This month, Israel’s President, Shimon Peres, travels to Canada and to the United States.
Israel’s president is not supposed to make political statements nor engage in diplomatic forays.
Israel’s presidency is supposed to be largely a largely ceremonial title, like the current status of current monarchs of of Western Europe.
Imagine if Queen Elizabeth addressed the UN on the subject of British hegemony over the Falkland Islands?
Yet Israel’s president, accountable to no one, on the eve of a state visit to North America, continues to issue a flurry of proclamations, lauding praise on Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad, the heads of the Palestinian Authority, as if they are Israel’s only hope for peace.
Peres repeats the mantra that “the gap between Israel and the PA is very small”.
For the past four years, our news agency and research center have responded to Peres’s lauding of the PA leaders and his assessment that there is a only a small gap between Israel and the PA with questions to Peres: Have you seen the school books that indoctrinate a curriculum of war for the next generation of Palestinian Arab school children to imbibe?
Have you examined the damning report on Palestinian Authority education that Dr. Noa Meridor prepared for Israeli intelligence, which can be found at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/as_nm_e.pdf ?
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Last year, in response to these questions, Peres’s foreign press spokesman asked to examine the PA curriculum , so we forwarded it to him.
Peres would still not respond.
Here are some pearls of wisdom that Palestinian Arab children learn from the new school books of the Palestinian Authority, to which Peres will not relate ;
1. Israel does not appear on any maps of the world in the new PA textbooks, while maps of Israel replace the name Israel with Palestine in all of the new Palestinian Authority school books.
2. The new Palestinian School Books “annex” sites in Israel to Palestine. ” Haifa is a Palestinian seaport,” (p. 7) (Lughatuna al-Jamila (Our Beautiful Language) Vol. 2, 5th grade textbook, p. 86). ”Galilee, Nazareth and Beit She’an are regions in Palestine,” (p. 7) (Al-Iqtisad al-Manzili (Home Economy), 10th grade textbook, pp. 36-37).
3. The new Palestinian school books mention Israel only as an enemy, in reference to “occupation of lands” in 1948 and 1967: " There is no doubt that the Israeli occupation has a negative impact on [Palestinian] agriculture and its export,” (p.
4. The new Palestinian school books present Zionism only as an enemy movement: "The Palestinian people are under an oppressive siege, limiting their movement and way of life,” (p. 9) (Al-Tarbiyah al-Islamiyyah (Islamic Education), Vol. 1, 5th grade textbook, p. 49).
Accusation against settlements [from 1948!] of damaging water sources “the influence of settlement on sources of water in Palestine,” (p. 9) (Ulumal–Sihha wal-B’ia (Health and Environmental Sciences), 10th grade textbook, p. 122).
“The Palestinian family has problems…stemming from the occupation…it loses father, mother or son to death or imprisonment…endures the difficulties of life…,” (p. 11) (Al-Tarbiyah al-Wataniyya (National Education), 5th grade textbook, p. 23).
5. The new Palestinian School Books make the false claim that an “extremist Zionist” set fire to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969, (p. 12) (Tarikh al’Alam al-Hadith wal-Mu’asir (History of the new Modern World), 10th grade textbook, p. 106) when it was really a mentally unstable fundamentalist Christian Australian.
6. The new Palestinian school books teach that the First Zionist Congress at Basel fostered the Zionist State based on a decision of the World Zionist Congress to create a racist regime in Palestine (p. 13) (Tarikh al-’Alam al-Hadith wal Mu-’asir (History of the News Modern World), 10th grade textbook, pp. 60-64).
7. The new Palestinian School books teach that the only ancient inhabitants of Israel were Arabs, ignoring any ancient Jewish presence.
“Concentrated…in the land of Al-Sham [Greater Syria]…was the culture of the Canaanite and Aramaic peoples who migrated there from the Arab peninsula,” (p.14-15) (Tarikhal-Hadaratal-Qadima (History of Ancient Civilizations), 5th grade textbook, Foreword).
8. The new Palestinian school books teach that Palestinians must use war and violence – especially martyrdom – to accomplish their goals:
The heroic mother, “who incessantly presents one sacrifice [fida’] after another.” (Lughatuna al-Jamila (Our Beautiful Language), Vol 2, 5th grade textbook, p. 31).
The warrior goes to war faced with one of the good options: victory or martyrdom in battle for the sake of Allah. (Ibid. Vol. 1, 5th grade textbook, p. 70).
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“Allah gave the people of this land (Al-Sham and Palestine) an important task: they must stand on the forefront of the Muslim campaign against their enemies, and only if they fulfill their duty to their religion, nation, and land will they be rewarded as stated in the scriptures.” (Al-Tarbiya al-Islamiyyah (Islamic Education), Vol 2, 10th grade textbook, p. 50).
9. The new Palestinian school books feature children with names such as Jihad (holy war) and Nidal (struggle). (p.22) (Tarikh al-Hadarat al-Qadima (History of Ancient Civilizations), 5th grade textbook, p.6).
10. The new Palestinian school books stress the importance of “return” of refugees to all of Palestine – by violence:
“The wrong must be made right by returning them to their homes: we returned to the homeland after a long absence.” (Lughatunaal-Jamila (Our Beautiful Language), Vol 2, 5th grade textbook, p. 43).
“Returning to the homes, the plains and the mountains, under the banners of glory, jihad [holy war] and struggle” (Lughatunaal-Jamila (Our Beautiful Language), Vol 1, 5th grade textbook, p.88).
Yet Shimon Peres, the man who fostered negotiations with the PLO a generation ago under the philosophy of the NEW MIDDLE EAST, departs for a state visit to Canada and then to the United States, knowing that his praise of the peaceful intentions of the nascent Palestinian Authority will bring him continued adulation.
Will any journalist, diplomat or cleric challenge Peres about the real message of total war that the Palestinian Authority indoctrinates in the next generation?
At the very least: Peres should be asked to whom he is accountable to… in his ceremonial post.
