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Source: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Palestinian-Authority-education-and-the-future-of-peace-545236
Palestinian Education and the Future of Peace
(Jerusalem Post) Lior Akerman - A look at the textbooks used in Palestinian classrooms makes it practically impossible to remain optimistic about reaching any sort of peace arrangement in the near future. A 2017 study found that these textbooks consistently delegitimize Israel, encourage a violent struggle against Israel, and portray Israelis and Jews as the evil enemy. They claim that the occupation began not in 1967, but in 1856 - the year Moses Montefiore bought land to build Yemin Moshe, the first Jewish neighborhood outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City. The textbooks claim that the Palestinians are the only ones who have rights to all the land and that the Jews have no place in the Middle East. They fail to mention the Jewish people's connection to the land as described in the Old Testament, upon which the Koran is based. The books encourage young children to fight against the Jews and yearn for the complete destruction of the State of Israel. These textbooks, which are paid for by UNRWA, are used to teach more than half a million Palestinian schoolchildren. Complaints have been filed by Israeli organizations and the Israeli government for years now, but the situation remains unchanged. The writer is a former brigadier-general who served as a division head in the Israel Security Agency.