RSS
Palestinian Schools Teach Sexism, Gender Discrimination, New Report Says
A boy holds a placard as Palestinian Hamas supporters attend a rally against visits by Israelis to the Al-Aqsa mosque, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, May 26, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Palestinian curricula teaches girls that women are inferior to men and demands that they sacrifice their bodies and families for “jihad,” according to a new report by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), an Israeli watchdog group.
Timed to coincide with Women’s History Month, the group on Friday released “Gender Inequality in Palestinian Authority Textbooks,” an assessment of what Palestinian textbooks — distributed by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority (PA), and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — teach young girls about women and their place in society. It revealed that they describe women as a problem to be managed by the authority of religion and patriarchy, as valuable only insofar as they contribute to the community’s population of terrorists and capacity to wage holy war.
“Temptation mostly comes from women,” says a grade 11 Islamic Education textbook cited in the report which avers that women, acting as temptresses, initiate adultery — a category that includes sex outside of marriage between two single partners — and deserve disproportionate blame for its taking place. A woman’s adultery is “more horrible and obscene, and adultery affects the woman more than the man,” another textbook, for tenth graders, says.
Such ideas are ancillary to larger political goals, Impact-se explains. In denouncing women as transgressors of sexual morality and inherent sources of corruption, the Palestinian textbooks aim to rationalize subordinating women to men and limiting their role in public life. They also advocate dress in accordance with Islamic law, women accepting fault for being sexually harassed and assaulted, and the notion that gender equality is a fiction. Palestinian schools also teach the Islamic prophet Muhammad’s saying, “Never will succeed such a nation that makes a woman” a head of state.
With all avenues for personal growth and achievement sealed off, what is left to Palestinian women is the option to commit violence, to become martyrs and the mothers of terrorists of the future, the report states.
“In a chapter discussing the role of women in combat at the time of the inception of Islam, Palestinian girls are encouraged to kill, be killed, and to send their children to die,” it says. “These include the first woman who was martyred in the name of Islam; a woman who stabbed a Jews to death, described as ‘justly an example of a brave Muslim woman in defense of the Muslims’; and a woman who praises Allah after her four children died on the battlefield while performing jihad.”
In a statement, Impact-se CEO Marcus Sheff said the group’s findings add to mounting concerns that Palestinian education officials intentionally foster extremism and flagrantly contravene standards set by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which implores governments to use education as a means of eradicating sexism and gendered discrimination.
“The characterization of women as inferior in Palestinian Authority textbooks reflects a broader and worrying narrative of bigotry in the curriculum, which is continuing to shape the outlook millions of Palestinian children,” Sheff said. “Furthermore, it contradicts international treaties on gender equality that the PA itself has ratified. In particular, the emphasis on women’s participation in resistance activities as a warped form of gender equality sets a disturbing precedent.”
As The Algemeiner has previously reported, Palestinian textbooks have elicited criticism from experts and lawmakers across the world for fostering antisemitism, as well as extremism. No discipline is untouched by the problem. From math and theology to literature and science, their content has been found to promote blistering hatred for Jews and Israel, indoctrinating students as young as six to commit their lives to “martyrdom” and inter-generational war. Compromise with Israelis is described as betraying Palestinian identity, while suicide-bombings are portrayed as intrinsic to it and a prerequisite for entry into heaven.
Teachers and staff employed by UNRWA as educators in Gaza practice what they teach, Impact-se noted in a report issued earlier this month. The report unveiled transcriptions of recordings confirming the roles of Yusef Zidan Sliman Al-Hawajri and Mamdouh Hussein Ahmad Al-Qek — both of whom were hired as educators by the organization — in Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7. Additionally, the group has argued that UNRWA schools have played a direct role in encouraging its students to pick up terror as a full time occupation.
“At least” 100 members of Hamas graduated from its schools, Impact-se has said, as well as a majority of the Hamas terrorists who participated in the atrocities of Oct. 7.
The recent findings came after Impact-se released a separate report in November revealing that at least 14 teachers at UNRWA-run schools had praised the pogrom carried out in southern Israel.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Palestinian Schools Teach Sexism, Gender Discrimination, New Report Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Beersheba Resident Arrested on Suspicion of Espionage for Iran
Doron Bokobza, who was indicted after Iran recruited him to collect intelligence Photo: i24/ Social media / 27A
i24 News – An indictment was filed against a resident of Beersheba, Doron Bokobza, who contacted Iranian intelligence and offered to sell them information including secrets to the nuclear research facility in Dimona.
