Palestinian Education

Mahmoud Abbas has so far refused to take the crucial step of disarming the terrorists groups operating in Gaza and Hamas. The reason he has given for failing to do this is that this would prompt a civil war in the PA. But, as Micah Halperin points out, there is a much simpler step he could take to show Israel that he is serious about peace - slightly alter the educational curriculum.

The official 10th grade Palestinian school curriculum teaches The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion.

The edition used in the schools is published in Syria. The curriculum never mentions that the Protocols are a forgery of the Russian secret police created by the Czar in order to generate the notorious myth that the Jews control the world.

One must ask: Why teach The Protocols if not to expose the work as a conspiracy theory of Antisemites? In any other context, what is the educational purpose behind teaching The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion to impressionable 10th graders given today's social and political climate?

In order to perpetuate the myth. We all know the answer. The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion has not been removed from the Palestinian school curriculum, the book has not been removed from school library shelves, only, ONLY, in order to perpetuate the myth.

The Palestinians continue to teach The Protocols because they are not yet committed to the reforms. And Mahmoud Abbas, as president, is the man responsible for re-educating or not re-educating his people, for implementing reforms or for letting them linger, ignored if not forgotten.

If the Palestinians refuse to do even this, it should raise serious doubts - for anyone still not harboring them - that the Palestinians really want peace.