AP: Do Palestinian Textbooks Really ‘Teach Terrorism’ as Gingrich Claims?
- Posted on December 18, 2011 at 1:19am by
Scott Baker
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RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Do Palestinian school textbooks “teach terrorism,” as Newt Gingrich claimed in a recent debate among U.S. Republican presidential hopefuls?
His example — that Palestinians “have text books that say, ‘If there are 13 Jews and nine Jews are killed, how many Jews are left?’” — is not in any of the texts, researchers say.
As for Gingrich’s broader claim, the textbooks don’t directly encourage anti-Israeli violence, but they also don’t really teach peace, studies say.
A review of some texts by The AP, as well as several studies by Israeli, Palestinian and international researchers, found no direct calls for violence against Israel. However, the books lack material about the historic Jewish presence in the region and scarcely mention Israel and then mostly in a negative way. Peace with Israel rarely comes up. Texts for religious schools are harder-core, openly glorifying martyrdom.
Researchers disagree sharply in their interpretation of the material.
Two NGOs, one Israeli and one international, support the view of Israeli officials that the texts promote hatred of Israel. For example, Israel is not included in a list of the countries of the Levant, and Hebrew writing was removed in a depiction of a stamp from British Mandate rule of the Holy Land.
A joint Israeli-Palestinian study takes a softer view, saying that there is no direct attempt to delegitimize Israel, but that “the way and contexts in which Israel is presented may give rise to the impression of an implicit denial of its legitimacy.”
The books must be seen in the context of ongoing conflict, said Nathan Brown, a George Washington University political scientist who has written about the issue. While highly nationalistic, government texts don’t glorify violence, explicitly deny Israel’s right to exist or portray Jews as villains, he said.
“I think the textbook critics have cause and effect mixed up — when there is a viable political process it may be possible to introduce a process to revise the books in a reciprocal way,” Brown said.
The argument looms large in a debate driven by the Israeli government, which frequently accuses the Palestinians of incitement in their schools.
“How can you take someone seriously as a partner in peace, if instead of teaching their children reconciliation they teach hate,” said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev. “It’s the heart of the matter.”
The Palestinians say their books legitimately focus on their national narrative, including hardships of life under occupation. “We might have a problem with Zionism, but this is not incitement, this is a difference in views,” said Ghassan Khatib, spokesman of the Palestinian Authority, which controls part of the West Bank.
Palestinian officials say Israel has created an artificial issue in hopes of diverting attention from its failure to meet key peace obligations, such as halting its settlement of occupied lands.
The question has suddenly become an issue in the U.S. presidential campaign. Three researchers — Brown, Itamar Marcus from Palestinian Media Watch and Eldad Pardo from IMPACT-SE — said the example Gingrich cited in the Dec. 10 Republican debate does not exist in the texts. Gingrich’s office did not respond to two emailed requests for further comment.
Greater clarity could arise from a State Department-funded review of both Israeli and Palestinian textbooks to be released in the spring. Since 2009, Israeli and Palestinian researchers, fluent in Hebrew and Arabic, have been examining 370 Israeli and 102 Palestinian books from grades 1-12. Some of the Palestinians review Israeli books, and some of the Israelis review Palestinian books.
Conclusions are left to the study’s sponsor, the Council of Religious Institutions in the Holy Land, made up of clerics representing Judaism, Islam and Christianity, said Yale professor Bruce Wexler, overseeing the research.
Some argue that Israeli textbooks also promote a national narrative, noting that the so-called Green Line, the pre-1967 war frontier between Israeli and the West Bank, has been erased from the Israeli school atlas. The Green Line is also absent from most Palestinian textbooks, but was restored in a Palestinian atlas published several years ago, said geography professor Izhak Schnell of Tel Aviv University.
Texts taught in secular Israeli schools continue to promote the Jews’ right of return, but more space than in the past is now allocated to the Palestinians and their pain, said Ruth Firer, of Hebrew University.
Since it took control of parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1994, the Palestinian Authority has been working to replace the Egyptian and Jordanian books used in its schools for decades previous. Under intensive scrutiny from Israel and the international community, the Palestinians developed their own curriculum and purged their new textbooks of some controversial references, but kept the focus on the Palestinian narrative.