In February, Bokobza was arrested on suspicion of committing security offenses, involving contact with Iranian police intelligence agents and carrying out tasks for them in exchange for money. He claimed to have access and knowledge of the nuclear facility.
According to the indictment filed against him, last December, Bokobza approached an Iranian recruiter via the Telegram app, writing: “I am Israeli, I want to cross over to you.” When asked by the recruiter why he was interested in doing so, the defendant replied that it was due to the government and his difficult financial situation.
Bokobza allegedly photographed military installations and transferred information to the Iranian handlers several days later.
The post Beersheba Resident Arrested on Suspicion of Espionage for Iran first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Captive IDF Soldier Nimrod Cohen Identified from Horn Video Hamas Released
Nimrod Cohen, an IDF soldier who was kidnapped on October 7, 2023, by Gazan terrorists and has been held for more than 500 days. Photo: Hostages and Missing Families Forum
i24 News – The family of the Israeli soldier Nimrod Cohen, held captive in the Gaza Strip, said on Saturday that they had identified their son in the video published the day before by Hamas.
In this recording, Eitan and Iair Horn, Sagui Dekel-Chen, and other hostages whose faces have been blurred can be seen. The Cohen family says they recognized Nimrod, who appears wearing a t-shirt and bearing a characteristic tattoo.
In the video broadcast with the agreement of the Horn family, brothers Eitan and Iair are seen embracing. Iair Horn, freed on the 498th day of the war, declares: “They are making me leave my little brother here, to die,” while his brother Eitan, still in captivity, adds: “It is illogical to separate families in this way.”
“Get everyone out and don’t separate families, don’t destroy our lives,” Eitan said in the video. “Tell mom and dad to continue the protests and for this government to sign phase two to bring us all home.” He addressed the Prime Minister directly: “[Benjamin] Netanyahu, if you have a bit of heart, sign, sign today.”
Father Yehuda Cohen said during a demonstration of hostage families that his “son Nimrod is a soldier who was kidnapped from a burning tank. He is alive and he, like all the hostages, begs us from this hell to save them now. All of them, and all at once.”
“We are addressing President Trump – there are still 59 hostages in Gaza who are living a Holocaust,” he added. “Netanyahu is trying to sabotage your agreement, Mr. President. He is the one creating the current crisis in the negotiations. Don’t let him fail the agreement.”
About two weeks ago, Cohen revealed in an interview with Channel 12 that the family had received a message from Nimrod. “We got news from him last week, from two hostages who spent eight months with him in the tunnels,” the father explained. “I’m doing fine, don’t worry about me. I love you,” Nimrod conveyed to his parents through the former captives.
The post Captive IDF Soldier Nimrod Cohen Identified from Horn Video Hamas Released first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel’s Right-Wing Camp Hails Order to Block Goods from Entering Gaza
Jewish Power party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir speaks following the announcement of exit polls in Israel’s general election, at his party headquarters in Jerusalem November 2, 2022. REUTERS/Corinna Kern
i24 News – Israel’s right wing hailed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision on Sunday to halt goods and supplies from being brought to the Gaza Strip, demanding that hostages continue being released.
“I welcome the decision to halt the humanitarian aid, if it is implemented,” said former national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir. “The decision has finally been made – better late than never. This should be the policy until the last of the hostages is returned. Now is the time to open the gates of hell, to shut off the electricity and water, to return to war, and most importantly, not to settle for just half of the hostages, but to return to President Trump’s ultimatum all the hostages immediately or hell will break loose on Gaza.”
Ben Gvir referred to US President Donald Trump’s warning that “all hell” would break out if all the hostages are not returned, while saying that it was ultimately Israel’s decision.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, another right-wing firebrand, said that “the decision we made tonight to completely halt the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza until Hamas is destroyed or completely surrenders and all our hostages are returned is an important step in the right direction.”
He called for Israel to continue until “complete victory.”
Meanwhile, the far-right Order 9 movement, which opposed the entry of goods including humanitarian assistance into Gaza, said that its activists “reached the Kerem Shalom crossing area and it is indeed closed. We will stand guard that it will indeed remain so until the last of the kidnapped are returned”
“The transfer of aid that has strengthened the murderous terrorist organization Hamas for the past year and a half will stop until all the kidnapped are returned,” the movement said. “For many months, we have fought tooth and nail against the terrible failure to transfer aid to the enemy, which has now become clear that it will strengthen it for many months to come. We are now on the ground and will continue to stand guard well, and to ensure that this severe harm to the kidnapped will stop.”
The post Israel’s Right-Wing Camp Hails Order to Block Goods from Entering Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login