Palestinian Authority’s School Curriculum Amplifies Terrorism

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger | “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative” | December 23, 2025

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*The perpetrators of the October 7, 2023 horrific terrorism were graduates of the Palestinian Authority school curriculum, which is also implemented in Gaza.  It was established by Mahmoud Abbas at the end of 1993 (as a follow up to the Oslo Accord). In 2025, it was updated by the Palestinian Ministry of Education.

*While the United Arab Emirates uprooted all anti-Jewish and anti-Israel elements from its school curriculum, the Friday mosque sermons, and its official media – replacing them with pro-Jewish and pro-Israel elements – the Palestinian Authority has intensified its anti-Jewish and anti-Israel school curriculum, consistent with its monthly allowances to families of terrorists, anti-Jewish and anti-Israel Friday mosque sermons and official daily media.

*School curricula mirror the state of mind, culture, overriding narrative, priorities, aspirations and vision of those who design and approve them. School textbooks expose which values are promoted by governments.

*Palestinian school curriculum could be leveraged to advance tolerance, moderate hatred, resolve conflict and promote peaceful coexistence, or to distort facts and intensify intolerance, hatred and incitement, as well as glorifying terrorism. The Palestinian Authority has chosen the latter.

*Western attempts to resolve the Palestinian issue have overlooked the crucial role played by the Palestinian Authority’s education system – which echoes the 1959 and 1967 charters of the Mahmoud Abbas-led Fatah and PLO – as a central impediment to peace, while constituting a most effective production line of terrorists, in general, and martyrs, in particular.

*According to the IMPACT-se report on the 2025/2026 Palestinian Authority’s school curriculum 1-12, based on nine consecutive years of textbook monitoring, and an analysis of 290 textbooks and 71 teacher guides [social studies, civic studies, geography, history, Christian education, Islamic education, Arabic language, science, mathematics and elective courses]:

”Since 2016, no substantive improvement has been made to the Palestinian Authority curriculum….

”Incites antisemitism and violence, promotes Jihad [holy war] and martyrdom, glorifies terrorism, rejects peacemaking… and erases Israel from maps…. It depicts Jews as deceitful, manipulative, or inherently corrupt enemies of Islam [and Allah]…. Israelis are depicted not as human beings, but as demonic monsters, laughing while committing atrocities, slaughtering children, and extinguishing life. Texts and poems liken Israelis to serpents, vipers, and Satan’s aides, while legitimizing violence, and teaching that the existence of Israel is incompatible with justice or humanity….

”Jihad is interpreted in its militant sense and directly connected to the contemporary conflict with Israel. It is presented as a personal obligation, the pinnacle of faith, and the path to glory and divine reward. Martyrdom and death for religious, national, or political goals are celebrated as the highest moral ideals…. Violence and terrorism are openly glorified and morally justified…. Terrorists are exalted as national heroes and are presented as martyrs and role models for youth….

“Maps and language in Palestinian textbooks erase Israel entirely….

“Textbooks institutionalize gender inequality as religious and social doctrine. Women are portrayed as inherently inferior to men – physically, mentally, and spiritually – and unfit for leadership or decision-making roles. Religious materials blame women for moral decline, discourage their participation in public life, and instructing that modest dress and obedience are necessary for their protection….

“Teacher guides serve as manuals for transmitting hate…. codifying that Israeli Jews are fated to disappear….”

“In September 2024, the Palestinian Authority launched a Virtual Schools Initiative, designed to allow Gazan children to continue studying remotely and to compress two academic years into one. By February 2025, over 290,000 students were reportedly enrolled…. This initiative was an almost verbatim replication of earlier antisemitism, violence, incitement…. The textbooks continued to feature dehumanization of Jews, glorification of martyrdom and jihad, demonization of Israel in geography and civics lessons, the justification of terrorism, and the erasure of Israel from maps.  No structural or textual reform [of school textbooks] ever occurred….”

*The following are examples of the aforementioned analysis of the 2025-26 Palestinian Authority school textbooks:

^Islamic Education, Grade 11, Vol. 2, p. 7 indicates that women’s responsibility for committing adultery is greater than that of a man. Women are seen as temptresses who cause men to commit adultery.

^ Islamic Education, Grade 11, Vol. 2, pp. 28, 31 holds women responsible for sexual harassment... implying that whether a woman is sexually harassed depends on her choice of clothing.  It places on women the sole responsibility for sexual and physical violence they experience; and may even justify it in certain circumstances.

^Islamic Education, Grade 9, Vol. 1, pp. 74–78 teaches that women are responsible for harm if they fail to dress modestly, and that Muslims should not dress like “Infidels.” Women should not display their adornments or “seductive qualities” (maf?tin) to others, because doing so may invite “arousal” (i??rah) and “temptation” (fitnah). The wearing of hijab – the Islamic female dress, which covers the whole body – “protects women” and “immunizes the youth from descending into adultery [f??išah].” The subtext [is] that women are seductive to others by nature.

^Our Beautiful Language, Grade 1, Vol. 2, p. 53 features a reading exercise, which highlight the word shahid (“martyr”) at the center of the chart….

^Arabic Language, Grade 5, Vol. 2, pp. 51–61 highlight Dalal al-Mughrabi, the terrorist, who commanded the 1978 Coastal Haifa-Tel Aviv Road Massacre of 38 civilian bus passengers, including 13 children, contending that the massacre made her memory immortal in the hearts and minds of Palestinians, transforming her into a female role-model.

^History Studies, Grade 11, Vol. 2, p. 52 heralding the 1972 Munich Olympic Games Massacre of 11 Israeli team members and a West German police officer by PLO terrorists.

^Arabic Language Grade 12, 2025, pp. 77-80 maintains that the Palestinian refugee experience may only be rectified with the refugees’ physical return to their homes in pre-1967 Israel (e.g., Haifa), through acts of terrorism.

^Mathematics, Grade 7, Vol. 2, p. 97 features a map of Palestine that includes pre-1967 Israel, indicating that Palestine was occupied in 1948, linking this to a probability exercise by using the digits 1, 9, 4 and 8 as an example for a sample space.

^Arabic Language Grade 11, Vol. 2, pp. 34–38 glorifies the martyrdom of the terrorists, who massacred Jews during the 1929 pogroms in British Mandate Safed and Hebron, referring to the reward [of 72 virgins] awaiting them in paradise.

*Since the end of 1993, the worldview, values, culture, aspirations and vision of Arabs in Gaza, Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] has been warped by the Palestinian Authority’s school curriculum, which has been reverberated in Friday mosque sermons and official media, following in the footsteps of the 1959, 1967 and 1988 charters of Fatah, PLO and Hamas, reinforced by monthly allowances to families of terrorists and actual terrorism.

*Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority has been successful in shaping a worldview, which is consistent with his fanatic vision (uprooting the Jewish State), and therefore inconsistent with peaceful coexistence.

*A prerequisite for any constructive peace process is a thorough structural overhaul of the prevailing culture, which is preconditioned upon the uprooting of the hate and terror-driven Palestinian Authority school curriculum.