by Hagai Mazuz
In every society, people invest in and cultivate the young, hoping that this up-and-coming generation will accomplish what previous generations have failed to do. Europeans, for example, having been wrenched by two brutal wars, have understood that they must do everything possible so that there would be no more wars; the result has been an education system based on finding peaceful solutions, tolerance, and acceptance of the other as he is. We can already see the results of their efforts: the age of great wars between European powers seems to have come to an end; within Europe's borders, there seems to be peace and quiet. "Soft power" reigns.
The Europeans have since been trying to impose their Soft Power solution on the Middle East in general, and on Israel and the Palestinians in particular. The central problem facing the Europeans in carrying out their strategy for making peace between the two sides is that the Europeans are guilty of "mirror imaging:." They see Israel, justifiably so, as a Western country in every sense of the word; and start with the assumption that both the Palestinians and Israel want to get along with one another the way the Europeans now do. This is Europe's problem. Israel educates its young to pursue peace. Some Israelis have made this their utmost goal, even to the point of ignoring -- or even blinding themselves -- to the Middle Eastern reality in which they live. The Palestinians, on the other hand, have done the exact opposite.
Examining the Palestinian Authority's Educational Curriculum -- both in the West Bank and Gaza -- exposes the bitter truth. In the textbook "Our Beautiful Language," which is used in the first grade, there is a picture on page 142 of a teacher telling her students about the Arab world. The Muslim countries are all colored in green (the color of Islam); and that includes the State of Israel. On page 153 of the 12th grade book, "The History of the Arabs and the World in the 20th Century," all of the names of these countries are listed except Israel, which is listed as "Palestine." This occurs again and again in other educational texts; for example on page 143: on the maps used in Palestinian schools, there is a map of Israel on which is superimposed the PLO flag; and on the Internet home page of the Palestinian Central Statistical Office, Israel is listed as Palestine. This same map, incidentally, is also on the wall of Mahmoud Abbas's office.
"The war over Palestine ended more tragically than any war in history. The Zionist gangs stole Palestine and expelled its residents from their cities, villages, and lands and established the State of Israel on this land…" This is not some Hamas propaganda poster; this is a paragraph (page 104) taken from the educational text, "The Arabic language: Discussion, Literature, and Criticism," used in the 12th grade.
Educational texts used in both the Palestinian Authority and in Gaza indoctrinate and encourage children to prefer death over life and call for jihad:
"Oh heroes, Allah has promised you victory… Don't speak to yourselves about fleeing … Your enemies desire life while you desire death."
" Don't worry about encountering the enemy because the taste of death is not bitter in the faces of the believers…" [See "Discussions and Texts for the 8th grade, Part 2, (2002) Page 16]
In the Palestinian textbooks, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is defined in Islamic terms as "ribat" (i.e., a religious war), and in these books, the message which is being taught is that the war with Israel must be pursued until the end of days. (Source: Islamic Education, 12th grade text, pages 86-87).
In February 2007, after these texts were exposed, Hillary Clinton at a news conference said that "These schoolbooks… are engaged in brainwashing… In a very basic way, they are poisoning the minds of the children."
In "educational" and documentary TV programs, the message is clear: Israel stole Palestine. In one of the children's programs, the hostess asks a boy: Name three Palestinian ports. The boy answers: Haifa, Ashdod, and Gaza. The hostess answers "Excellent. And let me add Jaffa, Ashkelon, and Eilat." The hostess then asks the boy: Name three countries which border Palestine. He responds: "Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. The audience, hearing the "correct" answer, cheers and claps. But Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt are the borders of the State of Israel, not Palestine.
Even the images of small, seemingly innocent children are enlisted in the campaign against Israel. Farfur the Mouse (Hamas's version of Mickey Mouse) preaches about the superiority of Islam: he is imprisoned by the Israel Defense Forces [IDF], and interrogated in the supposed dungeons of the Israeli security services, Shabak. He is tortured and eventually dies, becoming a martyr. The veiled eight-year-old hostess of the program has a solemn look on her face as she praises the martyrdom of Farfur the Mouse.
Farfur is not alone. There is Nahul, the bumble bee, who dies a martyr's death: as a result of the Israel siege of Gaza, Nahul cannot be taken to an Israeli hospital in Israel for treatment; he therefore dies. That same eight-year-old hostess who eulogized Farfur the Mouse remarks: "Today we say to you Nahul: Congratulations. This is your wedding! We do not see this as your death, but as your wedding". -- meaning that now Nahul will be in the bosoms of the 72 virgins awaiting him in Paradise.
Naur the Bear expresses his desire to join Hamas's Iz Ad-Din Qassam brigades, and announces his intent to wage a war on the "Zionist criminals." He asks the program hostess, that same eight-year-old girl, "Are you with me?" She answers: "We are all ready to sacrifice ourselves for our homeland."
This fabulous team also includes Asud the Rabbit and Trabishu the chick, who prances around threatening in the air that he will come with Kalashnikovs and tanks against the Zionist enemy.
The result is that children from the age of 7 to 18 – both boys and girls – publicly express their desire to sacrifice their lives on the altar of the Palestinian people and become martyrs. Some of them undergo battle training and join the ranks of the terrorists.
All of the above is just the tip of the iceberg: there are thousands of additional examples of Palestinian anti-Israeli educational indoctrination which completely negate the idea of living in peace with Israel.
If this is how the Palestinians are educating their next generation, can there really be a chance that there will be peace between Israel and the next generation of Palestinians?
Hagai Mazuz
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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