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New Gaza School Curriculum Promotes Antisemitism and Glorifies Hamas Attacks, Report Finds
A Palestinian school girl Fajr Hmaid, 13, teaches her neighbors’ children an Arabic language lesson as schools are shut due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions, at her family house in Gaza, May 19, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem.
A recently implemented curriculum in Gaza schools, sanctioned by the Palestinian Authority (PA), glorifies the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, praises terrorists who killed children, and promotes antisemitic stereotypes, according to a new report.
The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), a nonprofit organization that analyzes schoolbooks and curricula around the world, has released a new report analyzing the recently introduced Gaza curriculum produced by the PA, revealing it violates Palestinian commitments made to donor countries for educational reform.
Last year, the PA committed to the European Union that it would reform its educational content to fully align with UNESCO’s standards of peace and tolerance in education, in exchange for continued EU funding.
Despite international expectations for reform, the IMPACT-se study shows that the 2025 educational curriculum “fails to meet basic international educational standards,” with the new textbooks promoting antisemitic narratives, glorifying violence, and even celebrating the mass murders carried out during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel.
According to the new report, the 2024-2025 curriculum, which is being taught to nearly 300,000 Palestinian school children in grades 1-12 across Gaza, erases the State of Israel from the map and is filled with “graphic depictions of violence.”
For example, students are taught in geography and civics lessons that cities like Tel Aviv and Haifa are identified as Palestinian, promoting the belief that Israel’s existence is illegitimate.
Some of these textbooks openly glorify the Oct. 7 attacks, referring to the attackers as “heroes” and “symbols of pride,” celebrating the single deadliest assault on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
“We see again that the PA continues to deeply embed hatred and violence in its curriculum and brazenly continues to teach antisemitism, the glorification of terrorism, and the dehumanization of Israelis,” IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff said in a statement.
“Palestinian classrooms remain a breeding ground for extremism, with new educational materials reinforcing the same old dangerous narratives,” he added.
The study also reveals how PA-sanctioned educational materials promote antisemitic narratives and imagery. In an 11th-grade history textbook, the ancient stereotype of Jews controlling the world is perpetuated through an image of a hand with a Star of David gripping a globe.
In another example, an Islamic education textbook depicts “the Jews” as “deceitful, immoral manipulators who are hostile to Islam.”
According to the IMPACT-se watchdog group’s investigation, the concept of jihad as a religious obligation is a central theme in the new curriculum, teaching students from a young age that martyrdom is a path to divine reward. Starting in 1st grade, martyrs are glorified as having divine status.
The PA’s remote learning program for both Gaza and Hamas-run schools continues to promote hate and violence, with new materials even teaching science and math in ways that fuel hatred of Israel, the study finds.
For example, in a 3rd-grade math exercise, students are asked to write the number of martyrs killed during the violent First Intifada against Israel. In a 9th-grade statistics lesson, students are asked to calculate the number of “martyrs” killed by Israel.
The report finds that students are encouraged to view violence against Israel as a noble and necessary duty. In such textbooks, terrorists like Dalal Mughrabi, who led the 1978 Coastal Road massacre that killed 38 Israelis – including 13 children – are celebrated as role models.
In another example from earlier this year, a video shows young girls performing a nationalistic dance with throat-slitting gestures. The song playing in the background includes the lyrics, “We ignited the intifada, with a stone and a knife,” while the girls chant enthusiastically, “Challenge accepted, where are the Zionist and the soldier?”
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Lebanon Must Disarm Hezbollah to Have a Shot at Better Days, Says US Envoy
Thomas Barrack at the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., November 4, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
i24 News – Lebanon’s daunting social, economic and political issues would not get resolved unless the state persists in the efforts to disarm Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy behind so much of the unrest and destruction, special US envoy Tom Barrack told The National.
“You have Israel on one side, you have Iran on the other, and now you have Syria manifesting itself so quickly that if Lebanon doesn’t move, it’s going to be Bilad Al Sham again,” he said, using the historical Arabic name for the region sometimes known as “larger Syria.”
The official stressed the need to follow through on promises to disarm the Iranian proxy, which suffered severe blows from Israel in the past year, including the elimination of its entire leadership, and is considered a weakened though still dangerous jihadist outfit.
“There are issues that we have to arm wrestle with each other over to come to a final conclusion. Remember, we have an agreement, it was a great agreement. The problem is, nobody followed it,” he told The National.
Barrack spoke on the heels of a trip to Beirut, where he proposed a diplomatic plan for the region involving the full disarmament of Hezbollah by the Lebanese state.
The post Lebanon Must Disarm Hezbollah to Have a Shot at Better Days, Says US Envoy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: Putin Urges Iran to Accept ‘Zero Enrichment’ Nuclear Deal With US
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of a cultural forum dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Turkmen poet and philosopher Magtymguly Fragi, in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Oct. 11, 2024. Photo: Sputnik/Alexander Scherbak/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Russian President Vladimir Putin has told Iranian leadership that he supports the idea of a nuclear deal in which Iran is unable to enrich uranium, the Axios website reported on Saturday. The Russian strongman also relayed the message to his American counterpart, President Donald Trump, the report said.
Iranian news agency Tasnim issued a denial, citing an “informed source” as saying Putin had not sent any message to Iran in this regard.
Also on Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that “Any negotiated solution must respect Iran’s right to enrichment. No agreement without recognizing our right to enrichment. If negotiations occur, the only topic will be the nuclear program. No other issues, especially defense or military matters, will be on the agenda.”
The post Report: Putin Urges Iran to Accept ‘Zero Enrichment’ Nuclear Deal With US first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Al-Sharaa Attending At Least One Meeting With Israeli Officials in Azerbaijan
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
i24 News – Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa is attending at least one meeting with Israeli officials in Azerbaijan today, despite sources in Damascus claiming he wasn’t attending, a Syrian source close to President Al-Sharaa tells i24NEWS.
The Syrian source stated that this is a series of two or three meetings between the sides, with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani also in attendance, along with Ahmed Al-Dalati, the Syrian government’s liaison for security meetings with Israel.
The high-level Israeli delegation includes a special envoy of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, as well as security and military figures.
The purpose of the meetings is to discuss further details of the security agreement to be signed between Israel and Syria, the Iranian threat in Syria and Lebanon, Hezbollah’s weapons, the weapons of Palestinian militias, the Palestinians camps in Lebanon, and the future of Palestinian refugees from Gaza in the region.
The possibility of opening an Israeli coordination office in Damascus, without diplomatic status, might also be discussed.
The source stated that the decision to hold the meetings in Azerbaijan, made by Israel and the US, is intended to send a message to Iran.
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