Palestinian textbooks continue to incite against Jews, glorify violence despite promises to reform

A study of Palestinian curricula, conducted by London-based NGO IMPACT-SE (the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education), found that the curriculum produced by the Palestinian Authority for Gaza pupils continues to incite students against Jews, while glorifying violence and martyrdom. The curriculum was developed by the PA for Gaza students, who have not been able to return to school since the start of the Gaza War following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of southern Israel. The study detailed two major findings: 

1. The PA’s new “abridged curriculum” for Gaza replicates antisemitic material and content that incites hatred and violence.
2. Reopened schools in Gaza continue to use textbooks and teaching materials that incite hatred and violence.

The Palestinian Authority curriculum for Gaza continues to use antisemitic language, narratives and imagery. An 11th-grade history textbook contained an illustration of a hand bearing a Star of David gripping the globe, alluding to a supposed Zionist global control. A lesson on statistics in a ninth-grade math exercise called for students to calculate the number of Palestinian “martyrs” of the conflicts with Israel. While a third-grade math lesson, meant to teach numerical writing, uses numbers and examples from the First Intifada.

The teaching material also glorifies violence against Jews and Israelis through the celebration of jihad, terrorism and martyrdom. A poem in one unit describes martyrs as climbing up a “mountain of their gushing blood.”    (Read More)