Report: Palestinian school textbooks continue to promote anti-Israel sentiment
A 400-page study analyzed 290 textbooks and 71 teaching guides and found hostile content remains widespread, and promises of reform by the Palestinian Authority have not been implemented
A new report by the IMPACT-se research institute claims that Palestinian school textbooks for the 2025–2026 academic year continue to contain content inciting hatred of Israel and antisemitism, despite public commitments by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the United States, the European Union, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
The 400-page study analyzed 290 textbooks and 71 teaching guides across all subjects and grade levels in schools throughout the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Its findings are stark: hostile content remains widespread, and promises of reform by the Palestinian Authority have not been implemented.
Among the examples documented, an Arabic textbook encourages students to “retake the cities of Israel by force of arms,” echoing the violence of the October 7 attacks.
Other materials glorify suicide bombings, depict Palestinians attacking Israeli soldiers, or celebrate Dalal Mughrabi, responsible for the 1978 Coastal Road massacre, as a heroine. The report also found that scientific subjects are sometimes used to normalize violence.
Newton’s laws, for instance, are illustrated with a child using a slingshot, a biology chapter features a young Palestinian injured by Israeli gunfire, and chemistry lessons reference tactics used by prisoners on hunger strike to circumvent security measures. Religious education lessons depict Jews as collectively immoral or manipulative, while official maps erase the State of Israel entirely.
These findings are particularly sensitive for the European Union, which had tied part of its financial aid to the Palestinian Authority to the removal of such content. Brussels had mandated revisions to textbooks intended for first- to third-grade students and final-year classes before the start of the September 2024 school year. According to IMPACT-se, however, the changes were largely cosmetic, involving minor reductions in size or graphic alterations, without addressing the underlying messages.
Marcus Sheff and Eric Agassi, leaders of the institute, warned that while Ramallah assures its Western partners that commitments have been met, the printed and official digital versions of textbooks tell a very different story. They caution that this discrepancy could reignite diplomatic tensions over European funding of the Palestinian Authority.