World press on Israeli and Palestinian textbooks (February 4, 2013)

"Israeli and Palestinian textbooks fail balance test, study finds"
is the headline of an article published today by the Los Angeles Times.

"Israeli and Palestinian textbooks get failing grades when it comes to
adequately and positively representing each other’s people, culture
and history, according to a three-year, U.S-funded study released
Monday. On the bright side, researchers concluded that most
schoolbooks on both sides were factually accurate, even though they
usually described each other in negative, unflattering terms and
typically cast one another as the 'enemy'," the beginning of the
article reads.

"The report found both sides lacking in objectivity and balance.
Neither side scored particularly well in geography, with 94% of
Palestinian textbook maps failing to identify the existence of Israel
and 87% of Israeli maps lacking any mention of Palestine or the
Palestinian territories. Neither side’s textbooks devoted adequate
attention to the idea of living together in harmony, researchers
said."

"Among the most negative examples were an Israel state school textbook
refering to Arabs as “masses of the wild nation,” and ultra-Orthodox
textbook descriptions of a “convoy of bloodthirsty Arabs” and a
village that was a 'nest of murderers'."

"Israeli officials attacked the study even before it was officially
released, insisting that their textbooks were superior to
Palestinians’ and should not be compared in the same study."
"Israelis unhappy with study of their textbooks and Palestinians’" is
an article published today by the Washington Post.

"In both Israeli and Palestinian textbooks, the report says, maps
failed to delineate boundaries in the area between the Mediterranean
and the Jordan River. In the Palestinian books surveyed, only 4
percent showed boundaries between the West Bank and Gaza Strip and
Israel, referring to it by name. More than half failed to show a
boundary and labeled the entire area Palestine. In Israeli books, 76
percent of the maps showed no boundaries between Israel and
Palestinian areas, suggesting they were part of Israel," the article
reports.

The article concludes with a statement by Yossi Kuperwasser, director
general of the Israeli Strategic Affairs Ministry, "who heads a team
monitoring Palestinian statements that Israel deems inflammatory" and
who said "that the study was based on a 'distorted' premise. 'To
compare how each side presents the other is absurd, because we teach
peace, and they teach hatred of Israel and perpetuating the conflict,'
he said. 'It’s a difference of night and day'."