targets additional resources of the State of Palestine.
The ministry noted that the occupation is investing millions of shekels – which have been paid to Zionist institutions led by former Mossad (Israeli Secret Intelligence Service) agents and reserve duty or retired generals – in order to attack the Palestinian curriculum and harm it. The ministry explained… that they are attempting to stain the Palestinian curriculum with incitement by inventing unfounded pretexts and excuses.
In its statement, the Ministry of Education emphasized that it will continue to serve as a fortified wall against these attempts. It called on the civil society organizations and the members of the Palestinian people to defend with all their strength the national school books, which were prepared by Palestinians, and emphasized the great Palestinian determination to defend the national narrative and to instill the Palestinian identity, history, and struggle in the students' minds.
The ministry said that during the last two years it has worked with the European Union in order to ask a neutral European committee to conduct comparative research between the Palestinian curriculum and the Israeli curriculum, but Israel has refused this – which proves that the occupation's schoolbooks are full of incitement, as opposed to the Palestinian schoolbooks, which educate the students to love life, knowledge, creativity, entrepreneurship, and other lofty values. It should be noted that last December [2018] the ministry again emphasized the importance of completing this research and its willingness to cooperate with Europe on the matter. It should also be noted that last October [2018] a vote took place in the European Parliament regarding the Palestinian curriculum, during which the parliament expressed trust in the curriculum by rejecting the claims put forth by extremist Zionist institutions (sic., the European Parliament Budgetary Committee found the PA schoolbooks to contain hate speech and approved an amendment to suspend 5% of the PA's funding until it reformed its curriculum, but this was rejected in a plenum vote; see note below). However, the Ministry of Education notes that the desperate attempts [of these institutions] on this matter continue by pressuring members of parliament… so that they will submit petitions within the parliament in order to condemn the Palestinian schoolbooks and stop the aid."
The European Parliament Budgetary Committee approved an amendment to the European Union's 2019 budget on Sept. 25, 2018, which would have had the EU suspend 5% of its economic aid to the PA until the PA "has committed to reform its school curriculum and textbooks to bring them in line with UNESCO standards for peace and tolerance in school education." The bill further stated that the new PA schoolbooks "contain, across all subjects, numerous examples of violent depictions, hate speech — in particular against Israel – and glorifications of jihad and martyrdom." The bill was rejected by the European Parliament in a plenum vote on Oct. 24, 2018.
“The [PA] Ministry of Education and Higher Education yesterday [Feb. 2, 2019] exposed a new frantic Israeli campaign, whose goal is to harm the national Palestinian [PA] curriculum, and to stain it with incitement. The ministry explained in a statement that this campaign is taking place as part of the occupation’s plans to stop the international aid to the Palestinian education sector, on the pretext of incitement in the curriculum, and in a way that targets additional resources of the State of Palestine.
The ministry noted that the occupation is investing millions of shekels – which have been paid to Zionist institutions led by former Mossad (Israeli Secret Intelligence Service) agents and reserve duty or retired generals – in order to attack the Palestinian curriculum and harm it. The ministry explained… that they are attempting to stain the Palestinian curriculum with incitement by inventing unfounded pretexts and excuses.
In its statement, the Ministry of Education emphasized that it will continue to serve as a fortified wall against these attempts. It called on the civil society organizations and the members of the Palestinian people to defend with all their strength the national school books, which were prepared by Palestinians, and emphasized the great Palestinian determination to defend the national narrative and to instill the Palestinian identity, history, and struggle in the students' minds.
The ministry said that during the last two years it has worked with the European Union in order to ask a neutral European committee to conduct comparative research between the Palestinian curriculum and the Israeli curriculum, but Israel has refused this – which proves that the occupation's schoolbooks are full of incitement, as opposed to the Palestinian schoolbooks, which educate the students to love life, knowledge, creativity, entrepreneurship, and other lofty values. It should be noted that last December [2018] the ministry again emphasized the importance of completing this research and its willingness to cooperate with Europe on the matter. It should also be noted that last October [2018] a vote took place in the European Parliament regarding the Palestinian curriculum, during which the parliament expressed trust in the curriculum by rejecting the claims put forth by extremist Zionist institutions (sic., the European Parliament Budgetary Committee found the PA schoolbooks to contain hate speech and approved an amendment to suspend 5% of the PA's funding until it reformed its curriculum, but this was rejected in a plenum vote; see note below). However, the Ministry of Education notes that the desperate attempts [of these institutions] on this matter continue by pressuring members of parliament… so that they will submit petitions within the parliament in order to condemn the Palestinian schoolbooks and stop the aid."
The European Parliament Budgetary Committee approved an amendment to the European Union's 2019 budget on Sept. 25, 2018, which would have had the EU suspend 5% of its economic aid to the PA until the PA "has committed to reform its school curriculum and textbooks to bring them in line with UNESCO standards for peace and tolerance in school education." The bill further stated that the new PA schoolbooks "contain, across all subjects, numerous examples of violent depictions, hate speech — in particular against Israel – and glorifications of jihad and martyrdom." The bill was rejected by the European Parliament in a plenum vote on Oct. 24, 2018.