Current Events • Israeli Media • Terror Against Israel

July 10, 2003
Incitement and Propaganda in the PA. A 2002-2003 update on Palestinian Textbooks Taken from a report by Dr. Revuen Ehrlich Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (at the Center for Special Studies - SSC)

Incitement and propaganda directed against the State of Israel, the Zionist movement, and the Jewish people exist on two levels: ongoing propaganda, which serves immediate, short-term goals; and indoctrination on a more fundamental level which aims to influence future generations as well. The messages contained in school textbooks reflect the fundamental level and are therefore of prime importance. Following the earlier study on Palestinian textbooks, we have chosen to present the findings of a follow-up study of current textbooks that were integrated into the PA school curriculum this past year.

Findings of a Study on Palestinian Textbooks for Grades 3 and 8

In the third stage of a process begun two years ago to formulate and standardize a Palestinian school curriculum, new textbooks were introduced into the third grade in Palestinian schools during the current (2002-2003) school year. Eleven textbooks for the 8th grade and seven for the 3rd grade were examined, and the findings are presented below. This is a continuation of the previous study of 2nd and 7th grade Palestinian textbooks conducted by Ms. Noa Meridor of the office of the Coordinator of Israeli Government Activities in the Territories. The current study shows that systematic incitement against Israel is still a feature of the textbooks, although it has been toned down. Notable features include:

Denial of the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel.
Presentation of Israel as evil, while at the same time ignoring the fact that it is a political entity.
Support of the values of violent struggle and martyrdom.

Other findings:

There is increased mention of the term feda'ay, referring originally to Muslims from the Ismailiya group who risked their lives in order to murder their enemies. Totally missing is any reference to peace agreements, whereas the importance of the region's Muslim nature is strongly emphasized.
The Palestinians continue to convey hidden messages in the classroom, not only in lessons directly related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but also in subjects such as the environment, math and language.
Class exercises in neutral subjects such as well water or societal behavioral norms deviate intentionally from the original context, and provide the teacher with an opportunity to introduce nationalistic elements into the class discussion.
In some subjects, the level of hostility in this year's textbooks is less than that found last year. The choice of words and degree of extremism expressed indicate a more moderate approach, and there is less delegitimization of Jewish settlement in Israel, and less emphasis on the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees and the "cultural war" that Israel is supposedly waging against the Palestinians.
The books themselves differ from one another in the level of incitement they contain; the differences apparently have nothing to do with the subject matter, but rather with the texts' authors.
It is possible that the toning down of the incitement is a result of international pressure on the Palestinians by, inter alia, donor states such as Italy and Belgium, which are the states most involved in the curriculum project. At the same time, some serious expressions of incitement remain, highlighting the importance of identifying and uprooting this phenomenon and ensuring the introduction of a curriculum that educates for peace, co-existence and recognition of Israel.

Elements of Incitement in School Textbooks for Grades 3 and 8

Denial of the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel The connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel is implicitly denied in a third-grade textbook passage on holy sites in 'Palestine' in which Jewish sites are glaringly omitted: "Palestine is an important cultural, archeological and religious center in which are found vestiges of ancient cultures and religious sites of all the monotheistic religions, (sites) such as El-Aqsa mosque, the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher." In this list of holy places in 'Palestine' the Western Wall in Jerusalem is conspicuously absent. In Hebron, el-Haram el Ibrahimi (the Arab name for the Cave of the Patriarchs) is mentioned as a Muslim site, the burial place of Abraham "our master of blessed memory (although Abraham was, of course, a patriarch of the Jews as well as of the Muslims). The Christian sites of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth are both listed. Jews are not mentioned in an 8th grade textbook discussing the ancient cultures of this region.

