Palestinian education ministry denies US incitement claims

The Palestinian Ministry of Education yesterday denied US claims that Palestinian textbooks are riddled with incitement and call for violence, Quds Press reported.

Curriculum chief, Tharwat Zeid, said: “We reject American criteria to evaluate and degrade the Palestinian textbooks based on the Israeli vision.”

The Palestinian education ministry “is not ready to have any side check Palestinian textbooks and compare them with the Israelis which clearly include incitement and calls for violence.”

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Zeid stressed that the Palestinian syllabus “maintains the Palestinian principles”, adding: “We are in the stage of a national liberation. The oppressed Palestinians have been suffering from Israeli violations for tens of years and they are calling for the return of their rights.”

He also said that the Palestinian syllabus “reinforces the Palestinian national culture, history, values and heritage.”

He called for Israeli textbooks to be checked for their use of “dirty words to describe the Arabs and frankly call for killing them, practicing violence and racism against them.”

The Palestinian education ministry said that this “violent attack on the Palestinian syllabus aims to undermine the Palestinian national identity and the role of education in reinforcing this identity.”