Palestinian Media Watch and IMPACT-SE harshly criticized the Palestinian textbooks.
“There is a lot of jihad, martyrdom, a complete ignoring of anything Israeli,” said Pardo, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor and member of IMPACT-SE. “There is no education for peace, there is education for conflict.”
Many of the most problematic passages IMPACT-SE cited came from the texts for Islamic religious schools. Only about 750 of the 1.16 million students enrolled in Palestinian schools in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem attend such schools.
Shelley Elkayam of IMPACT-SE said the religious school students are influential since they go on to be religious teachers and preachers.
The textbooks include statements glorifying martyrdom. One 8th-grade text says Muslim fighters must “get rid of the usurping Jews from the usurped lands in Palestine and in the Levant.”
The Palestinian Education Ministry only began supervising the Islamic schools a year ago and is gradually replacing the old texts with new ones “based on moderation,” said Mohammed Jihad, head of the religious school system.
A new 12th grade book, for example, provides a nonviolent definition of jihad — a way of spreading justice.
In government schools — attended by 768,000 students — a number of passages glorifying jihad were removed, IMPACT-SE acknowledged. Still, it said, the books are problematic. For example, a 12th grade Islam studies book discusses the concept of “ribat,” or steadfastness against attackers, saying Palestinians “are in steadfastness until the day of resurrection.” Elkayam said this suggests the struggle over Palestine is eternal.
“Although there is no direct instruction for immediate violence against Israelis … hate, rejection and a vision of one Greater Islamic-Arab Palestine are fostered,” said the study, which was released in May and reviewed 70 government textbooks and 25 religious school texts. “An imaginary geography in which Israel does not exist is being taught.”
The joint Israeli-Palestinian study of 2006, commissioned by IPCRI, a dovish nonprofit group, highlighted some positive elements of the new textbooks, saying they do not “incite hatred toward Jews or Judaism” and that only two cases of anti-Jewish stereotypes were found.
But no objective information is found about Israel’s society and people, it said.
Khatib, the Palestinian Authority spokesman, defended the omission of Israel from Palestinian textbooks. “When Israel is going to include us in their textbooks, we will include them in our textbooks,” he said. “It is supposed to be a mutual thing.”
D
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Comments (51)
SilentReader
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 12:28pmI’m surprised that there are any “Palestinian” children going to school at all. Their parents are too busy strapping suicide vests on their children, hoping that they will become the next martyr for Mohammed. And, of course, we all know that under Sharia girls are not allowed to go to school. So, they’re not reading the textbooks.
The Mohammedists have a good game going on. It’s called genocide. They’re the greatest of deceivers. So are the Left who have partnered with them in their “Palestinian Wall of Lies” in order to carry on their Jihad against the Jew in America. We certainly can’t have Americans loving the Jews now can we? We all know that Arafat the Rat created the “Palestinian” people to be a thorn in Israel’s side as a catalyst to carry on their Jihad against the Jew in Israel. It’s all part of the Muslim Brotherhood plan (whose members created their terror arms the Hamas and the al Qaeda to do their dirty work) captured by the FBI in a sting some time back, to continue the jihad and take over America by replacing our U.S. Constitution with their brutal Sharia and turning our American government into a Caliphate. And they’re well on their way with Hamas-linked CAIR litigating us to death (lawfare) and the Mohammedists creating their no-go zones.
So, rather than pointing out the obvious it is better to create our own plan to fight their insidious plan of genocide against the infidel for Mohammed in America, and we haven’t even begun to figh
Report Post »YepImaConservative
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 10:31amI remember back in 2008 when Ron Paul was the lone House member who voted against (400-1) H.R. 951, which condemded the ongoing Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, holding both Iran and Syria responsible for “sponsoring terror attacks.” Additionally, the resolution claimed that “those responsible for launching rocket attacks against Israel routinely embed their production facilities and launch sites amongst the Palestinian civilian population, utilizing them as human shields etc.
Stormfront and other Jew hating White supremacist groups PRAISED Ron Paul’s action and Dr. David Duke (yes, he calls himself Dr.) went on to PRAISE Paul supporters for backing him (Paul) in his time of singular “courageous” triumph. Triumph? Well, anyways, Paul then as now, is oblivious to the real world, and I wonder what Lew Rockwell, er Ron Paul thinks regarding this topic?
