By Daoud Kuttab

When the international community recently slammed Israel’s illegal settlement activities, Israel’s Prime Minister responded that the problem is not settlements but Palestinian incitement. Benjamin Netanyahu also has rejected that Israeli troops controlling Palestinian lands are an occupational force, again insisting that the real problem is Palestinian schools books and tv stations inciting innocent Palestinians to carry out acts of violence against the benevolent Israelis.
In its attempt at balance in an asymmetrical situation,  the Quartet made up of the UN, EU, Russia and the US  has also given prominence to the issue of “incitement to violence.”
The accusations that Palestinians school textbooks and media are instruments of incitement to violence have long been scientifically debunked even though they have been regularly repeated by Israeli officials and Israeli apologists.
The claim that Palestinians teach their children hate has been rejected by tens of American and European as well as Israeli and Palestinians academic studies since the turn of the millennium. A 2005 US congressional bipartisan report asserted that Palestinian textbooks “ do not incite Palestinians towards anti-Jewish violence or constitute a “war curriculum.” Europe’s’ Chris Patent was angry about accusations that the EU funds Palestinians textbooks full of hate that  he ordered a full investigation that of course found the accusation to be untrue. “It is a total fabrication that the European Union has funded textbooks with anti-Semitic arguments within them in Palestinian schools. It is a complete lie,” Patten said afterwards. Continue Reading »