Min. of Edu on PA curriculum: “We won’t trade our sovereign decision for any kind of financial support”

Official PA TV program Topic of the Day PA Minister of Education Marwan Awratani: The teacher is the pioneer in this field. On the global level, the [Palestinian] teacher constitutes an inspiring example for what is called “resistance education” … Ever since Palestine developed the first national curriculum at the beginning of this century, immediately after a few months, an incitement campaign began against the first national curriculum. The reason is clear: The word “Palestine,” the word “Al-Quds” (i.e., Jerusalem), the word “Jaffa” (i.e., Israeli city), “refugees,” the map (i.e., the PA map that presents Israel as “Palestine”), “the olives” – all of these are words that the Israeli occupation does not like, and the occupation mobilized all its capabilities of pressure, support, media, and the like in order to affect public opinion in different states and to urge them to take a position against Palestine’s curriculum. Of course this process continued and has received significant and large momentum after the second national curriculum of 2015-2016 until today… The central topic is that which is connected to the Palestinian narrative. The narrative is everything for us… What is being requested is erasing the Palestinian narrative. There are no olives, there is no history, there is nothing… The curriculum in every state in the world is a clear sovereign issue, because it is connected to the DNA of the individual and the society. What civilian, what family, and what society do we want? … Therefore, any decision regarding the curricula, the Palestinian curriculum, is a clear national and sovereign decision, a purely independent decision… We won’t trade our sovereign decision for any kind of financial support. That won’t happen… We won’t correct anything according to the suggestion of any person, and we won’t accept dictates from anyone. That won’t happen. [Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, Dec. 14, 2020]