Jerusalem Post
By Maurice Ostroff December 21, 2004
Palestinian textbooks and incitement have became topical subjects recently. Hanan Ashrawi lightly brushed off a question about Palestinian incitement put to her by Ruthie Blum in an interview published on December 17 in the Jerusalem Post. On December 18, the International Herald Tribune published an article “Where is all that incitement?” by Roger Avenstrup, which creates an unjustified sense of sanguinity about Palestinian textbooks.
Avenstrup claims that surveys by the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI) and others found no incitement to hatred in Palestinian textbooks.But the denials of the problem by both Ashrawi and Avenstrup are flatly contradicted by the very IPCRI reports to which Avenstrup refers. IPCRI’s Policy Paper of November 2004 clearly states, “..it is not difficult to come to the understanding that the main political theme imparted to the students is that Israel should not exist and that is essentially the Palestinian goal”. It stresses that the Palestinian educational system should not teach hatred and should not encourage violence. It states further that the treatment of Jihad and martyrdom suggest encouragement of suicide bombing aimed at killing Israelis and even the possibility of actually becoming suicide bombers.“..maps indicating the names of towns and cities in the State of Israel must be designated as such.
A map from 1948 onwards with Yaffa or Akka must indicate that these cities are located within the State of Israel. Failure to do so will only call for the reader to understand that in the Palestinian view, these cities will be within the future boundaries of the State of Palestine. There is no room for ambiguity on these issues”.
IPCRI’s first report on the text books indicated that education has a duty to become involved in the resolution of conflicts. Education is sometimes blamed as being part of the problem; it, then, has to be part of the solution. IPCRI’s second report noted that educators should be aware of the far-reaching effect of education in the promotion of reconciliation, tolerance and peace. They should also be aware of the effect of education that is based on incitement and violence.
In these two earlier reports IPCRI sought to engage the Ministry of Education and Palestinian educators in an open debate regarding the values instilled by their educational system. IPCRI sought to be constructive and to offer recommendations and suggestions for placing Palestinian education in line with a desire to make peace with Israel. It concluded that the Palestinian Ministry of Education was not prepared to pick up the challenge and its attempts to engage other Palestinian leaders on these issues also met resistance.
Strangely Mr. Avenstrup completely ignored an authoritative report by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP), which is more damming than the IPCRI survey. CMIP’s methodology provides actual quotations from textbooks with minimum commentary, allowing the texts to speak for themselves, whereas the IPCRI report generally uses paraphrases and descriptive commentary without providing any supporting verbatim text. It appears too, that CMIP examined several textbooks which were not included in the IPCRI survey.
Although CMIP reports some improvement in newer textbooks, most of the questions asked in the context of CMIP and UNESCO criteria were answered in the negative. Neither Israel, nor Tel Aviv, exist in any of the maps. One map shows Palestine covering the whole territory of Israel.
Sadly, even the newer textbooks did not meet UNESCO’s criterion No. 8 “the advancement of the cause of peace”. Peace is not mentioned at all, while war against Israel as a usurper, occupier and aggressor is implicitly encouraged. Even in one of the final exams. Israel is presented as an occupier and aggressor
But Avenstrup’s question “Where is all the incitement?” cannot be answered by referring only to textbooks. Unfortunately daily incitement continues in sermons in mosques which are broadcast on official Palestinian television calling for the murder of Jews. Typical of a recent sermon “Whoever has not merited Martyrdom in these times should rise in the night and ask: ‘My Lord why have you denied me Martyrdom?”,
Children in.summer camps are taught to use weapons against Israelis and models of Israeli buses are burned at public rallies where children are encouraged to emulate suicide bombers. More insidiously music cassettes are used to indoctrinate children to hatred and violence. Video clips portray happy child martyrs in the after-world. Text translations and video clips of these hate sermons are readily available at several web sites including http://www.israel-wat.com/spc_eng.htm.
Hopefully in the new era which appears to have dawned, incitement will be outlawed and replaced by an education program aimed at equipping the next generation of Palestinians to participate productively in the gainful pursuits from which they have been deprived for far too long.[/one_half]
