Rather than promoting peace, the Palestinian educational system continues to glorify terrorists, promote death and destruction and incites to hatred.

A recent comprehensive study of textbooks used in the Palestinian school system reveals that the books continue to serve as a vehicle for incitement against Israel and present a warped view of history through their denial of Israeli history and the Holocaust.

A reporter for Israel’s Reshet Bet Radio examined some 70 school books from various disciplines, used from the first grade through high school.

The books were found to laud terrorism and terrorists, or Shahids (martyrs), as they are referred to in the books. Shahid is a term of Islamic glorification used for national heroes and those who have died while waging Jihad, Muslim holy war, against the infidels.

For example, a ninth grade book on Islam quotes a verse from the Koran that extols Shahids who die for Allah’s cause and promises to absolve them of their sins and place them in the highest place in the Muslim heaven.

History books dealing with World War II have no mention of the Holocaust and the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis in Europe.

Poisoning the Minds of the Next generation

The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) educational system in notorious for its glorification of terrorists in its schools and its official media is infamous for its propagation of anti-Semitism.

A comprehensive report compiled by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) in July reveals a well-known secret – that the official PA education system is teaching the next generation to hate Israel and Israelis, using the most virulent anti-Semitic concepts and materials to convey its messages and thus dashing any hopes for a peaceful future.

Not only is all this hatred is being embedded in the minds of Palestinian children, but peace-building contacts between Israeli and Palestinian youth are also prohibited by the PA, PMW explains.

When former US Senator Hillary Clinton joined PMW at a press conference in 2007 to release its report on PA schoolbooks, the then senator said that the Palestinian education system “profoundly poisons the minds of these children.” adding that some of the videos glorifying so-called martyrs were tantamount to “child abuse.”

The current report demonstrates that there has been no improvement. The PA continues to poison the minds of its children.

“Palestinian children are exposed to all of these [hate] messages, not from Hamas or fringe groups, but from official PA sources,” PMW stressed.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has recently claimed that the almost-daily Palestinian terrorist attacks are driven by Palestinian desperation over the so-called Israeli occupation. But teens who commit such attacks at this age are not despaired, rather, they are brainwashed by the Palestinian media and educational system, which promotes a culture of death and destruction that is driving an entire generation of Palestinians towards self-destruction.

By: Max Gelber, United with Israel