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Tuesday, November 12, 2013

To PalArabs, education is only meant for "resistance"

There are two tracks to the Palestinian "Right to Education" week: the lies that they tell local students and the lies that they tell international students.

From Ma'an:
Right to Education Week at Birzeit University commenced Monday with a workshop on the education of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails.

Events will be held on campus throughout the week highlighting the obstacles faced by Palestinians under occupation in their pursuit of education.

Sundos Hammad, coordinator of the campaign at Birzeit, stressed the importance of education for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.

"Education is our tool to resist occupation. It is important to keep our Palestinian heritage and to resist the narrative of the occupier."
Let's look at the history of this initiative:
"Initially, Right to Education Week was only on the international level," explained Hammad, who has been an active organizer in the campaign for more than two years.

"The campaign started during the Intifada, when every Palestinian was living under occupation and was always aware of the violations taking place."

"We wanted the international community to be in solidarity with our cause."

However, in the last five years, as Israeli troops have withdrawn from West Bank city centers, campaign organizers realized the need for the campaign to have a local dimension to help educate the public about ongoing violations of the right to education.

"Now, there are violations that are not visible. Occupying the minds of Palestinians, changing the history of Palestine in textbooks, giving the narrative of the occupier- there [sic!] systematic violations changing how we think about Palestine."
Did you catch that? The very organizer of this campaign is admitting that there are no barriers to education in the West Bank and Gaza. And he is saying that there is not even occupation in areas under PA (and Hamas) control!

But Israel's existence, which ensures that there will be no Palestinian Arab state from the river to the sea, is an "occupation of the mind."

However, the message sent to universities worldwide is quite different:
The week of events at Birzeit University is part of a global movement supporting the Palestinian Right to Education. Events will take place on at least 25 campuses in the UK, USA, Norway, Netherlands, South Africa, Canada, and Ireland.

As part of the week, Birzeit University students will participate in events that help students abroad see the obstacles Palestinian students face under occupation, including video conferences.

At the 25 campuses around the world that are celebrating this "right to education" week, the "education" being offered is propaganda - even according to the organizers of the event! There, the college students are being lied to and told that Israel is still stopping Palestinian Arabs from attending university, even though Palestinian Arabs know that it isn't true and adjust the local message accordingly.

The local initiatives, however, stress the "right" to teach Palestinians that Israel is illegal, that terror is legitimate and that resistance is the purpose of education. (Read the whole article if you don't believe me.)

The most successful export under PLO rule is lies.