Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education

"An Opportunity to Educate for Peace: Preliminary Comments on the Council of Religious Institutions Textbook Report"
By IMPACT-SE - February 7, 2013
IMPACT-SE, an institute researching tolerance and the attitudes towards the other in textbooks for more than 15 years, welcomes the latest report on Israeli and Palestinian textbooks commissioned by the "Council of Religious Institutions in the Holy Land" as the newest addition to a group of studies on this subject...

"Abbas is right - Education can incite"
The Commentator - October 17, 2012 (PDF Version, 1.16 mb - Norsk, 675 kb - Deutsch, 64 kb)
Mahmoud Abbas is right - education can incite. In which case, he may want to take a closer look at what Palestinian children are learning in their classrooms.

"IMPACT-SE Progress Report 2011-2012" (pdf, 854 kb)
By IMPACT-SE - September 2012
This report includes information on who we are; what we do; 2012 - a period of transition; our success stories; our research projects in 2011-2012; our challenges for 2013; and our news items, briefings, lectures and conferences in 2011-2012.

Palestinian Authority School Textbooks, 2011: A Draft Report on Attitudes toward Israel and the Jews; Peace and Non-Violence; the West Gender and the Environment
By IMPACT-SE - May 2011, published online in August 2012 (languages available: English, Arabic)
Attached is a draft report on 117 school textbooks of the Palestinian Authority's (PA), from grade 1 to grade 12, issued depicting attitudes towards Jews and Israel, Peace and Non-Violence as well as Gender and the Environment. The school textbooks include 70 student books and 22 teacher guides issued by the PA Ministry of Education along with 25 student books issued by the PA Ministry of Endowments (Awqaf) and Religious Affairs. All the 118 books and guides are in current use at the PA schools.

Peace, Tolerance and the Palestinian "Other" in Israeli Textbooks: Update for 2009-2012
By IMPACT-SE - June 2012 (languages available: Arabic, English, Hebrew)
This study analyzes the attitude of Israel’s education system towards the Palestinian people and nationality, and towards the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. It is based on the review of 149 state and state-religious textbooks, which were approved and recommended by the Israeli Ministry of Education for 2009-2012.

"Incitement or peace education?"
The Jerusalem Post - June 23, 2012 (PDF Version, 1.06 mb)
A new report published by the office of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad claims that “Israeli textbooks foster hate” and that “Israeli schools teach [from] racist textbooks.” While studying the issue of incitement with the aim of decreasing it on both sides is a worthwhile undertaking, a closer look at such discourse is also due...

"Books, Incitement and Incitement Reports"
The Commentator - June 11, 2012 (PDF Version, 1.10 mb)
Although the Israeli Ministry of Education should continue to re-evaluate and improve the books it approves, claiming incitement where there is none, is really a form of incitement in itself.
Version francaise publiee par Metula News Agency (PDF, 72 kb)

IMPACT-SE on "Overcoming UNESCO Shortcomings - Proposing A New Methodology for Textbook Research"
Lecture at GEI-Colloquium - May 2, 2012 (PDF Version, 36 kb)
Article I 3 of UNESCO constitution, states that "with a view to preserving the independence, integrity and fruitful diversity of the cultures and educational systems of the States Members […] the Organization is prohibited from intervening in matters which are essentially within their domestic jurisdiction". Hence UNESCO monitoring is limited to sending non-mandatory questionnaires to which many member states do not respond, and it has no way to verify any answers submitted. In 2010, IMPACT-SE Institute, as an expert in schoolbook monitoring, was put in contact by the Chirac Foundation with UNESCO officials in charge of the Global Report “Education for All” in view of supplementing its content, which is mostly quantitative, with qualitative data referring to respect of others, promotion of tolerance and peaceful resolution of conflicts. This lecture focused on IMPACT-SE's methodology of six research.