(JNS) A Palestinian student in fourth grade opens his math book and is asked to count the number of martyrs in Palestinian uprisings based on an accompanying photograph of raised coffins at a mass funeral. A reading exercise with the letter “h” for first-graders includes the word shahid (“martyr”), placed in a list of other words that include hujum (“attack”) and harab (“run away”).

These are just some of the real examples taken from Palestinian textbooks used to teach children in schools run by the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA, according to a recent study by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se).

IMPACT-se, a research and policy institute that analyzes schoolbooks and curricula through UNESCO-derived standards of peace and tolerance, has released an updated report on the new Palestinian school curriculum taught in P.A. and UNRWA schools in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem for the 2020-21 academic year and published in September 2020. The problem, according to the organization, is that these textbooks incite to terrorism and violence. IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff said, “It is disastrous that over 1 million Palestinian children are condemned to yet another year of sitting in P.A. and UNRWA schoolrooms being fed hate and incitement on a daily basis.”

While the Palestinians have agreed to change the curriculum, they have yet to deliver on their promises. The main findings of the report show that this year’s textbooks promote antisemitism, reject peace, and fail to discuss tolerance and coexistence. The textbooks encourage martyrdom and jihad, insert violence into science and math exercises, glorify terror, spread dangerous libels, erase Israel from maps, dehumanize and demonize Israelis, and delegitimize Jewish self-determination and history.

In addition to the P.A., a new report from IMPACT-se has also found that Qatar – a key backer of the Palestinian terror group Hamas – has included incitement and antisemitism in its curriculum. IMPACT-se reviewed 238 textbooks for the calendar years 2016-20 using international standards based on UNESCO and U.N. declarations, in addition to other recommendations and documents on education for peace and tolerance. The institute determined that the Qatari curriculum “does not meet international standards, despite some improvements having been made in this last academic year.”

Some other Middle Eastern countries are now improving the content of their textbooks in terms of how they relate to Israel. A United Arab Emirates’ Islamic-studies textbook, published just two weeks after the announcement of a peace treaty between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, supports the peace initiative. In a first-ever review of a new set of UAE school textbooks published over the past two years in relation to peace tolerance and ethics education, IMPACT-se found encouraging lessons that promote peace.

Main Photo: Palestinian students on the first day of school in Nablus in the West Bank on Sept. 6, 2020. Photo by Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90.