Presentation of report on Palestinian schoolbooks by PMW director Itamar Marcus in US Senate Building

by Itamar Marcus, PMW director
The Senate, Feb 08, 2007

Itamar Marcus: Thank you very much, Senator Clinton. I want to review in greater detail some of the main points that Senator Clinton touched on about the content of the new Palestinian schoolbooks. The new Grade 12 Palestinian schoolbooks were produced last year, and were released in November 2006.
Significantly, the books were produced by the Palestinian Curriculum Development Center, a center established under the Fatah governments of Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas. The head of the committee is Dr. Naim Abu Al-Humos, former PA minister of higher education. As such, this schoolbook report is not reflecting Hamas ideology, this is reflecting the Fatah ideology. This is very significant, because the new schoolbooks indicate a merging of Fatah towards Hamas ideology. I want to touch on five themes:
1- In the new schoolbooks, the Palestinians define the battle with Israel as a religious battle – a Ribat, as follows: Ribat for Allah: Islam urged (Hadda'ala) Jihad for Allah, in order to defend the [Islamic] Nation's honor, greatness, and land. The Ribat for Allah is one of the actions related to Jihad for Allah, and it means: Being found in areas where there is a struggle between Muslims and their enemies... staying on this land strengthens the Muslims facing their enemies… The reward of the Murabit [people in Ribat] is ongoing, as Allah, praise him, increases the [reward] for his action until the Resurrection Day…”[Islamic Education, grade 12, p. 86] Ribat is a religious term. This teaching transfers the conflict from a territorial, nationalistic conflict to a religious conflict where there is no room for compromise. More than that, they teach: "The endurance of Palestine's people on their land in these days, and their persistence against the damage and the aggression they endure – is one of the greatest of the Ribat and they are worthy of a great reward from Allah.” [Islamic Education, grade 12, p. 87] This conflict with Israel is said to be a unique Ribat in Islamic history with a special destiny: “The reason for this preference [of the Palestinian Ribat] is that the momentous battles in Islamic history took place on its land [Al-Shaam – Greater Syria includes Israel] and, its residents are in a constant struggle with their enemies, and they are found in Ribat until Resurrection Day. The history testifies that: The battle of Al-Yarmuk decided the struggle with the Byzantines, and the battle of Hittin decided the struggle with the Crusaders, and the battle of Ein Jalut decided the struggle with the Mongols”. [Islamic Education, grade 12, p. 87] The message to the student is that Islam has had numerous battles, momentous battles with significant turning points in Islamic history following the victorious battles on this land against earlier enemies – Byzantine, Crusades, the Mongols. The Palestinian children are taught that they have an Islamic destiny to hold onto this land – (meaning Israel) as others have done in the past. This teaching parallels the ideology of Hamas as written in the Hamas charter: "The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf (Trust) throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it." [Article Eleven, Hamas Charter] The schoolbooks bring mainstream Palestinian ideology much closer to that of Hamas, by defining this as a religious battle and Israel's land to be Islamic land.
2- In the schoolbooks it is clear that when they teach about "Palestine", they are not teaching about the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The books mention over and over again that Israel’s very existence is being challenged. For example, as the Senator cited: "Palestine’s war ended with a catastrophe that is unprecedented in history, when the Zionist gangs stole Palestine …and established the State of Israel." [Arabic Language, Analysis, Literature and Criticism, grade 12, p. 104] The establishment of Israel is the challenge, not the West Bank or Gaza, this is the problem. Israel is defined as "colonial imperialism… centered in Palestine", [History of the Arabs and the World in the 20th Century, grade 12, p. 6] and other similar language that denies Israel's right to exist. They talk about the United Nations resolutions equating Zionism with racism, and teach: "These racist operations that Israel carried out since its establishment in 1948, motivated the UN to pass the resolution …which views Zionism as a form of racism…" [History of the Arabs and the World in the 20th Century, grade 12, pp. 125-126], They are legitimizing the UN resolution teaching that it was based on the factual reality of Israel as a racist state since 1948. Other examples of terminology that rejects the legitimacy of Israel: Israel and Israelis are referred to as "Zionist gangs", "Zionist enemy", "Zionist entity", "enemy of the people", and many more terms throughout the schoolbooks that deny the legitimacy of Israel.
3- Beyond denying the legitimacy of Israel, the books present a world as if Israel does not exist at all. Examples from maps were shown- see graphics. No map mentions Israel in any of the Palestinian Authority schoolbooks. However, beyond the pictures, the new schoolbooks define "Palestine" as if it’s an existing state, a "Dawla", which is not a geographical area but a "state", and teach that it has water access to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Teaching that a state, "Palestine", has access to the Red Sea is describing a world in which Israel does not exist. They also teach that the state "Palestine" is larger than 10,000 square kilometers. The size of the West Bank and Gaza together is about 6,500 square kilometers, so again are describing a world in which Israel does not exist.
