PA school books present all of the six mil- lion Jewish citizens. as colonizing settlers mo- tivated by racist sentiments (History Studies, Grade 12 [Humanities] (2018) p. 5) who occu- pied Palestine, massacred and expelled many of its original inhabitants and have held the rest “under occupation” to this very day. The illegitimate status of the Jews in the country in the eyes of Palestinian educators is well ex- pressed by the noted absence from the map of cities established by Jews in modern times, or showing them under Arabic names. Tel Aviv’s name is presented as Tal al-Rabi. Eilat appears as Umm al-Rashrash.
Not only is the current Jewish presence in Palestine delegitimized, PA education denies past Jewish history in the country, as well as the holy places that are presented as exclu- sively Islamic, including the Western Wall in Jerusalem and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. The Jews’ notions of historical ties to Jerusalem, in particular, are described in PA texts as “baseless claims,” “superstitions,” “legends,” “illusions” and “distorted narra- tives” (Arabic Language 1: Reading, Gram- mar, Prosody and Expression – Academic Path, Grade 12 (2018) p. 38-39) and the Jews are presented as “usurpers” and “invaders” (ibid., p. 46).
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