Palestinian textbooks

Textbooks in Israel and the Palestinian territories issued by the Palestinian Authority have been an issue within the larger Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Several studies have been done on Palestinian textbooks. The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem commissioned studies from IPCRI – Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information. In Europe the Georg Eckert Institute performed research. The Hebrew University's Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace has also published papers on this issue. A U.S. Senate subcommittee and the Political Committee of the European Parliament have both held hearings about Palestinian textbooks. Israel has used the issue as a cornerstone of its Hasbara campaign against the Palestinian Authority. Palestinians say that their textbooks rightly focus on their own national narrative, which includes the privations of life under occupation.

A comprehensive three-year study (2009–2012), regarded by its researchers as 'the most definitive and balanced study to date on the topic', found that incitement, demonization or negative depictions of the other in children's education was "extremely rare" in both Israeli and Palestinian school texts, with only 6 instances discovered in over 9,964 pages of Palestinian textbooks, none of which consisted of "general dehumanising characterisations of personal traits of Jews or Israelis". Israeli officials rejected the study as biased, while Palestinian Authority officials claimed it vindicated their view that their textbooks are as fair and balanced as Israel's.

Textbooks in Israel also have been studied and some problems found. Israel has ordered the word Nakba, meaning disaster or catastrophe and which refers to the foundation of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent forced flight of the Palestinians from Israel-captured land, to be removed from Israeli Arab textbooks. The term was introduced in books for use in Arab schools in 2007 when the Education Ministry was run by Yuli Tamir of the Labour party. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu justified the ban by saying that the term was "propaganda against Israel."

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