Attitude towards Israel: Denial of Israel's Existence as a Political Entity

On the basis of the perceived lack of connection between the Jews and Israel, the Ministry of Education of the PA has put into use a curriculum that ignores Israel's political existence.
Many examples of the denial of Israel's existence can be found in the textbooks examined. They are similar in nature to elements contained in previous textbooks: not showing Israel on regional maps or as part of the area designated 'Palestine', and claiming Israeli sites as Palestinian.
In a poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Political Research and Polls in August 2002 in Ramallah, 88% of the people polled objected to formulating a Palestinian curriculum that recognizes Israel and does not demand the return of all of Palestine to the Palestinians.
Consistent with the practice of "adopting" Israeli sites, third-graders are asked to arrange "three mountains in Palestine" according to height. One of the mountains is Mount Meron (called in Arabic "Jarmak") near Safed. In another exercise in which the pupils are asked to place groups of cities in the correct country, Nablus, Safed and Jerusalem are listed together, presumably belonging in the country of "Palestine". Since Israel does not appear in the book at all, there is no reason for the pupil to mention it, especially since this part of the book is devoted to the Muslim world.
Israel is ignored completely on a small map illustrating a math problem in which pupils are asked to calculate the age of the "State of Palestine". The map shows Israel and the territories as one unit, all under the Palestinian flag. In another map, the Green Line is marked, but the name "Israel" does not appear anywhere, and only cities that existed before the establishment of the state are marked: Safed, Tiberias, Nazareth, Bet Shean, Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Beer Sheba, Lod, Ramle. A complete map of Palestine, without borders between Israel and the territories, appears in full color a few pages later.
Older students are taught that the Mediterranean region is located in Asia, extending from the western and southern coasts of Turkey, through "el-Sham country" in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. The accompanying map shows and names Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine. Israel does not appear anywhere. Similarly, Israel is not included in a chapter about the peoples of the region, although Palestine is.
Gaza is described as "located in the southern part" of the Palestinian coast, on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, 140 kilometers southwest of the capital of Palestine, Jerusalem. The book goes on to say that Palestine has a long coastline on the Mediterranean Sea and a short coastline on the Gulf of Aqaba (Note: The Palestinian Authority does not extend to the Gulf of Aqaba.) The book also implies that Palestine is a political entity and not only a geographic one, as it discusses Palestinian "legislation", something which is only possible in a political context.
The author of the textbook ignores Israeli exports to the PA and claims that "the Palestinian market depends on imports from Arab and foreign countries for 80% of its daily economic consumption."

Israel's negative image Since Israel does in fact exist, the curriculum depicts it in an evil and violent light. As in last year's textbooks, Israel is always mentioned together with the "occupation" or exploitation and violence; nothing positive or even neutral about Israel is included in the textbooks. Israel is not mentioned by name in every reference to the "occupation", but the implication is clear.

The pupil learns about the nature of Israel through such sentences as, "the occupier spreads lies that the Palestinian struggle is terrorism." He practices using words with a double meaning, as in, "the man went crazy when the Israelis destroyed his house," and from this infers who are the enemies of Palestine against whom they must fight. The textbooks emphasize that the perpetrators of the "naqba" (catastrophe, as the Palestinians call the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948), which led (they claim) to the emigration of most of the Palestinian people, were the Jews, and this is the background for the song encouraging the Arabs to defend Palestine.

One author describes her life in Jericho: "I will never forget them (residents of the city), especially after the army entered their housesand took revenge upon them, beating them and breaking their teeththe murder of civilians in the city became a routine event." The textbooks also deal with the "cultural theft" of the Palestinian heritage, claiming that the "occupation" did everything it could to destroy the cultural basis of Palestinian society.

To quote another passage: "Brothers, the exploiters have gone too farare we to allow them to steal our "Arabness", the glory of our forefathers, our sovereignty and dignity?" The subject of the damage being done to their heritage is treated more moderately in the newer textbooks than it was in last year's books, in which it was discussed extensively.

At times, there are digressions from the spirit of the text in order to attack Israel. This can be seen in a book about good citizenship and finding peaceful solutions to social problems. "Question: what is the role of the occupation in increasing the violence?" And in another book on the correct use of well water, the pupil is told about the importance of wells to the Palestinians, especially in light of the growing fear that the Israeli "occupation" forces have designs on the water sources and repeatedly attempt to take them over.

The message implicit in the textbooks is that violent struggle and suicide are the proper response to the Palestinian situation today. Seen against the backdrop of teachings that reject the rights of the Jewish people in the region, deny Israel's political identity and ignore any positive aspects of Israel's image, the support of the Palestinian school curriculum for violent struggle assumes grave importance. While there is no direct call for a jihad - holy war - on Israel, the language used is connected to jihad and war, e.g., fedayoun (suicide fighters), shahada (martyrs who die in battle for the sake of Allah), estshaheed (a martyr's death), defense, uprising, resistance, and struggle. The context in which these words are used is definitely positive.

