PA Education Reform Claims Debunked As Textbooks Continue To Glorify Terror, Deny Israel

Senior Palestinian Authority officials are continuing to promote claims of education reform to Western and regional partners, but a review of current textbooks shows that incitement against Israel and Jews remains widespread, with content closely mirroring Hamas ideology, according to a Wednesday report in Israel Hayom.

Palestinian Authority Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh has held frequent meetings in Ramallah and Gulf capitals with Western diplomats and regional leaders as part of broader efforts to position the PA to assume control of Gaza after the war and advance the establishment of a Palestinian state. Those efforts are framed within the Trump plan endorsed by the UN Security Council, a framework Israel did not oppose.

However, international engagement with the PA is conditioned on internal reforms, including ending payments to terrorists and overhauling the PA education system. Despite repeated assurances, no substantive change has been implemented.

The Oslo Accords required the Palestinian education system to promote peace, coexistence, and tolerance. That requirement has never been enforced. The European Union, the primary funder of the PA education system, has consistently rejected Israeli demands to condition funding on curriculum reform. As a result, Palestinian students continue to be exposed from an early age to material that promotes hostility toward Israel, Zionists, and Jews, including antisemitic themes and direct encouragement of violence. Periodic PA announcements of reform have resulted only in minor cosmetic revisions.

In recent meetings, al-Sheikh has claimed that progress has been made over the past year and that education officials are drafting a new curriculum. Israel Hayom reported last week that Saudi Arabia agreed to assume a supervisory role over the reform process in exchange for Israel releasing PA tax revenues it is currently withholding.

The reform narrative has also been promoted by Israeli and international left-wing groups, including J Street and Peace Now. According to Israeli and Gulf sources, the claims have not withstood scrutiny. Israel Hayom has learned that during al-Sheikh’s recent visit to the United Arab Emirates, officials presented him with examples of incitement taken from current PA textbooks. Following that presentation, Emirati officials rejected his request for financial assistance.

Israel Hayom also reported that in 2025, Mahmoud Abbas’ office explored the possibility of a comprehensive overhaul of the education system and sought guidance from international organizations involved in curriculum reform. Sample textbooks were reviewed, but Abbas demanded changes that contradicted principles of tolerance and peaceful coexistence, preventing the initiative from moving forward.

Dr. Arnon Groiss, who has studied references to Israel, Jews, and peace in Palestinian Authority textbooks for 25 years, told the news outlet the current curriculum remains fundamentally unchanged. He said the textbooks are based on three core principles: rejection of the existence of the State of Israel anywhere in the land and opposition to the presence of its seven million Jewish citizens; extreme demonization of Israel and Jews, including on religious grounds; and advocacy of violent struggle for total “liberation,” at times implying their destruction.

“The State of Palestine” is presented as the sovereign authority over the entire territory in place of Israel, both in text and on maps, while Israel is referred to exclusively as “the Zionist occupation,” Groiss said.

According to Groiss, Jewish history in the land is entirely denied, including the existence of Judaism’s holy sites, foremost among them the Western Wall. Jews are portrayed as “infidels, helpers of Satan and enemies of God’s prophets,” accused of betraying Muhammad in the past and of posing an existential threat to Palestinians today. The textbooks claim Jews are driven by religious ideology to carry out massacres aimed at exterminating Palestinians.

The curriculum promotes jihad and “istishhad” — martyrdom for the nation and Islam — as the educational ideal. Terror attacks, including the 1978 Coastal Road bus massacre, are presented as legitimate components of the “struggle for liberation,” alongside the demand for the “return of refugees.”

PA textbooks are mandatory in all schools in Yehudah and Shomron and Gaza, including UNRWA and private institutions. Many schools in eastern Jerusalem also use the same materials.

Despite the broader failure of reform, Israeli and international officials see Gaza as a potential testing ground for change. Since the ceasefire began in October, international organizations have worked to resume schooling in the Strip, where most school buildings were destroyed. In the absence of a functioning governing authority, some educational frameworks are no longer based on the PA curriculum previously used under Hamas rule.

At US facilities in Kiryat Gat preparing for postwar governance scenarios, a dedicated team is working on education infrastructure and future curricula. The United Arab Emirates and Morocco are playing prominent roles, developing programs that omit incitement against Israel and Jews in anticipation of a governing authority replacing Hamas.

In areas controlled by clans opposed to Hamas, makeshift schools have already been established. The most prominent example is in territory controlled by the al-Shabab clan in southern Gaza, where several hundred children are studying in temporary facilities using a curriculum developed by international education experts from across the Arab world. The program is now being reviewed by additional clans interested in adopting it.

Hamas continues to operate academic institutions in Gaza. Last month, the group’s education ministry announced that 230 students had completed medical studies, underscoring its continued efforts to maintain influence over higher education even as alternative education models emerge elsewhere in the Strip.