Palestinian textbooks still glorify attacks against Israel, violating EU accord

Violence and terrorism are directly glorified, the review found, with Palestinians who killed Israelis lauded as “martyrs” and role models for youth.

By Etgar Lefkovits, JNS

Palestinian textbooks remain filled with incitement against Jews and are rife with antisemitism and the promotion of martyrdom, in violation of past pledges of reform made to the European Union, a new study released Wednesday found.

The review of the Palestinian Authority’s 2025-2026 national school curriculum by the London-based IMPACT-se research institute finds that the schoolbooks remain unchanged from previous years in violation of an E.U. accord signed last year for continued funding.

The study of some 290 Palestinian textbooks and 71 teacher guides used to teach 1.3 million pupils finds that antisemitism remains a “central feature” of the curriculum, with Jews depicted as deceitful, manipulative or inherently corrupt enemies of Islam.

A 7th-grade teacher guide cited in the report describes Israelis bashing Palestinian children’s heads in front of their mothers and mutilating women for jewelry while instructing students to visually recreate the events with drawings.

Violence and terrorism are directly glorified, the review found, with Palestinians who killed Israelis lauded as “martyrs” and role models for youth.

A grade 12 textbook includes a poem urging students to return to Israeli cities, using emotive verse reminiscent of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel.

Even first-grade children learn the Arabic word for “martyr” as one of their very first spelling terms.

The study also found that the State of Israel has been erased from both maps and texts, its existence described as “incompatible with justice,” while Israelis are routinely dehumanized.

“Even science, math and grammar exercises used in the curriculum are designed to normalize violence and promote dehumanization,” the report states.

Last year, the Ramallah-based P.A. signed an agreement with the E.U.—its largest international funder—to remove such hate-filled content from its curriculum, while the U.S. administration has long made similar requests as well.

“This comprehensive report exposes a stark and disturbing reality: virulent antisemitism, the glorification of jihad and incitement to violence remain deeply embedded across all grades of Palestinian Authority textbooks,” said Marcus Sheff, CEO of IMPACT-se.

“The obvious conclusion of this report is that barring long-overdue, deep and sustained intervention by the international community, then systematic indoctrination of Palestinians via extremist education is here to stay,” he added.