Figure 1.--.

Education is post-partion Palestine is complicated. Rather than a regime in which the Palestunian had considerable control under the British Mandate, the Palestinians lost all political power except thise who remaiuned in Israeli-controlled areas. Palestinians there could participate in a democratic system, vote and elect representatives to advocate for them. This was not the case in other areas of Palestine. Jordan seized the West Bank and Egypt seized Gaza and other areas of the south. There were no elections and Palestinians could not participate in the political system in either Jordan or Egypt. This chanbged with the Six Days War when Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza and areas up to the Suez Canal. The Peace Process turned the domestic administration of the West Bank and Gaza over to the Palistinian Authority. Elections in Gaza brought Hamas to power. All of these changes have affected Palestinian education. The Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank and unoccupied Gaza. We have very limited information at this time on the curriculum or effectiveness in terms of student achievement of Palestinian education. Financing schools has been a major problem fpr the Palestinians. Here they have obtained funding from a range of international donors. There appear to be differences among Palestinians about education. The main-stream Fatah movement has taken a largely secular approach. The growing Hamas Movement has a more Islamicist approach.

Two Areas

The subject of Palestinian education is also complicated. The Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank and unoccupied Gaza. I'm not sure if there are any differences in the schools located in the two areas.

Curriculum

We have very limited information at this time on the curriculum taught in Palestionan schools. We do know that an important part is played by the Palestinian Curriculum Development Center which was established in 1988 by the Palestinian Authority government and the Palestinian Legislative Council. The Center is staffed by working group teans drawn from Palestinian teachers and professors. They compile the textbooks used by Palestinian scgool children. Dr. Naim Abu Al-Humos served as the head of the Palestinian Curriculum Committee beginning in 1988 and played an important role in the publiction of the new books for grade 12 in 2006. Abu Al-Humos, a long-time member of Fatah and observer to its Revolutionary Council, was appointed PA Minister of Higher Education (2002). He has continued in that position after PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s election. The various authors who wrote the new 2006 text books were the same teams who woked on text books during 2000-2005, with a few changes. The Oslo Peace process (1993) involves a mutual acceptance of an Isreali and Palestinian state's right to exist. The question becomes whether Palestinian textbooks relect this commitment to peace. Groups like Palestinian Media Watch have studed Palestinian media and found littgle commitment to peace. This also seems to be the case with Palestinian text books. Various sources have criticised earlier editions of Palestinian textbooks. The scrutiny was due in part to the fact that various Western donors have played an important role in funding Palestinian schools. The situation does not seem to have improved. One study of the 12th grade text books found, "It is significant that the current 12th grade books contain hateful ideology that has been associated with Hamas – including denial of Israel’s right to exist, portraying the conflict as religious Islamic, hatred of the US, picturing the world without the existence of Israel and anticipating its destruction. But this ideology has been embraced and is being taught to Palestinian youth by veteran Fatah educators, not by Hamas. It would seem that these world views are not unique to Hamas, but reflect mainstream ideology today in Palestinian society." The issues involved in the Isreali-Palestinian conflict are very complicated. On some of these issues a considerable background is necessary to understand the conflicting claims. It is fairly easy, however, to answer the question of whether or not Palistian textbooks are written to promote the idea pf peace. Here as far as we can tell, there is no discerable effort by Palestinian educators to do so.

Effectiveness

Nor do we know much about the effectiveness in terms of student achievement of Palestinian education.

Financing

Financing schools has been a major problem fpr the Palestinians. Here they have obtained funding from a range of international donors.

Palestinian Differences

There appear to be differences among Palestinians about education. The main-stream Fatah movement has taken a largely secular approach. The growing Hamas Movement wants to take a more Islamicist approach. The schools are administered by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) which was dominated by Fatah. This changed with the 2006 election when in a free democratic election (one of the few in the Arab world), Hamas won control of parliament. Hamas is slowly begining to place its peoples in the Palestinian ministries and begin to affect policy. One example in education was the banning of a book. Hamas-oriented Palestinian authorities banned an anthology book of folktales titled Speak Bird, Speak Again by Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kananah (March 2007). [AP report, March 6, 2007] Palestinian Education Minister Nasser Shaer speaking to the AP that copies of the offending anthology were removed from school libraries. Hamas officials apparently saw "clear sexual expressions" in the book. Reports indicate that perhaps as many as 1,500 of the books were destroyed. This apparently was an expensive book hardcover book. (Check on Amazon.com if you want details.) A West Bank Palestinian novelist, Zakariya Mohammed, commented to the AP that fears banning Speak Bird, Speak Again is just the beginning of censorship under the Hamas-led government. He said, "If we don't stand up to the Islamists now, they won't stop confiscating books, songs and folklore."

Sources

Marcus, Itamar, Director, Palestinian Media Watch, and Barbara Crook, Associate Director, Palestinian Media Watch. "From Nationalist Battle To Religious Conflict: New 12th Grade Palestinian schoolbooks present a world without Israel" (February 2007).

AP report (March 6, 2007).

Created: 6:41 PM 3/7/2007
Last updated: 10:40 PM 10/8/2018