Ministry for Diaspora Affairs | October 2024

Chapter 1 Antisemitism and Indoctrination Promoting the Destruction of Israel in Textbooks and Teacher Manuals

52 Attackers are glorified in textbooks, and teachers are instructed to guide students to write essays praising terrorists with blood on their hands. Moreover, Dalal al-Mughrabi is elevated to a status comparable to that of historic Palestinian leaders like Yasser Arafat and Izz ad-Din al-Qassam. The prominence of Dalal al-Mughrabi in Palestinian leadership is reinforced in an example exam task for geography and history students found in the guide, “Geography and Modern History of Palestine,” 10th grade. Pictures of Yasser Arafat, Dalal al Mughrabi, and Ahmad al-Shuqayri [the first head of the PLO] are shown, and students are asked to write two lines about these figures (3 points).

54 PA textbooks also honor the bodies of terrorists held by Israel. In a scientific discussion on DNA in biology, students are asked: “investigate the role of DNA in identifying the remains of martyrs held by the occupation in the cemeteries of numbers.” 13

55 Similarly, in the book “Arabic Language,” 11th grade, Part A, there is a photo of dozens of coffins draped in Palestinian flags. The book explains: “The Martyrs of the Cemetery of Numbers.” The term refers to the place where Israeli authorities buried suicide bombers and other terrorists killed in similar attacks within Israel under serial numbers, some of whom are occasionally returned to the PA. 14

53 A central theme in PA textbooks is identifying with prisoners convicted or imprisoned for terrorist activities against civilians. From the book “Arabic Language 1,” 11th grade, Part A: “Prison literature encompasses everything written about prisoners’ suffering, whether inside or outside the prison. It is one of Palestinian literature’s most authentic and significant literary genres.”

13 From the book ‘Scientific Education’, 12th Grade [Humanities] (2018), p. 69 14 See further discussion on this topic in the chapter on summer camps

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