Academics

The new Palestinian curriculum, which includes new textbooks for grades 1–4, is
significantly more radical than previous curricula. The curriculum teaches students to be martyrs, demonizes and
denies the existence of Israel and focuses on a “return” to an exclusively Palestinian
homeland.
Within the pages of the textbooks children are taught to be expendable. Messages
such as: “the volcano of my revenge”; “the longing of my blood for my land”; and “I
shall sacrifice my blood to saturate the land” suffuse the curriculum. Math books use
numbers of dead martyrs to teach arithmetic. The vision of an Arab Palestine
includes the entirety of what is now Israel, defined as the “1948 Occupied
Territories.”
The curriculum teaches that national institutions and authorities should be respected
and encourages personal success. Still, while Islam is not used as a radical political
tool for this age group, negative messages linger regarding non-Muslims. And though
Christian education is provided, Jewish roots are ignored. This new curriculum
appears to be a departure from the Canaanite roots narrative of past curricula, but
Arabs continue to be presented as original dwellers of the land. Palestinian identity,
as conveyed to these children, is now more realistically based on LevantinePalestinian
folklore alongside Arabism, Islam, and the struggle against Israel.