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PA erases mention of agreements with Israel in school textbooks

Palestinian academic textbooks have long demonized the Jews and generally denied Israel’s existence.

By World Israel News Staff

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has introduced new textbooks to this year’s school curriculum that makes virtually no mention of any of the past agreements and negotiations designed to establish peace between Israel and the PA, reports Ynet.

According to the report, there is no mention of the 1997 Hebron Protocol, which was an agreement on the redeployment of Israeli forces in the city of Hebron; the 1998 Wye agreement, which was a land-for-peace agreement between PM Benjamin Netanyahu and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat; the 2000 Camp David Summit’s peace negotiations between then Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Yassar Arafat; nor the 2003 Road Map to Peace, which was a plan that then U.S. President George W. Bush formulated to bring about the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

The only agreement that is mentioned in this year’s PA textbooks is the 1993 Oslo Accords, which is spoken of in an unfavorable light towards Israel.

“The constraint of the Zionist occupation to recognize the PLO after the first Intifada in 1987 contributed to the return of senior PLO officials and its institutions. To the West Bank and the Strip,” one textbook reads, as quoted by Israeli news site Ynet.

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz blasted the PA’s decision.

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“If the agreements with Israel were in fact removed from the textbooks, that is first and foremost harming the Palestinian youth,” Gantz said.

“The ability to achieve a better future starts with educating future generations to peace, tolerance, coexistence, and not to incitement and the glorification of suicide terrorists. Erasing the past is a destruction of the hope for a better future,” he said.

Palestinian academic textbooks have long demonized the Jews, generally denied Israel’s existence in history as well as in current affairs. When the Jewish state was mentioned, it was blamed for various problems in the region.