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For a Bright Post-Hamas Future, Gaza Needs Education Reform
Illustrative: Palestinian children compelled to participate in a Hamas military parade. Photo: Twitter.
One of the key questions occupying politicians, academics, media personalities, and concerned laypeople is what will happen to Gaza the day after the Israel-Hamas war is over, and the terrorist organization is routed from leadership of the coastal enclave.
Along with concerns about who will administer the Gaza Strip, how its infrastructure will be rebuilt, and how a sense of security will return to Israel’s border communities, there is also the question of how Palestinian society in Gaza will be de-radicalized after 18 years of Hamas control.
The key to that question is education reform.
To those who claim that the effect of Israel’s war against Hamas on the average Palestinian civilian — coupled with decades of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish education — is a surefire recipe for continued radicalism in the Gaza Strip, there is a historical precedent for education reform helping to de-radicalize and moderate societies that were headed by political movements just as fanatical as Hamas.
Following the end of World War II, both Germany* and Japan underwent a process of de-radicalization that worked to upend the militaristic political and social infrastructure that guided their aggressive expansionism, ultimately leading to world war.
Under the initial influence of the Allied forces and later under the initiative of local civil servants, both Germany and Japan reformed their education systems by emphasizing the value of democracy, removing ultra-nationalism and militarism from the school curricula, giving a greater role to local authorities instead of the central government, and updating the teacher accreditation system.
It should be noted that these reforms occurred after the destruction and displacement wrought by the Allies in their fight against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Despite the resentment that the German and Japanese peoples might have felt against the Allies for their conduct during the war, this did not produce a more radical society than existed prior to the defeat of each major Axis power.
While the German and Japanese societies did not change overnight, the education reforms implemented in the immediate aftermath of World War II helped pave the way for each country to become the strong democracies and robust economies that they are today.
Even in the past few years, we have seen how education reform is part and parcel of peace processes and de-radicalization.
Following the signing of the Abraham Accords with Israel in 2020, the United Arab Emirates has undertaken a process of moderating its educational texts, removing harmful passages about both Jews and Israel. While there are some negative depictions of Israel still available in certain texts, the moderation process has been deemed “overwhelmingly positive.”
This moderation of the UAE’s school curriculum has also included the recent introduction of Holocaust studies for both primary and secondary school students.
In Bahrain (another Abraham Accord signee), there have been steps toward moderating that country’s educational curriculum about Israel, but grassroots opposition from local religious figures has called into question how far these reforms will go.
Even Saudi Arabia — a regional powerhouse that has slowly opened up to Israel even though the two countries do not share official relations — has undertaken an incremental moderation of its educational texts concerning Israel and the Jewish people. While negative depictions of Israel still exist in these texts, this moderation process is a promising first step.
After Hamas no longer controls Gaza, the local education system must undergo a comprehensive reform to undo the damage wrought by 18 years of Hamas leadership.
However, it is just as important to know who will be conducting this reform.
Both the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and UNRWA, the main UN body operating in Palestinian areas, have been mentioned as being prime actors in the rehabilitation of Gaza following the war. However, these two bodies are already part of the problem: UNRWA runs several schools in Gaza, while Hamas uses the core PA curriculum in its local schools.
According to the education monitoring organization IMPACT-se, textbooks used in both PA and UNRWA schools extol terrorism, advocate for the destruction of Israel, and perpetuate antisemitic stereotypes.
If the international community wishes for a bright future for a post-Hamas Gaza, it must insist on a democratic and moderate curriculum introduced into local Palestinian schools that will negate terrorism and promote peaceful relations with neighboring Israel.
If teaching materials akin to those offered by the PA and UNRWA are used to replace those used by Hamas, this is not a recipe for a brighter Gazan future. Instead, it is a formula for another October 7.
* While the initial education reforms in post-war Germany were similar under the guiding hand of the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, there ultimately were differences between how the education systems were reformed in West Germany and East Germany.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post For a Bright Post-Hamas Future, Gaza Needs Education Reform first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.