4 - Holocaust denial, which the Senator mentioned: The books create a World War Two without the Holocaust. There are extensive details about the history of World War Two -- they teach about the "race theory" of the Nazi movement: “Race theory evolved during the thirties of the previous century, when the Nazi movement appeared in Germany in 1933 and divided the nations into superior and others who were inferior. It espoused the superiority of the Aryan race, from which the Germans originated, passed racist laws…" [The History of the Arabs and the World in the 20th Century, grade 12, p. 123] They even talk about the trials of the Nazi war criminals at the end of the war: “The Allied states established an international court to bring to trial the senior Nazi leaders as war criminals.” [The History of the Arabs and the World in the 20th Century, grade 12, p. 46] ...but they don’t teach why they were on trial. They teach the history of WW2, the Nazi racism, and the trial of war criminals. But the Holocaust is not a part of that history.
5 - Finally, the new PA schoolbooks divide the modern world into two camps fighting in a "Clash of Civilizations": the West, led by the United States, and the Islamic-Arab world. The US is presented very aggressively in the schoolbooks as an enemy of the Palestinians, and American foreign policy is criticized as being of: "self-interest... its policy… didn't change didn’t change during one president or another, as is clearly apparent in Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran… its blockade of Libya, Sudan and the occupation of Iraq." All of these conflicts present the US as a source of friction in the international world. Human rights. They talk about the US abusing human rights for its own purposes; for example, "the belief that human rights is nothing but an excuse used by the West and the ruling states for interfering in the matters of other states, as in Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur…" and more examples, so that the US is presented as an enemy of Islam and the Arab world. The apex of this is the definition of the insurgency in Iraq fighting against the US: “The Iraqis did not surrender to this American and British occupation, but succeeded in organizing themselves into a brave resistance to liberate Iraq.” Those who are killing American soldiers are defined as “brave resistance.” In addition, there is one glaring omission about the US in the schoolbooks. The Palestinians felt it important to mention that Israel is getting economic aid from the US, but they left out the more than $1.5 billion that the PA and the NGOs have received from the US. The greatest financial aid to the PA from any single country has come from the US. The books leave that out, but they put in the fact that Israel is a strategic ally getting economic and political support. So we see from this omission as well, that there was a clear intention to put the US in an enemy camp. Because of this total picture, violence against Israel since its founding is legitimized as Mukawama – meaning resistance. “Since 1948, the Mukawama – resistance - in which the inhabitants carried acts of most glorious heroism and sacrifice, which have become lessons imitated by resistance to colonialism, occupation and persecution around the world.”[Arabic Language, Analysis, Literature and Commentary, grade 12 p 105] Essentially, they are teaching the children that Palestinian terror isn’t negative -- it is glorious heroism. And all the other "resistance" nations around the world who have adopted this are learning from the Palestinians. They are actually citing themselves and their terror as a role model and they’re proud that they have been a role model for other terrorist movements around the world. And finally, the message: “Palestine will be liberated by its men, its women, its young and its elderly,” the eventual destruction of Israel is promised in the textbooks. ------------- PMW studies everything in Palestinian society. Sports, crossword puzzles, television, as the Senator mentioned. And all of these (schoolbook) messages are coming to children from every part of society – culture, even sports.
And I want to just show you two examples. We mentioned the Holocaust. I want to show you how children were taught the Holocaust on a program on official Palestinian television: Video: "They [the Jews] are the ones who did the Holocaust ... They opened the ovens for us to bake human beings... And when one oven stopped burning they lit a hundred more ovens. There hands are covered with the blood of our children." [official PA TV Mar. 25 2004] This isn’t just Holocaust denial.
This is turning the whole Holocaust on its head. Israel, the Jews, created ovens for the Palestinians. And this was on official Palestinian television, on a children’s program. I’ll just end this with one item from yesterday, to show you how current this is. This is from February 7th, an interview on Palestinian television with a university lecturer from Birzheit University. "What the American culture creates is a danger to humanity… 100,000 [Iraqis] are killed in Iraq, and it doesn’t interest him... he lives the racism in his culture, he is saturated in it, only his pocket interests him… Zionism is the same thing, carries the same thought [pattern].
Nazism carried that same thought. This is the Western product, it is the product of Western philosophy." [PA TV, February 7, 2007] This is a total attack on Western society, and is a reflection of the tragic reality of the Palestinian media. It is constantly demonizing the West, demonizing the United States, demonizing Israel, with parallels like this to Nazism, and it creates an environment of profound hatred for the youth. To sum up, there are many problems in the Palestinian schoolbooks. I think that the problem of packaging the conflict as a religious conflict is very significant – and it marks the disappearance of the difference between Hamas and what is seen as the more mainstream Fatah. That difference disappears when this conflict is portrayed as a religious conflict for Allah. The well-meaning student is left with no justification or religious option to accept Israel as a neighbor in coexistence.
The schoolbooks, the TV, the culture, the entire society, must educate for peace. Our desire is to have peace with our Palestinian neighbors, and our goal is that through awareness and actions like the Senator’s, a change will be forced on the Palestinians to educate for peace, so that we can have peace in the next generation. Thank you.



link1: http://www.pmw.org.il/asx/PMW_Itamar11.asx