Archive – 2011

Article published on December 17, 2011 – Response sent to AP on December 19, 2011

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.

Los Angeles Times – October 24, 2011 (PDF version, 4.58 mb)
“Palestinian Authority-issued books are vying with Israeli-edited versions in classrooms. Israel says some passages incite violence. Parents and teachers are incensed. […]”

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.

June 26, 2011
Dr. Yohanan Manor, Chairman of IMPACT-SE Research Institute, was interviewed about the curricular and educational aspects of the Arab Spring in Egypt. This was also the subject of his June 28 presentation at the International Conference on the Middle East’s Textbooks (see news item above – read abstract here, pdf 130 kb). Click here to watch the interview (Hebrew, min. 20:27 – 24:30).

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).

“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)

The Jerusalem Post – April 13, 2011 – PDF 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…

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.

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)

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.

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…

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:

• Los Angeles Times: “Researchers see Tunisia as a textbook revolution”
  February 2, 2011 – PDF Version (193 kb)
  Revolutions seem to take place all of a sudden, but usually they don’t really come out of the blue. Whether religious, political or economic reasons are behind upheaval, it often reflects a long process that reached a tipping point and a window of opportunity…
• Haaretz: “Tunisian curriculum is most progressive in Arab world”
  February 2, 2011 – PDF Version (40 kb)
  School books include criticism of extremist interpretations of the Koran, they make reference to the Holocaust, and they educate about the importance of negotiations, peace and respect for the other…
• The Jerusalem Post: “‘Tunisia, Israel are Mideast’s ‘top teachers of tolerance‘”
  February 2, 2011 – PDF Version (83 kb)
  Study finds that Egyptian curricula do not show support for democratic values, deny existence of Israel and contain anti-Jewish material…
• The Jerusalem Post: “‘Intolerant textbooks may prevent democracy in Egypt”
  February 1, 2011 – PDF Version (96 kb)
  Study: Israel and Tunisia rank highest on Mideast tolerance index, while Egyptian curricula deny Israel’s existence, emphasize war narratives…
• The Jerusalem Post: “PA has been ‘renaming’ Jewish sites in textbooks”
  January 18, 2011 – PDF Version (89 kb)
  Since 2001 Palestinian civil studies books, “with the help of Arab and Islamic centers,” change Rachel’s Tomb to Bilal Ibn Rabah Mosque…