The curriculum was approved by the Palestinian Authority and funded in part by European governments. It teaches children that Israel has no historical connection to the land, that Jews are foreign colonizers, and that armed resistance is not just acceptable but heroic. Maps in these textbooks do not show Israel at all. The entire territory from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River is labeled Palestine. These are not fringe materials. They are the standard textbooks used in PA schools, paid for with international donor money. The textbooks are updated regularly, and each new edition tends to be more extreme than the last.
Palestinian textbooks have been studied extensively by organizations like IMPACT-se, which reviews educational materials worldwide for extremist content. Their findings are consistent. PA textbooks teach that martyrdom is the highest calling, that Jews control the global media, and that Israel exists only through theft and oppression. The textbooks are used by over a million students. The UNRWA schools that use them are funded by the United States, the European Union, and other Western donors who would presumably object to funding antisemitic education if they examined the materials closely.
The problem is not limited to the Palestinian Authority. Textbooks in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and several other countries contain similar material. The Saudi curriculum, which was supposed to have been reformed, still includes passages about apes and pigs as descriptions of Jews, a reference to a hadith about divine punishment. Iranian textbooks teach that Israel is a tumor that must be removed. Turkish textbooks frame Israel as a Western colonial project with no legitimate historical basis.
The cumulative effect of this education is measurable. Surveys of young people across the Middle East consistently show deeply negative attitudes toward Jews and Israel that go beyond political disagreement. Cognitura has examined how school ceremonies and curricula serve as vehicles for ideological indoctrination, and the textbook issue is the largest and most systematic example. Millions of children are being taught to hate before they are old enough to understand the political context.
Western governments that fund education in these regions have influence they are not using. Conditioning aid on curriculum reform would be a start. At minimum, donors should be auditing the textbooks their money pays for. Cognitura tracks how education shapes public opinion and what can be done to promote accuracy and tolerance in school materials.