Palestinian prime minister defends antisemitic textbooks

The European Union finally released its report on Palestinian textbooks, which was delayed for four months after completion. It is summarized in the Jerusalem Post:

The report includes dozens of examples of encouragement of violence and demonization of Israel and of Jews.

The textbooks present “ambivalent – sometimes hostile – attitudes toward Jews and the characteristics they attribute to the Jewish people... Frequent use of negative attributions in relation to the Jewish people... suggest a conscious perpetuation of anti-Jewish prejudice, especially when embedded in the current political context.”

The report identifies “the creation of a connection between the stated deception of the ‘Jews’ in the early days of Islam and the insinuated behavior of Jews today,” calling it “extremely escalatory.”

One textbook ties Muhammad’s aunt, who clubbed a Jew to death, to a question about Palestinian women’s steadfastness in the face of “Jewish Zionistic occupation.”

One textbook promotes a conspiracy theory that Israel removed the original stones of ancient sites in Jerusalem and replaced them with ones bearing “Zionist drawings and shapes.”

The concept of “resistance” is a recurring theme in the textbooks studied, along with calls for the Palestinians to be liberated via a revolution. To clarify the concept, one textbook has a photo with the caption, “Palestinian revolutionaries,” featuring five masked men toting machine guns.

Glorification and praise of terrorists who attacked Israelis can be found not only in history or social-studies books, but also in science and math books, such as one that mentions a school named after the “shahid” (martyr) Abu Jihad, a leader of the First Intifada.

A demonstration of Newton’s Second Law, which says force is equal to mass times acceleration, is illustrated by Palestinians using slingshots against Israeli soldiers.

Dalal al-Mughrabi, a much-admired figure in Palestinian society, was a Palestinian woman involved in the 1978 bus hijacking in which she and her accomplices murdered 38 Israelis, including 13 children. Textbooks repeatedly refer to her in the context of female empowerment.

There are “no further portraits of significant female figures in Palestinian history,” the report said, implying that “the path of violence [is] the only option for women to demonstrate an outstanding commitment to their people and country.”

In addition, most textbooks have maps that erase the State of Israel, portray the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as Palestine and refer to Israel with the term “Zionist occupation.”

Any modern leader, if such a report was written about their country's textbooks, would respond with "Thank you for  this information. We will study the report and if any of the criticisms are accurate, we will make the appropriate changes." 

But Palestinian leaders aren't normal leaders.

Palestinian prime minister Mohamed Shtayyeh defended the textbooks and curricula in his weekly ministers meeting:

The Prime Minister reiterated that "Palestinian school curricula is a reflection of our lives and dreams of our children 's freedom and the suffering of our people from the occupation and its violations, and all that is contained in the textbooks is accurate...."

He stressed that our curricula, while responding to the cultural, historical, psychological, scientific, technological, economic and development needs of our children, also respond to international charters and resolutions that consider the Palestinian territories to be occupied lands, and they also respond to the standards set by the UNESCO Education, Culture and Science Organization of the values ​​of truth, justice and equality, which are values ​​that he struggles with our people in order to gain the end of the occupation of our land .

 He stressed that the Palestinian curricula cannot be tried by criteria far removed from the history and culture of our people, their suffering and sacrifices in order to obtain their right to freedom and independence from occupation, injustice and colonialism, calling on Europe to conduct a study of Israeli books and curricula, similar to the study that was prepared on our curricula by a German institution, with funding from the European Union.

He doesn't even address the issues mentioned. According to Shtayyeh - who is as moderate a Palestinian as any - Palestinian textbooks must not be judged according to the standards of any other, because Palestinians are so uniquely victimized. Any antisemitism and support for terrorism is justified by their lived experience.

He is really saying that the world revolves around Palestinians and no one can dare criticize them.

It amazes me every day that Westerners act as if Palestinian leaders are like any other world leaders. This small episode shows yet again that they are closer to spoiled children, insisting that the world owes them everything and they have no responsibility or agency. 

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