Overview

Palestinian Authority school children are actively taught 
that the Jews and Israel are the enemy, in a broad range 
of contexts. The school texts portray the Jew as the 
enemy of believers, the enemy of Islam, the enemy of the 
Arabs, as well as generally evil and dangerous. Jews are 
killers and robbers and have stolen Arab land. Modern 
events are misrepresented to portray Israel and Jews as 
the evil force in their world. Zionism is equated to 
Nazism, together they are depicted as the prototype 
examples of racism. These themes also appear regularly on 
PA television.

The Evil Enemy

"Complete the following blanks spaces with the 
appropriate word: The Zionist enemy - - [attacked] - - 
civilians with its aircraft. 

[Our Arabic Language, Part 2 for Third Grade #523 p..9]

· "Why do the Jews hate Muslim unity and want to 
cause division among them? Give an example of the evil 
attempts of the Jews, from events happening today." 

[Islamic Education for Seventh Grade p. 19]

· "The Jews ? have killed and evicted Muslim and 
Christian inhabitants of Palestine, whose inhabitants are 
still suffering oppression and persecution under racist 
Jewish administration."

[Islamic Education for Ninth Grade # 589 p. 182] 

· "Who is the thief who has torn our homeland?"

[Our Arabic Language for Sixth Grade Part One #553 p. 15]

· "Write in your exercise book: An event showing the 
fanaticism of the Jews in Palestine against Muslims or 
Christians."

[Islamic Education for Ninth Grade p. 182] 

· "One must beware of the Jews, for they are 
treacherous and disloyal."

[Islamic Education for Ninth Grade p. 79]

A section on Zionism is entitled: "Zionist Greed."

['Modern Arab History and Contemporary Problems, Part 
Two, for Tenth Grade #613 p. 49]

Even racism is defined through the Jews, while Nazism and 
Zionism are equated:
· "Racism: Mankind has suffered from this evil both 
in ancient as well as in modern times, for, indeed, Satan 
has, in the eyes of many people, made their evil actions 
appear beautiful... Such a people are the Jews?"

[ Islamic Education for Eighth Grade p. 95]

· The clearest examples of racist belief and racial 
discrimination in the world are Nazism and Zionism.

[The New History of the Arabs and the World, P. 123]

Modern ideologies and their effect on the Arab Nation (6 
sections)
· Section 2: Understanding the racist and aggressive 
character of the Zionist Movement.
Section 6: Summary of the similarity between Nazism, 
Fascism and Zionism.

[The New History of the Arabs and the World, P. 92]

Islamic Sources Used to Create Stereotype

At times, the hateful portrayal is based on Islamic 
sources. The children are taught to apply the traditional 
narratives to hateful teachings regarding Jews and 
Israelis today. Five examples:

· "I learn from this lesson: I believe that the Jews 
are the enemies of the Prophets and the believers." 

[Islamic Education, Part Two, for Fourth Grade #531 p. 67]

· "From the Uhud expedition? a number of lessons can 
be learned?: Treachery and disloyalty are character 
traits of the Jews and therefore one should beware of 
them." 

[Islamic Education for Ninth Grade #589 p. 87]

· "The Jews adopted a position of hostility and 
deception towards the new religion. They called Muhammad 
a liar and denied him, they fought against his religion 
in all ways and by all means, a war that has not yet 
ended until today, and they conspired with the hypocrites 
and the idolaters against him and they are still behaving 
in the same way?" 

[Islamic Education for Seventh Grade p. 125]

· "In many cases these Jews acted according to their 
known cunning and deceit, and they fomented wars [between 
Arab tribes]? 

[Islamic Education for Ninth Grade # 589 p. 78]

· "Lessons to be learned: One must beware of civil 
war, which the Jews try to foment, and of their scheming 
against the Muslims." 

[Ibid. p. 94]

Misrepresentation of Modern Events

Modern events are misrepresented to portray Israel as 
active in an ongoing attack against Islam and the Arabs. 
Two examples: In 1969 an Australian [non-Jew] set the 
al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on fire. Yet, the children 
are taught that Israel did it. 

· "This arson is a further chapter in the Zionist 
plot, whose aim is to take control of this Islamic holy 
place, the Dome of the Rock and the whole area of the 
Jerusalem sanctuary and to destroy all that is holy to 
Islam." 

[Reader and Literary Texts for Eighth Grade #578 p. 97]

The Zionist movement has never called for the expulsion 
of Israel's Arab citizens. Yet the books teach that 
Zionism calls for this "expulsion": 
· "Zionism is a political, aggressive and colonialist 
movement, which calls for the Judaisation of Palestine by 
the expulsion of its Arab inhabitants ? 

[Modern Arab History and Contemporary Problems, Part Two, 
for Tenth Grade #613 p.49]

Palestinian Authority Television

The same hateful portrayal of Jews and Israel found in 
the school books is promoted regularly on Palestinian 
television. There too, Israel is the enemy of the Arabs 
and Islam:

"The Koran stresses that the closest people to the 
Muslims are the Christians, whereas their greatest 
enemies are the Jews... 'May Allah protect us from the 
evil of the Satan - there is no enemy of the believers 
greater than the Jews and the idoloters'... Jesus warned 
the Jews of destruction and his prophecy was fulfilled 
and the City of Peace was purified from the defilement of 
the Jews... This ended the invasive Jewish presence in 
the Temple..." 

[PA television June 5, 1998]

· "Israel's mean, brutal, inhuman, fascist, racist, 
genocidal, cleansing wars?" 

[PA television May 14, 1998]

· "The Jewish gangs waged racial cleansing wars 
against innocent Palestinians? large scale appalling 
massacres saving no woman or children." 

[PA television May 14, 1998]

· One day they attacked? Attacked my country. They killed 
the old and slaughtered the young. They burned the Koran 
and destroyed the house. They marched upon my heart, you 
are my country.

[summer camp song - Palestinian Authority TV, July 19, 
1998] 

The Jewish-Israeli character is maligned: · "The 
occupier as you all know is a deceiver, a cheater, 
moreover, he is a liar?" 

[PA television May 14, 1998 , speech by Khalid Mismar, 
Deputy Political representative]

· Zionism is presented as "a cancer in the body of 
the nation". 

[PA television May 14, 1998] 

· Israeli soldiers are "those terrorists". 

[ PA television May 24, 1998]

· "...the terrorism that the occupying Israeli forces 
put into practice against our Palestinian nation since 
1948." 

[PA television May 19, 1998]