Report Post »singleparent
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 11:46amWe should mind are own business and focus on are own problems…..Isreal is not weak and can take care of themselves…
Report Post »YepImaConservative
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 12:05pm> SINGLE.
And I noticed (from other topics you posted on) you hate CATHOLICS too. Hmmmm.. interesting.
Report Post »HistoryFTW
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 3:55pmI recommend you try reading the Constitution and the words of our founding fathers, then look at this resolution in the context of the role of congress (hint: it is not to require other nations to condemn other nations for actions tht have nothing to do with the defense of our own nation).
Additionally, you can read Paul`s own reason for his vote here:
http://thisisbunk.wordpress.com/2008/03/07/the-lone-statesman-in-our-us-congress-say-no-hr-951/
Just because someone respects the notion that we should mind our own business when it does not affect us, does not mean they hate Isreal, or that Paul is somehow happy about Isrealis dying.
Report Post »YepImaConservative
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 5:29pm> HISTORY. Read it a few times (The Constitution). Not your link though… don’t play the Ron Paul, supporter lookey here, see the link game.
You don’t present any new to me.
Report Post »HistoryFTW
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 8:48pmThe link was so you could see Paul’s own words, which it sounds like you never read.
Please show me where in the Constitution it says “Congress shall dictate to other nations how they should respond to actions by other nations (not the US)”.
I look forward to your response on how H.R. 951 was backed in any way by our constituion and within the jurisdiction of congress.
Thanks.
Report Post »disenlightened
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 10:21amThe very fact that there are people writing for the AP who would turn a blind eye and pretend that Palestinian children aren’t breast-fed on the thought of drinking Israeli blood reminds me that evil is so deeply rooted in this world and found in all the most unlikely places. It has to be resisted and fought constantly to keep the virus from spreading, particularly in our schools and the mainstream media.
Report Post »mrsalvage2
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 10:04amHow dare he finally admit to aiding and abetting the financing of terror teaching that the Congress supported all through the 1990′s under the Oslo Accord.
Read Ramon Bennett’s “Philistine”
America is no friend of Israel.
Hell! Israel is no friend of Israel for their women percapita are aborting their babies faster than the US women are. There will be no Israel in 20-30 years.
Report Post »RiseLiberty
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 9:22amWhy even have this conversation? Why this senseless article? Hamas lobs rockets into Israel every day, their own charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, they are surrogate mercenaries for Iran – and you want to split hairs over how many Palestinian textbooks preach hate? Give me a FK–ing break. Just look! Look at what they grow up to become. You don’t call that hate? You’re demented then. Finally we have a candidate that dares to speak the truth and all Glenn can do is bash him. This tells me one of two things: either everything I’ve been listening to Beck say for the last four years has been a lie, or his need to be right is more Important than getting Obama out of the WH.
Either way, it does not bode well for Glenn beck or his following. If he continues this mad tirade against all reason, he will lose everything. I have already stopped listening to his radio show because what was so appealing before, so original, has become a tired and pathetic narrative for the sole purpose of destroying a conservative candidate who tells the truth.
Sorry Glenn. You’re not the Glenn I thought you were.
Report Post »Boppa54
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 9:20amPalWatch.org just read
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 8:08amAre you kidding me: the KORAN tells them…
Report Post »ViewPointtt
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 5:13pmExcellent point, Lukerw…
The Center for the Study of Political Islam broke down the Koran line by line and determined that most of the Quran (61%) promotes hatred, subjugation, enslavement and slaughter of non-Muslims.
Report Post »CONNIPTION FITZ
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 6:49amBOTH – MICHELE BACHMANN and NEWT have talked about the Palestinian/Hamas textbooks.
It’s worse in the Madrassas (Islamic Schools) of Pakistan and elsewhere in the muslim world.
They torture and brain-wash the children and fill them with hatred of Jews and Christians, and the ideas of martyrdom and jihad.
LAST WEEK, in Pakistan, they found 85 children chained in the basement of one of the EVIL schools.
Islam is a horrible plague upon the earth.
BUT abortion, trafficking, p orn ography and forn-c ation, drugs, are also plagues upon Western society. US parents and schools teach our children some horrible things.
Report Post »brianoflondon
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 6:21amHere are some pictures of Hamas kids and Jewish kids at a party. The AP’s fact checking misses the point and jumps through hoops to make Newt look bad and, of course, bash Israel. It’s a piece that is not worthy of The Blaze on both scores.
http://www.israellycool.com/2011/12/18/night-and-day-light-and-dark-good-and/?utm_source=link&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=blaze
Report Post »NewAmericanist
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 7:23amNice article, brianoflondon.
But why the hit piece, Blaze? Why reprint headlines that don’t match the information in the body of the article.
Report Post »ZomBrad
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 5:50amAmerican textbooks don’t exactly teach that America is an evil, greedy, and imperialistic nation, nor use the words “stolen land”…….but we all know what the majority of our teachers believe…..
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 6:45amPalestinian text books may not teach terrorism, but palestinian parents DO……
Report Post »Dr Vel
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 5:31amGlenn must stop this Newt bashing or he will help bring on the nightmare he keeps warning about. A house divided against itself will fall and if Newt does end up the nominee Glenn will have turned enough votes away to give Obama a win. Whether they do not vote out of disgust over the GOP nominee or God forbid vote for a third party mad hatter like Paul, either way Obama wins. The left had to take out Cain to guarantee Obama the black vote, any more lowering of hopefully GOP voting numbers and we are done for. No doubt in another 4 years the left will either do away with elections, or add more terms, as well as rigging the election process through direct corruption as well as increasing the illegal voter base. The end result will be a dictator we cannot remove and Gitmo or Fema camps will await all true Patriots who disagree. Don‘t think so or think I’m a conspiracy nut? Then just wait and watch history unfold right before your eyes. If you believe in the Prophecies in the bible just exactly how did you envision the one world government coming to pass?
Glenn you have made your point about Newt now stay out of it and stop the attack or the two years I have paid you my Insider Extreme subscription will end with no more money from me.
Report Post »Polwatcher
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 6:00amThe books teach martyrdom (according to the above article). That’s what we see every day with terrorists, Your right. Beck better lay off Newt.
Report Post »blue_sky
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 5:07am.
Money bomb at RonPaul2012 is about $3,600,000.00.
Donate today!
* Restore America Now *
.
Report Post »PATRIOTGRUNT
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 4:04am@ Scott Baker : You Jew hating MF . FK you and “ THE BLAZE ” If you have the ba______lls to post this then I recomend that all of the people posting here go to http://www.atlasshrugs2000 .typepad.com web site. Just Google it . This lady has the ba__lls that GB wishes he had. Next to this gal Glenn is a punk.FK the blaze and Bye Bye.
Report Post »RiseLiberty
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 9:01amSad but true, Partiot. Glenn risks losing everything with his single-minded obsessive mission to assassinate Newt. What, is he demented? Whatever your disagreement with the former speaker, nothing merits this kind of vitriol. Beck has suddenly turned into an illogical, crazed attack dog. Newflash, Glenn: beating Obama matters more than continuing your destructive attacks on Newt!
Better change course now Glenn, or your followers will leave in droves. Count me as one of them.
Report Post »scout n ambush
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 3:42amI got the biggest laugh in along time earlier this week the palestinian spokesperson i don’t recall the name said they are not actually arabs they are cananites , they never leave a dull moment..
Report Post »TheQuietMan
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 3:40ami am a supporter of Mr. Beck and I know he’s creating a cutting edge news site like Drudge, but I really hope this doesn’t become a site only advocating a singular point of view. I hope it lives up to the truth and the facts. If it simply becomes an anti-Newt site or an attack site for point of views they don’t agree with, I’ll no longer be reading.
Report Post »Anne G
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 4:52amI have had your same fears of late. I am baffled because I could have swore Glenn said he wasn’t going to get involved in politics because he did not believe that the democrats or the republicans were the answer. Did you hear him say that?
Report Post »Daddymac10
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 3:28amWait a minute, Michele Bachmann was the first to bring this up two debates ago. Now how is possible for Newt Gingrich to take the credit for revealing this?? And when Newt mentioned it, he clearly praised Michele for bringing it up. Media bias is just so frustrating. Michele Bachmann for President 2012
Report Post »AhLeahIris
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 3:36amGood point, she’s one of the few remaining conservatives in the race. Of course, I guess that depends upon how you define “conservative,” doesn’t it? http://wp.me/p1HGwx-1JL
Report Post »Anne G
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 4:55amIt was Michelle, and yet that is not mentioned here. What gives? Jeez, please tell me this web site hasn’t abandoned the WHOLE truth. I know Glenn doesn’t like Newt, but this is spin. What gives Glenn?
Report Post »brianoflondon
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 3:02amScott, I’m taking issue again with you for re-posting uncritically an AP story that is basically a hit piece. The quote from Itamar Marcus (while probably directly true) is clearly torn, bloody and bleeding, from statements he might make and is completely at odds with the 30 minute segment that aired on GBTV a week or two ago!
http://www.israellycool.com/2011/12/08/completely-honest-deception/?utm_source=link&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=blaze
The kinds of moral equivalences drawn in this AP hit piece are abhorrent and it is beneath the quality of The Blaze to post uncritically on The Blaze. It is well below your standards.
Report Post »Anamah
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 2:41amCome on Scott Baker, if you haven’t see it before… watch now Memri.org; please look for Palestinian text books and didactic material; go to you Tube and delight yourself with the offensive songs and party exhibitions of little kids, making the martyrdom and killing the Jews… they have also a Mickey Mouse but really a degenerated one… totally perverse… Their TV, everything… they are so poisonous!!! Ask David Horowitz….How can you not get it?
Report Post »KangarooJack
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 2:26ampretty teeth dear…..pearly whites….and he keeps it keeps it out of sight…ne’re a trace of it….
Report Post »KangarooJack
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 2:21amOMG-they have the equivalent of ELMO tossing cocktails at his close associates…and at what point do the women of this culture say NO NO NO!!! I will not raise my son to be a pinata for some ’cause’.
I gave birth to 3 kids (no spinals…got the full experience—all be damned if I’ll have them die for some ******* cause.
Report Post »The Third Archon
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 2:11am“Do Palestinian school textbooks “teach terrorism,” as Newt Gingrich claimed in a recent debate among U.S. Republican presidential hopefuls?”
Report Post »ha ha ha ha–no, of course not; what implanted the silly notion in your head that PALESTINIANS, could somehow get ahold of TEXTBOOKS?! They can barely get ahold of food, water, and shelter let alone textbooks. Lol, the crazy things people dream up, ha ha ha.
One Man Progressive Wrecking Crew
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 2:07am“found no direct calls for violence against Israel…”……no, they do that stuff in their cartoons, kids’ tv shows and at the Mosque…
Report Post »bikerr
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 1:40amThe story is from the AP. How true can any of it be?.
Report Post »bikerr
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 1:39amNeither is the saying of“ seperation of church and state”
Report Post », But let’s not get the facts in the way of a good smear campaign by the liberals.
Locked
Posted on December 18, 2011 at 1:38am“As for Gingrich’s broader claim, the textbooks don’t directly encourage anti-Israeli violence, but they also don’t really teach peace, studies say.”
Let me preface this by saying “I’ll take an Israeli governing body over Hamas any day.”
Now, with the commenting. How terrible! They don’t teach hatred… or peace? It‘s like it’s… neutral? Heaven forbid! Come on, Gingrich lied again. And we can’t even say “lied;” I bet there is an example of a Hamas-sponsored school 20 years ago that had a single textbook that said something like “Israel did not exist until the UN founded it after WWII.” Still obvious: create a boogeyman, make an “other” who’s different from our faiths, and divert attention from his own shortcomings. Who’s surprised?
We know the score. Hamas is bad news, and both sides know it. Gingrich knows that the majority of voters support Israel and right-leaning publications have been making an “Obama hates Israel” case for months (when honestly, Israel has gotten closer and closer to dictatorship and criticism is rather justified. Remember: Israel the country may be supported by God; but that’s MUCH different than saying their government and secret police get carte blanche from the Big Guy). Gingrich will lie to try and tap into that demographic. Business as usual.
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