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Palestinian Schools Still Teach Their Children to Hate Jews
Illustrative: Palestinian children compelled to participate in a Hamas military parade. Photo: Twitter.
A new study has found that the curriculum used in Palestinian Authority (PA) schools is still filled with anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hatred. How will that affect the chances for Middle East peace?
One of the most significant provisions of the Oslo Accords, which Israel and the PA signed three decades ago, was that the Palestinians would stop teaching hate to their children. According to the Oslo II agreement (Article XXII [1]), the PA is obligated to “abstain from incitement, including hostile propaganda.”
The most important place to begin implementing that new policy was the PA’s schools. The only hope for a genuine and durable peace in the region is if Palestinian Arab children are raised to embrace peace and coexistence, and reject hatred and violence.
Yet in the years following the signing of those accords, multiple studies by groups such as Palestinian Media Watch, MEMRI, and Impact-SE found that the PA was continuing to teach children to hate and kill Jews.
The US State Department and J Street kept telling us that the Palestinian Authority was changing, becoming moderate, rejecting violence. Yet the actual school books used in PA schools told a different story.
Now a study from Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) has confirmed our worst fears. Its review of PA school curricula has found that the PA continues to “espouse some of the worst views against Jews and Israel in their textbooks.”
Palestinian Arab children are still being taught to “dehumanize Israel and Jews.” Instead of aspiring to live peacefully next door to Israel, they aspire to “securing Palestinian justice over Israel’s ruins … to adhere to the vision of ending the state of Israel.” In fact, Israel is not even mentioned on the maps in PA schoolbooks — “instead, the region is referred to as ‘Palestine’ or ‘Occupied Palestine.’”
The PA schoolbooks make a mockery of concepts such as tolerance and pluralism. According to the report, they present an “antisemitic portrayal of Jews.” Furthermore, “Jews are continuously maligned as the enemies of Islam,” and “Jews are the ‘enemies of Islam in all times and places.’”
To cite just one of innumerable examples, a standard 8th grade Arabic Language textbook used in PA schools “teaches reading comprehension through a violent story that promotes suicide bombings and exalts Palestinian militants in the Battle of Karameh.”
In that narrative, Arab fighters “cut the necks of enemy soldiers” and “wore explosive belts, thus turning their bodies into fire burning the Zionist tank.” They celebrate “leaving behind some of the bodies and body parts, to become food for wild animals on land and birds of prey in the sky.”
Have you ever wondered why countless Palestinian Arab children participate in mobs that try to stone and burn Jews to death? Or why Palestinian Arab college students vote for pro-terrorist, antisemitic parties in their university elections? Or why so many young Palestinian Arabs have enthusiastically engaged in the most heinous acts imaginable, such as killing Jewish babies?
The INSS study provides the answer: because that’s how they are raised. Every day of their young lives, Palestinian Arab children study from textbooks that glorify anti-Jewish terrorists and teach antisemitic hatred.
All the peace plans that pundits and diplomats promote mean nothing in the face of this tragic reality. All the talk about borders and refugees and settlements is meaningless so long as one side raises its children to wage a never-ending war against Jews.
Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies has done an important public service by examining the Palestinian Authority’s textbooks. The results may be deeply disturbing, but they help us understand the basic reality of the Middle East today. That reality will never change so long as Palestinian Arab children are taught to hate and kill Jews.
Moshe Phillips is National Chairman of Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSl, a leading pro-Israel advocacy and education group.
The post Palestinian Schools Still Teach Their Children to Hate Jews first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Connecticut State Rep. Who Attacked Primary Opponent for Being Jewish Loses by More Than 25 Points
Connecticut state representative Anabel Figueroa. Photo: Screenshot
Connecticut State Rep. Anabel Figueroa lost overwhelmingly in her Democratic primary this week after attacking her opponent for being Jewish.
Figueroa, who was the incumbent in the race and represents parts of the city of Stamford, lost 62.6 percent to 37.4 percent on Tuesday to her Democratic primary challenger Jonathan Jacobson, who is Jewish.
Jacobson’s ethnic background became an issue in the race after Figueroa attacked him for being Jewish.
“The Hispanic vote is going to determine on Aug. 13 who will win to represent or who will continue to represent you,” Figueroa said in a Spanish-language interview filmed on July 28. “We cannot permit a person who is of Jewish origin, of Jewish origin, to represent our community. It’s impossible.”
The comments were met with widespread backlash.
The Stamford Democratic City Committee (DCC) called on Figueroa to resign.
“The use of this blatant antisemitic and anti-democratic language is abhorrent, unacceptable, and contrary to our shared values as Democrats,” it wrote in a statement. “The sentiments expressed by Representative Figueroa in that video contradict the statement she issued yesterday in response to the antisemitic Facebook post shared by a DCC member, who is also one of her supporters.”
One of Figueroa’s supporters, who is also a member of the Stamford DCC, had reportedly made antisemitic remarks about Jacobson as well.
