First New PA Textbook is Published - But it's Just as Anti-Semitic as the Old Ones
Despite claims that the Palestinian Authority's new school textbooks would no longer include anti-Jewish and anti-Israel statements, the first PA textbook to be published is filled with anti-Semitic and anti-Israel hatred.
In recent months, when pro-Israel activists raised the issue of anti-Semitic hatred in PA textbooks, Clinton administration officials as well as PA spokesmen said that the textbooks were old, Jordanian publications, and that the forthcoming textbooks authored and published by the PA itself would be different.
The Israeli daily Ha'aretz reports (November 3, 1999) that the first of the new PA textbooks "compares Zionism with Nazism and describes the Talmud as a book of hatred toward gentiles." The book, titled The New History of the Arabs and the World, "is to be used in most of the Palestinian Authority's schools," Ha'aretz notes.
The book "also claims Zionism advocated the liquidation" of the Palestinian Arabs. The book refers to "the racist and aggressive nature of the Zionist movement," and details "the basic similarity between Nazism, Fascism, and Zionism."
At a recent meeting with Jewish leaders in New York City, Secretary of State Madeline Albright stated that when the PA publishes its own, new textbooks, they would not contain anti-Semitic or anti-Israel incitement.
Morton A. Klein, National President of the Zionist Organization of America, said: "The PA is deliberately and consciously publishing anti-Semitic and anti-Israel hatred. This is a flagrant violation of the Oslo accords. The Clinton administration, as the sponsor of the accords, must take action."
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