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Reader's Letter
to: Jerusalem Post , December 18, 2004
Dear Editor,
Sadly, Ruthie Blum's interview with Hanan Ashrawi (Up Front Dec. 17)
allowed several incorrect and damaging statements by Ashrawi to go
unchallenged. For example Asharwi claimed that Palestinian textbooks in
many ways are better than Israeli textbooks when it comes to "the other".
This is patently incorrect. The Center for Monitoring the Impact on Peace
reported recently that the new Palestinian textbooks foster rejection of
Israel's existence and instead of working to erase hateful stereotypes,
the new PNA curriculum is instilling them into the next generation's
consciousness.
Many Palestinian textbooks refer to the State of Palestine as exclusively
Arab, stretching from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. Maps disregard the
existence of Israel. Jihad and Shahids are glorified and martyrdom is
praised. References to Jews attribute trickery, greed and barbarity to
them and insinuate they do not keep agreements and treaties.
Similarly Ashrawi was allowed to lightly brush off incitement, the root
cause of Palestinian violence, claiming that allegations of incitement are
taken out of context. Surely your reporter should have challenged her with
some of the readily available documentation, including actual video clips
of Palestinian incitement to hate and kill Jews, propagated in schools and
mosques and on TV. (Authentic reports and video clips are available on the
MFA web site http://w3.castup.net/mfa/incitement.ht). Unfortunately your
reporter missed an opportunity to press Ashrawi to publicly support PM
Sharon's insistence on an immediate end to incitement as a first step
towards confidence building on the road to a peaceful resolution of the
conflict. Obviously, there can be no respite from violence for so long as
Palestinian political, religious and academic leaders continue to promote
the conflict as an irreconcilable religious war against Israel and the
Jews.
Maurice Ostroff
Herzliya
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