U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education
Hearing on “Palestinian Education – Teaching Peace or War?”
October 30, 2003
Testimony by Ziad Asali, MD
President, American Task Force on Palestine
Mr. Chairman,
Honorable Members of the Committee,
It is an honor and a privilege to appear before you to testify about yet one more vexing
problem of the Palestinian Israeli conflict, that of the Palestinian education.
I received an invitation to this hearing the night before last while at an Iftar dinner at the
table of the President of the United States. I learned that other Arab American and
Palestinian leaders had turned down this opportunity, and I myself was strongly advised
by friends and people more experienced with the affairs of the Hill than I against
accepting it. It is, however, my judgment that each and every occasion should be
explored to bring about peace and amity to the long-suffering Palestinian and Israeli
people. Therefore I appear here before you as a citizen, a man concerned about the tragic
and dehumanizing cycle of violence in the Middle East, a physician sworn to maintain
the health and well being of all people and an individual who was born and raised in
Jerusalem and was privileged to become an American citizen and enjoy the attendant
benefits such as testifying before this august body.
Fear, anger, despair, violence and an almost exclusive sense of victimization on both
sides, the Palestinians and Israelis, have their most damaging consequences in narrowing
the space needed for policy options and rational debate. Public discourse is stunted,
simplistic and crude. It is easier in this climate to follow the safe course of demonizing
and dehumanizing “the other”. To assume the worst and to impugn the motives of the
other is much safer than to explore possibilities of compromise and working out
solutions. This is the kind of atmosphere that makes it possible to advance racist and
fascist arguments sometimes openly stated but more often felt and implied, “They are not
human; they understand nothing but force and violence; we should never show them any
mercy because they will think it is a sign of weakness; a face for an eye”. In short a
prescription for more disasters and mayhem.
The problem with history is that it has been around too long. It has provided arguments,
based in fact, fiction or perceived wisdom, for each party to the conflict and even for
those who seem to have no axe to grind. The difference between the Palestinian and
Israeli narratives continues to feed polarizing and centrifugal forces that fail to see the
existential need for compromise. Each and every effort directed against the vision of
peace, the two- state solution so clearly stated by President Bush, is yet one more tool to
extend the violent and destructive realities of the status quo. It is in this context that we
should view all facets of this conflict, education included.
Because the time allotted to me is so brief, and because others I know who have spent
years studying this subject and writing about it are not present on this panel, I will sketch
briefly the contours of the arguments as I see them. I am for the record enclosing what I
think are useful and thoughtful studies about the issue of Palestinian textbooks and hope
that people entrusted with making decisions about it; or are serious students of it, will
take time to read them.
Jordanian Textbooks in the West Bank and Egyptian Textbooks in Gaza continued to be
taught to students from 1948 through 1967 and for several decades after that under Israeli
occupation till the problem of their content was faced after Oslo by the Palestinian
authority in 1994. At that time the Curriculum Development Center (CDC) was
established and it began studying and overhauling the educational system and started over
to phase in a new set of books beginning with the academic year 2000-2001. Much, if
not all of the criticism leveled at the “Palestinian Textbooks” for incitement, anti-
Semitism or marginalizing Jewish history has in fact been directed at the Egyptian and
Jordanian textbooks over which the Palestinians had no control. In fact it was the
Palestinians who toiled for years after Oslo to give birth to reasoned and thoughtful
solutions to the unique issues that face a people under occupation and how they should
educate their children. No serious scholarly substantiated criticism has so far been
directed against the new textbooks, although strident, emotionally- charged and factually-
challenged statements continue to be bandied about.
Akiva Eldar, the renowned Ha’aretz columnist wrote in January 2, 2001 “ The
Palestinians are punished twice. First, they are criticized for books produced by the
education ministries of others. Secondly, their children study from books that ignore
their own nation’s narratives.” I have included his article for the record.
The European Union, in a statement issued in Brussels on May 15, 2002 concluded that
“ Quotations attributed by earlier Center for Monitoring the Impact on Peace, CMIP, are
not found in the new Palestinian Authority schoolbooks”. “ New Textbooks, although not
perfect, are free of inciteful content and improve the previous textbooks, constituting a
valuable contribution to the education of young Palestinians.” It concluded, “ Therefore,
allegations against the new textbooks funded by EU members have proven unfounded”.
I have included that statement in the record.
The eminent scholar Nathan Brown, Professor of political science and international
affairs at the George Washington University issued a 26-page report in November 2001
prepared for the Adam Institute on Democracy, History, and the Contest over the
Palestinian Curriculum that made a most significant contribution to this subject.
He concluded by stating, “ Harsh external critics of the PNA curriculum and textbooks
have had to rely on misleading and tendentious reports to support their claim of
incitement.” A reading of this full report that I included for the record is most
enlightening.
No full understanding of this issue can be claimed without reading the Israel / Palestine
Center for Research and Information IPCRI Report I submitted to the Public Affairs
Office, US Consulate General in Jerusalem on March 2003. This scholarly, textured
report grounded in a context, cannot be reduced to a concluding statement but it sheds
light on complicated issues that ought not be subjected to strident and simplistic
generalizations. A careful reading of this document that I submit for the record is most
informative.
The daily life of these children, with occupation, closures, violence, demolitions,
checkpoints, bravado, fear, suicide bombing, air raids, humiliation, economic hardship,
vengeance, religious extremism as well as breakdown of traditional values are realities
that cannot be dissociated from the classroom. It is those realities that we need to resolve
by bringing about peace and security for all. Textbooks that Israeli students read can also
be reviewed to bridge the gap between their realities and their classrooms as we improve
on those realities too.
In conclusion I would like to say that history has been unkind to the Jews, the Israelis and
the Palestinians. Their narratives of pogroms, ghettos, Holocaust, survival and
achievement on the one hand, and dispossession, occupation, demolition; and humiliation
as well as resistance and persistence on the other are but just sad tales of two people
caught in a complex web of history. Let us, at least those of us with hope for humanity,
try with our thoughts focused on the future of our children rather than the past of our
forefathers, work for peace and dignity for these two courageous people. Let us not
allow the demagogues of all sides, the violent elements, and the ones with the least sense
of fundamental human values, dictate the agenda and undermine peace.
Thank you for your attention and for the opportunity to speak.
Ziad Asali MD
President, American Task Force on Palestine
www.americantaskforce.org
Washington, DC
October 30, 2003