Palestinian School Curriculum Glorifies Violence, Violating Pledges to Reform

Textbooks being used by nearly 300,000 Palestinian schoolchildren in Gaza erase the State of Israel from the map and are replete with “graphic depictions of violence” and antisemitism.

By Edgar Lefkovits, JNS

An online school curriculum, produced by the Palestinian Authority for Gaza pupils amid the Israeli war against Hamas, continues to glorify violence and martyrdom and is rife with antisemitic stereotypes that are being taught in Hamas-run classrooms which praise the Oct. 7, 2023 attackers, a British think tank said on Monday.

The findings, which come in the wake of the Hamas-led onslaught in southern Israel and the nearly year-and-a-half-long war it triggered in Gaza, violate Palestinian commitments made to donor countries for educational reform. They come at a time when Western countries that fund the Ramallah-based P.A. continue to favor it taking control of Gaza from Hamas.

The London-based NGO Impact-se (the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education) study finds that the textbooks being used this year for nearly 300,000 Palestinian schoolchildren in grades 1-12 in Gaza erase the State of Israel from the map and are replete with “graphic depictions of violence,” and antisemitism.

The report also notes that at least four newly reopened Gaza schools under Hamas control openly celebrate the single worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust using textbooks and teaching materials rife with incitement.

“If the international community wants to support peace and stability in the Middle East it will recognize the importance of an education system in Gaza that promotes peace—not hate,” Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel told JNS. “Whilst Hamas remains in civilian control in Gaza the indoctrination of children into radical Islam through the education system will continue, this will only perpetuate future conflict,” she said.

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