• IMPACT-SE in the News Following UNESCO’s Decision on Palestine

    November 2011
    Following the October 31, 2011 vote of 193 UNESCO member countries to accept Palestinine as a full member of its organization, IMPACT-SE published an interim report containing a preliminary summary of its findings leading to many media reactions. Click here to view the related press coverage.

  • International Conference: "School Textbooks in the Greater Middle East: National Identity and Images of Self and Other"

    June 28-29, 2011
    Five of IMPACT-SE’s researchers participated and gave presentations at the International Conference on “School Textbooks in the Greater Middle East: National Identity and Images of Self and Other,” which took place at the Truman Institute in Jerusalem on June 28-29 2011. IMPACT-SE’s research on the schoolbooks in Egypt, Tunisia, Israel, Iran and Turkey was at the heart of the discussions. Click here to view the abstracts and related press coverage.

  • Justice for Gaza: "Gaza education focuses on violence, martyrdom"

    June 26, 2011
    “‘All education works,’ said Shelley Elkayam, Educational Counselor and IMPACT-SE’s CEO. Anti-Semitic education works, peace education works. It all depends on where you put your focus. You can teach peace education and tolerance, but GAZA has a tendency to blame Israel for everything, and to ignore improvements that have been made. ‘It takes time. Today’s education will be the reality on the ground in 20 years from today,’ she said.” Read the full article here (PDF version, 97 kb).

  • IMPACT-SE in Australian News

    “Hate v hate as peace is sidelined” – April 30, 2011
    “[T]he latest insight into incitement comes from a study of 118 textbooks issued by the Palestinian Authority […] it is clear from the textbooks survey there is a school curriculum that refuses to acknowledge Israel or incites hostility towards Israelis and Jews. The survey was done by Impact-SE, an independent research organisation whose advisory board includes Muslims, Jews and Christians. Its chief executive Shelly Elkayam summarised the research to Focus: ‘The Palestinian Authority in an organised way has created a policy that is expressed in the textbooks in which there is no Jewish entity in the Middle East […] What we are monitoring is not spontaneous expression of politicians or religious leaders, what we are studying, analysing and presenting is the product of the policy of the Palestinian Authority in educating their children,” she says.'” Click here to read the full article (pdf version, 68 kb)

  • "Israel absent or only negative presence in PA textbooks"

    The Jerusalem Post – April 13, 2011PDF Version (100 kb)
    The Palestinian Authority still has a long way to go before textbooks in its schools begin to teach true coexistence with Israeli Jews, according to findings from a study released Tuesday. The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE), which reviews textbooks from Israel, the Arab world and Iran, unveiled its 2011 report on PA school textbooks in a briefing with journalists at the headquarters of MediaCentral, in Jerusalem…

  • IMPACT-SE on German TV

    March 15, 2011
    IMPACT-SE’s CEO Shelley Shandor Elkayam was interviewed by a newscast on German television about the widespread trend in Hamas education to deny the holocaust, as well about the tendency in their school education to deny reality and truth. Our point of view is that governmental authorities do not promote cultural understanding and cooperation by falsifying facts and by renaming sites which have been well-accepted for 1,700 years. Click here to see the video clip from the interview.

  • "Rachel’s Tomb in Palestinian Schoolbooks: The Genesis of Falsification and its Implications"

    March 2011
    In October 2010, the board of UNESCO adopted a resolution reaffirming that “The Palestinian sites of al-Haram al-Ibrahimi / Tomb of the Patriarchs in al-Khalil / Hebron and the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque / Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem… are an integral part of the occupied Palestinian Territories and that any unilateral action by the Israeli authorities is to be considered a violation of international law.” With regard to Rachel’s tomb, the board of UNESCO was actually being misled and manipulated.
    Read the Full Report: English (pdf, 176 kb)

  • IMPACT-SE Debates "School and Prejudices" at the French National Assembly

    February 10, 2011
    The conference chaired by MP and former minister Bernard Debré on the theme “School and prejudices – Does school still contribute to combating biases and prejudices?” took place at the French National Assembly on the initiative of IMPACT-SE. The conference moderated by IMPACT-SE representative Patrick Pilcer turned around the testimonies of Yannick Trigance, Annick Azerhad, Edith Cresson, Michel Payen and a paper on pedagogic schemes for pinpointing and dispelling prejudices by Yohanan Manor.
    Read more, listen to the conference and access the materials.
    Pour la version française, cliquez ici.

  • New Press Release: A Comparative Analysis of Egypt‘s, Tunisia’s and Iran’s Schoolbooks

    English (pdf, 43 kb) – French (pdf, 43 kb) – Hebrew (pdf, 52kb)
    By IMPACT-SE, February 2011
    Synopsis – Israel and Tunisia rank highest in education for tolerance and peace in the Middle East. This is the finding of pioneering survey conducted by IMPACT-SE, which shows that Tunisia has instituted educational reforms and is no less tolerant than Israel. On the other hand, the curriculum of the Egyptian school system, still in grip of the al-Azhar clerics, does not teach democratic values, lowering the chances for the emergence of a liberal democratic government in Egypt. Iran ranked lowest. Read more

  • IMPACT-SE in the News

    January – February 2011
    IMPACT-SE’s press release on Tunisian textbooks helped the media and the public understand that revolution starts with education, following the separation between religion and state. These, we suggested, brought about the new historical phenomenon. Our position papers have evolved the discourse by pointing to journalists and policy makers the difference between Egypt and Tunisia rooted in educational and cultural foundation: