New York – A report from the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center of Tel Aviv’s Center for Special Studies (CSS) which examines new Palestinian fifth and tenth grade Palestinian school textbooks shows that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is educating Palestinian youth for conflict with an Israel it does not accept.

The CSS examined 29 new textbooks, published by the PA Education Ministry for the 2004-2005 school year, which are still in use, examining their content on issues related to Jews, Judaism and Israel. The findings of the review of that year’s books, compared to books from previous years, indicated a consistently hostile attitude.

In particular, the CSS made the following findings:

• Israel is rarely mentioned by name in the textbooks examined and then only in some negative context;
  
• A fifth grade geography textbook included a ‘Political Map of the Arab homeland’ on which Israel did not appear;
  
• The signed agreements between Israel and the PA under the Oslo peace process are not mentioned, let alone explained;
  
• Israeli cities and towns, wherever they may be, are described as “settlements”;
  
• World War Two is covered but no mention is made of the Holocaust;
  
• The history of biblical times is falsified, the Jewish historical experience is not discussed and Israel’s ancient inhabitants are described as Arab peoples; and
  
• The anti-Semitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, is cited, reiterating anti-Semitic myths on the Jews’ intention to take over the entire world.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “These findings are disturbing because they indicate that no change for the better has taken place in Palestinian education over the past few years. Palestinians have not reviewed their attitudes and decided to embark on the road to a genuine peace and reconciliation with Israel.

“On the contrary, the Palestinian educational curriculum continues to inculcate rejection of Israel and the promise of one day destroying her. In fact, some of these findings are even worse than findings for the previous academic year, 2003-2004, when at least some textbooks mentioned the signed agreements between Israel and the PA and also the pre-1967 armistice lines.

“The content of these PA textbooks amounts to a denial of Israel’s legitimacy and an unwillingness to peacefully coexist with it. The PA Education Ministry is cultivating hostility and extremism into a new generation of Palestinians. This is but one of the many aspects of the incitement to hatred and violence that not only has the PA done nothing to stop, despite its obligations under the signed agreements its textbooks refuse to mention, but is actually supporting. This is one example among many why the PA should be ineligible for any foreign aid until it meets its obligations, including that of ending incitement.”