‘New York Times’ unwittingly discovers antisemitic Palestinian curricula

In a glowing profile of a Palestinian American neurosurgeon building schools and offering hot meals to children in the Gaza Strip, The New York Times inadvertently exposed a far more consequential story than the one it intended to tell. Beneath the “feel good” narrative lies an uncomfortable truth: the curriculum used in Palestinian Authority schools is saturated with anti-Israel incitement, antisemitism and the glorification of violence—an educational framework that has served to indoctrinate generations of young Palestinians with the hatred that produced the Oct. 7 terrorists and obstructed peace.

Israel and its allies have complained about the issue for decades. The Palestinians pledged in the Oslo Accords to end such incitement, but have, if anything, intensified it. The Times offered only three examples, but they exemplify the extremism of the P.A. (you know, the moderates who are supposed to be partners for peace) curriculum:

A math lesson asked students to calculate the number of “martyrs” killed in the first and second intifadas. A reading comprehension passage celebrated Dalal Mughrabi, the perpetrator of the 1978 Coastal Road massacre that left 38 Israelis dead, including 13 children. (The Times, which scrupulously avoids labeling Palestinian murderers as terrorists, described her blandly as “a woman.”) An Islamic studies text recounted an alleged Jewish plot to murder the Prophet Muhammad, reinforcing ancient antisemitic tropes.

These are not isolated slips. They are emblematic of a system.

Missing from the article was any discussion of the ubiquitous maps in Palestinian textbooks that erase Israel entirely, replacing it with “Palestine.” Nor did the paper explore the extensive body of research documenting years of incitement. In 2005, Congress formally opposed funding for educational programs in the P.A. because of the inclusion in textbooks of material fostering antisemitism and rejection of peace.

Twenty years later, the European Parliament called for freezing funds to the P.A. until “all examples which incite to hatred and violence are removed.”

Typical of its response to U.S. and E.U. complaints, the P.A. created a new curriculum for Gaza that incites violence, promotes antisemitism, glorifies terrorism and martyrdom, as well as encourages jihad.

Yet what makes the Times story so revealing is how easily reform proved possible when someone tried. Dr. David Hasan simply replaced the “martyr” math problem with one about soccer. He swapped out praise for the terrorist with a profile of a Palestinian educator. He reframed the religious passage to emphasize respect rather than hatred. He added weekly peace-building lessons to promote tolerance. In other words, he demonstrated that indoctrination is not inevitable; it is a choice.

He also took a step others have conspicuously avoided. Unlike organizations such as the U.N. Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and Doctors Without Borders, both of which were infiltrated by Hamas, Hasan coordinated with Israel to vet staff and ensure that they had no ties to “militants” (another of the Times’ euphemisms for terrorists). He also changed the curriculum without the P.A.’s permission, provoking threats of reprisal from the education ministry.

In another example of Times’ speak, reporters frame the curriculum debate as a matter of dueling narratives: Israel, the United States and the European Union “complaining” about the textbooks. Almost as a rebuttal, they evenhandedly tell us, “the authority says that its schools appropriately teach Palestinian nationalism, history and culture.”

Since when is journalism stenography? Where are the vaunted investigative skills of The New York Times? Are reporters incapable of reading the textbooks themselves? If three examples in their own story illustrate extremism, what would a deeper investigation uncover?

This is not a marginal issue. It is the crux of the conflict’s perpetuation. For years, “peace processors” have clung to their two-state fantasies while ignoring the cultural and educational ecosystem that nourishes rejectionism. Their attitude has been, “we can’t get the Palestinians to change, so let’s focus all our energy on pressuring Israel to make concessions.” The result has been predictable: Israelis see textbooks glorifying those who murder their children and conclude—rationally—that the problem is not borders but beliefs. Diplomats refuse to see the connection between the rejectionism endemic to Palestinian society and Israelis’ distrust.

Curriculum reform should not be an afterthought; it should be a precondition. Any serious plan for Gaza’s reconstruction must tie funding to demonstrable, verifiable educational change.

Hasan, however, has shown how little it takes to make the curriculum straightforwardly academic rather than propaganda. One suspects that he would prefer to remain in the operating room, saving lives rather than battling bureaucrats and extremists. But the P.A. could do far worse than making him Minister of Education. Instead, he remains a well-intentioned reformer who reportedly cannot safely show his face in Gaza because Hamas has marked him for daring to challenge its influence and the culture of complicity in the Strip, going as far as to inspect hospitals for hostages. That stark contrast says everything about the forces shaping Palestinian society today.

Still, imagine a Palestinian curriculum that taught mathematics without martyrdom, history without erasure, religion without demonization. Imagine classrooms where children learn science and literature instead of slogans, and where maps prepare them for coexistence rather than “liberation.” Imagine a generation raised not on fantasies of elimination but on the tangible rewards of peace. Israelis might finally glimpse the possibility that a future generation (the current one is irredeemably hateful) could emerge ready to live alongside them rather than in perpetual war.

Even if the Trump administration succeeds in transforming Gaza’s coastline into a strip of gleaming skyscrapers, concrete and glass will not quell a culture of incitement. Economic development cannot substitute for educational reform. Roads and resorts cannot neutralize textbooks that sanctify violence.

Hasan has demonstrated how easily the poison can be removed—how a few deliberate changes can replace glorification of terror with lessons in tolerance. The question is no longer whether reform is possible. It is whether the international community that bankrolls the P.A. will finally demand it. Will donors condition their support on genuine, verifiable change, or will they continue underwriting a system that sabotages the very peace they claim to seek?

The post ‘New York Times’ unwittingly discovers antisemitic Palestinian curricula appeared first on JNS.org.