RAMALLAH — Five Arab schools in occupied Jerusalem began to use Israeli textbooks instead of Palestinian ones, a Palestinian official said on Wednesday. Samir Jibreel, the director of Palestinian Ministry of Education office in Jerusalem, said that the Abdullah Bin Al Hussein, Ibn Roshd, Sour Baher boys' school, Sour Baher girls' school, began using the Israeli textbooks instead of Palestinian textbooks for this scholastic year. Jibreel said that the Israeli textbooks were altered and heavily censored by the Israeli Ministry of Education. He added that the Jewish-dominated Jerusalem runs 50 schools in East Jerusalem, which are attended by 48 percent of 75,000 Palestinian students in the city. He added that 52 percent of students attended 68 private, Waqf and Palestinian Authority schools in the holy city. He added that the books were stripped of any reference to Palestinian identity or culture, discussing the occupation of Palestinian territories, Jewish settlements, the first and second intifadas, any reference to Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, information about Islam, and many aspects of Palestinian geography and history. “This is the first step towards erasing everything that is Palestinian in this city.” The official said the heads of the five schools agreed to use the Israeli textbooks during a meeting with Israeli counterparts in the Israeli city of Herzliya early this month. He added that the municipality has decided to reward the administrations of these schools by giving them more increment and 2000 Israeli shekel ($546) for each student enrolled in them. In 1969, the Israeli government tried to strengthen its control over East Jerusalem schools by passing the Law of School Supervision. This allowed Israel to oversee Palestinian schools in the city. Jibreel said that the implementation of the law “is more dangerous than storming Al-Aqsa Mosque Complex, demolishing houses or even revoking of residency from Jerusalemites.” Meanwhile, the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem called on the Israeli government to refrain from implementing legislation that imposes the Israeli education curriculum on public and private Palestinian schools in Jerusalem. The organization called on the international community, the United Nations agencies and the European Union “to pressure Israel to stop its illegal attempts to impose a foreign educational narrative on Palestinian Jerusalemites.” Israel says the Palestinian textbooks, written by Palestinian educators who were appointed by the Palestinian Ministry of Education, make no attempt to educate for peace or coexistence with Israel, rejects Israel's right to exist, presents Palestinian war against Israel as an eternal religious battle for Islam. The Palestinian Authority rejects the Israeli accusation saying that although its curriculum is not perfect but it teaches tolerance and mutual respect. Israel captured East Jerusalem in the June 1967 War, annexed it in 1980, and has since built settlements there that are home to some 300,000 Jewish settlers. Control over the city has been seen as the most sensitive and thorniest issue of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians hope to make East Jerusalem the capital of their future state but the Israel says the city is its eternal capital.