Glorification of suicide martyrs: the shaheed and the feda'ay:

Third-grade pupils are taught that the preferred way to celebrate Palestinian Independence Day is to invite the families of the shahada and prisoners and to plant trees in memory of the shahada. The subject of shahada is also used in language classes: choosing the masculine or feminine form of the determiner in sentence completion about "____ shaheed of the homeland", and using the word shahada as an example in grammar exercises. A story in an eighth-grade reader includes the following passage:

"the blood of the shahada embroidered the flag that the fighters were protecting, and the guns of the soldiers who believed in its eternity surrounded it. Bodies fell so that it could be flown, and faithful followers died for its sake." The book A Look at Texts (el-Matala'a and el-Nazoz) part I, for the eighth grade, heads the list of new textbooks containing incitement; it includes a poem, Palestine, that calls, "Brother, ariseto defend church and mosqueand kiss everyone who falls as a shaheed for her (Palestine's) land." The speaker in the poem calls on the name of Allah and dies a martyr's death (estshaheed).

The authors of the textbook ask the pupils the following question: "The poet describes Jerusalem as the sister of the Arabs and Moslems, but the enemy sharpens its knives in order to kill her. What does the poet expect the brothers to do for their sister?" There are more expressions in a similar vein: "The dew caressed the shaheed's hand that grasped the flag of the homeland." "Hundreds of Palestinian men and women died a martyr's death (estshaheed) for the sake of freedom during the intifada." The term feda'ay and derivations of it are used widely in this year's textbooks. This term, which indicates a direct connection between the mission to kill enemies in the name of Islam and the staunch willingness to die, is just as significant in Arab culture as shaheed and jihad. It is possible that the increased use of feda'ay instead of shaheed/shahada came as a result of criticism leveled at the textbooks because they were encouraging martyrdom, and because of objections in the Arab world to Muslim suicide attacks.

The authors of this year's textbooks may have believed that the international community would be less sensitive to the unfamiliar term feda'ay. To the Palestinian Moslem student, however, the term is not new; it is just as well known as shaheed. In this way, the curriculum can include an "educational" concept that the non-Moslem world will not really understand and therefore not criticize.

Jihad and Warfare

In order to inculcate the value of the national struggle, the textbooks' authors use terminology borrowed from the battlefield, presented in a positive light. The guiding ethos is the war between the Palestinians, who are defending their national, historical and religious values, and Israel, characterized by evil, thievery and murder. In the lower grades, the fighting language is presented in a subtle way.

The message to third-graders, for example, is hidden in a prosaic exercise involving an innocent-looking envelope: the sender is Nasal ("struggle") Abdullah Mansour, and the addressee lives on Shahada Street in Gaza. Eighth-graders are exposed to a more direct message. In a story called "Evening Visitor", pupils read about a Palestinian man who joined the fedayoun following the death of his son on a Jerusalem street, on the first day of the '67 war. He explains the importance of struggle as the way to achieve the goal: "It is not my son's death that motivated me to continue living and fighting. Men like Salakh (the son) are killed every day on southern (Lebanese) soil. We have no time to be sad when the homeland is the past, present and future."

In a section on the capture of Tiberias by Salakh a-Din and its return to the bosom of Islam, eighth-graders are asked to choose the appropriate religious duty: prayer, fasting, charity, or jihad (the hidden message in the story and the exercise relates to the fact that present-day Tiberias is once again outside the circle of Islam).

The poem "Palestine" accuses the enemy and demands a warlike response: "Brother, the exploiters have gone too far, and therefore the time has come for jihad and suicide in battle (feda)." The book Al-Aloum al-Laviah (language sciences), part A, for the eighth grade, also adopts violence as the way to solve the Palestinian problem. Usually the message is implied, as in the poem by Hafet Ibrahim the Egyptian: "the eagle desires to hunt in our land, but we will show him how the chick will hunt him." A grammar principle is illustrated by the sentence, "The duty of the conquered is to rise up against the conqueror." Another passage states, "There is dignity in death, tasted by those great spirits who refuse to accept humiliation."

Right of Return

In contrast to last year, the current textbooks deal less with the right of return of Palestinian refugees. The poem about Gaza says, "Youth! Your eyes burn me with fire, questioning me from their depthsabout the return home, and I say: Youth! We will wait until tomorrow." In one exercise, the pupil is asked to explain orally the Palestinian right to return to his homeland; as previously stated, there is less on this issue, and it is in a more moderate tone, than in last year's books.

Other Subjects

Other topics, such as the Arab character of Jerusalem and negative attributes of Judaism are expressed in various ways, but they occupy an insignificant place in the total curriculum.

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Current Events • Israeli Media • Terror Against Israel