The statement concluded, “This shameful behavior not only demonstrates a lack of integrity and character but makes Anabel Figueroa unfit to serve in office, and we call on her to resign immediately as a member of the Stamford Democratic City Committee.”
The Connecticut branch of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) wrote on X/Twitter: “Rep Figueroa’s statement was outrageous and her apology equivocal. To accuse Jewish politicians of being unable to represent all constituents is unacceptable.”
In response to the condemnations, Figueroa issued an apology.
“I am deeply sorry to those in the Stamford and Jewish communities that I have offended,” she said. “I have multiple Jewish people working on my campaign, and antisemitism has no place in Stamford — again, I apologize.”
She then explained the original sentiment behind her comments.
“My message is that we need leaders who represent our districts. There is almost no Latino representation in Hartford, and I am currently the only Latina State Representative in Southern Connecticut,” Figueroa said. “There is a strong Latino community in the 148th district, and I will ensure their voice is at the table and never leaves it. This has nothing to do with religion, and as a bilingual speaker, I misspoke when describing my opponent’s background. I am deeply and sincerely sorry.”
Jacobson said the real reason he won the election was not due to her comments, but rather to policy differences.
“Ultimately, her hate, that’s not what lost her the election; her hate is not what won me the election,” he said, according to the New York Times.
The post Connecticut State Rep. Who Attacked Primary Opponent for Being Jewish Loses by More Than 25 Points first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Anti-Israel Protesters Swarm New York City Fundraiser for Kamala Harris, Several Arrested
Illustrative: A scene from the anti-Israel protest that took place outside the exhibit “Nova: Oct. 7 6:29 AM, The Moment Music Stood Still” in New York City on June 10, 2024. Photo: Screenshot
Anti-Israel protesters crashed a Democratic Party rally and fundraiser for US Vice President and 2024 presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Wednesday night.
Roughly 300 protesters lined the streets of W. 135th St. and Broadway in New York City, brandishing signs accusing the Biden administration of supporting a so-called “genocide” in the Gaza Strip and demanding a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group.
Footage circulating on X/Twitter showed the agitators storming inside the event, harassing attendees including New York City Mayor Eric Adams and accusing them of endorsing “genocide.”
“Make sure you vote! Make sure you vote!” Adams said as security escorted some of the demonstrators out of the event.
“I don’t mind you being across the street. I don’t mind that you want to raise your voice,” the mayor added. “Hold onto all of that anger until after November. November you need to be laser-focused on one thing.”
Watch: pro-Palestinian protestors broke inside the DNC fundraiser and began harassing Mayor Adams and other politicians.
This is political intimidation and goes against the fundamental principles of our democracy.
Have we learned nothing after the assassination attempt? pic.twitter.com/wtdRtuiELV
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) August 15, 2024
The demonstration escalated into violence when around 50 agitators stormed the rally’s afterparty in a nearby restaurant. Roughly 25 participants of the rally were in attendance at the afterparty, according to the New York Post. The angry protesters screamed and pointed fingers at the event’s attendees, demanding that they support a “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas.
Other protesters physically confronted, attacked, and screamed obscenities at police officers. Swarms of protesters surrounded the officers, banging drums, blowing whistles, and chanting slogans such as “no justice, no peace!”
A corral of officers subdued and arrested a handful of the agitators. Officers clashed with the swarm of anti-Israel demonstrators, struggling to clear out the area. Some of the protesters reportedly tossed smoke bombs towards officers.
Authorities were recorded chasing down one protester after he initiated a violent encounter with the officers. Another demonstrator was seen on video posted to social media assaulting an officer with a cardboard sign, causing officers to apprehend and handcuff her on the ground.
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) ultimately took 14 demonstrators into custody, according to the New York Daily News.
BREAKING: Pro-Palestine Protesters STORM into Democratic After party event following Kamala Harris Campaign, SMOKE BOMBS set off at the outdoor restaurant, MASS ARRESTS pic.twitter.com/5BVEGhzrq0
— Oliya Scootercaster (@ScooterCasterNY) August 15, 2024
Within Our Lifetime, a radical anti-Israel activist group, took responsibility for the demonstration and condemned the NYPD for arresting violent agitators.
“After a noise demo disrupting the Democratic Party’s NYC campaign launch for Killer Kamala on 8.14, the NYPD ruthlessly beat and arrested protestors in Harlem,” Within Our Lifetime wrote on X/Twitter. “Dems want you to believe they support us. They are just waiting for you to look away before cracking down on our movement and continuing the genocide in Palestine.”
In the months following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre throughout southern Israel, pro-Hamas agitators have disrupted political events, fundraisers, speeches, and rallies, calling for an end to the ongoing war between the Jewish state and the Palestinian terrorist group.
Radical anti-Israel groups are expected to hold massive demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week, demanding that Harris support a ceasefire in Gaza as well as an arms embargo against the Jewish state.
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