PA Ministry of Education responds to EU decision to examine PA schoolbooks: “Connected to an escalation of the rate of incitement by Israeli institutions and international lobbies connected to them”

Headline: "The [PA] Ministry of Education: The European Union's desire to examine the Palestinian schoolbooks is connected to the Israeli incitement"

"The [PA] Ministry of Education explained that the European Union's (EU) desire to examine the Palestinian schoolbooks is connected to an escalation of the rate of incitement by Israeli institutions and international lobbies connected to them (refers to May 15, 2019 announcement that EU will examine PA schoolbooks for content that “incites hate and violence” –Ed.). This is while these institutions are ignoring the strong incitement against Palestinians and Arabs that exists in the Israeli schoolbooks – and this is what a number of studies that have been carried out on the matter have proven.
The ministry explained in a statement yesterday, Thursday [May 16, 2019], that the aforementioned examination is an initiative that the EU has announced its attention to carry out on behalf of the European states and the European Parliament, and that the ministry is still at the stage of examining the details of what the EU intends to carry out regarding this. It continued: 'Although many bodies have carried out studies of the schoolbooks in the past for various reasons, the process of developing the schoolbooks was carried out by Palestinian hands and minds and according to Palestinian considerations, in a manner that is consistent with international criteria regarding the development of schoolbooks, and that is what has been said by many of the bodies and in the testimony of the experts who have examined the schoolbooks after their publication, such as the Japanese experts for instance.’"