European funding for Palestinian textbooks seems on the surface like a good idea. Helping to educate the next generation of Palestinians, preparing them for productive careers and peaceful coexistence with Israel would be a positive step.
The problem, though, is that the textbooks themselves are often inconsistent with those goals. Some exalt "martyrs," teach kids that Jews plan to control the world and preach that Israel is an illegitimate state. They certainly don't extol the virtues of peace.
For years, the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP), an American-Israeli nonprofit organization, has been publishing reports about how Palestinian and other Arab textbooks often incite more than they educate. Examples can be found on their Web site (http://www.edume.org). Some countries, such as the Netherlands, Italy and Finland, no longer fund them. But Belgium still paid for the most recent books.
According to CMIP, the textbooks in question cite the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," that ancient tsarist forgery alleging a Jewish conspiracy for world domination, as an authentic Zionist document. Israel's name is erased from some maps and frequently replaced with Palestine. Peace is seldom mentioned, let alone encouraged. Instead, kids learn about the duty for Jihad and the sweetness of martyrdom.
The following is from a textbook for fifth graders: "The brave fighter prefers death to a life of humiliation and subjection." That echoes the infamous Islamist terrorist slogan: "We are going to win, because they love life and we love death."
Rudi Huygelen, spokesman for the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, calls the reference to the Protocols "totally unacceptable" but says his government was not aware of it before a recent report in the Jerusalem Post. According to Mr. Huygelen, the Belgian foreign minister has since contacted the PA and was promised that the reference will be removed in next year's edition.
Millions in euros donated by European governments have gone to the Palestinian Authority, which can hardly be blameless for the years of terrorist attacks on Israel. Some of that money went into the pockets of the late Yasser Arafat and his cronies -- allegedly used among other things to build villas in southern France, as this paper reported Tuesday. Given the history of the Mideast over the last 60 years, it frankly sounds a little naïve for a Belgian minister to accept PA promises on face value.
