• MPACT Study of PA Lessons in Hate Raises Concern Over UK Aid Funding

    THE JEWISH CHRONICLE (UK) — Dec. 12, 2017
    Analysis of the new PA curriculum by the influential Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education group (IMPACT-se) concludes that it encourages “young Palestinians to acts of violence in a more extensive and sophisticated manner”  and expanding from” demonization of Israel to providing a rationale for war.”  In response to the report, John Woodcock MP, vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), has written to Secretary of State for International Development Penny Mordaunt expressing “deep concern” that the curriculum breaches an agreement between her department and the Palestinian Authority relating to PA funding.

  • New Palestinian Textbooks Encourage Violence: IMPACT Report

    Fast Forward — Dec. 4, 2017
    According to an analysis by a watchdog group, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), new textbooks issued by the Palestinian Authority for grades 5-11 encourage violence against Israelis and the PA curriculum “exerts pressure over young Palestinians to acts of violence in a more extensive and sophisticated manner.”

  • IMPACT-se Report: New Palestinian Curriculum ’Significantly More Radical’

    the algemeiner — Dec. 3, 2017
    Palestinian Authority textbooks issued for the new academic year are “significantly more radical” than their predecessors, routinely erasing Israel and glorifying “martyrdom,” the watchdog group, IMPACT-se has warned. In its initial review of the recently reformed grades 1-11 curriculum, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found that Palestinian textbooks “groom young Palestinians to sacrifice themselves to martyrdom,” promote the idea of a mass “return” to Israel, and “feature a radical Islamist worldview.”

  • Leading German Newspaper Cites IMPACT Study on Turkey

    Süddeutsche Zeitung (via WORLDCRUNCH) — Dec. 1, 2017
    “Turkish schools are taking steps to cultivate a “pious generation” by rewriting history and placing a greater emphasis on religion.” The article cites a recent study by IMPACT-se, which found that content taught at Turkish schools began to change after 2012, emphasizing the “compatibility of Islam and democracy, of religion and science,” while representing the Turks as “custodians of Islam.”

  • IMPACT-se Cited as German SPD Leader Speaks Out Against Palestinian Curriculum

    Johannes Kahrs in Jüdische Allgemeine (General Jewish Interest) — Nov. 17, 2017
    “Those who wish to be credible in the peace process in the Middle East cannot encourage teaching children … hatred and violence.” Citing IMPACT-se’s recent report on the PA curriculum, Johannes Kahrs, a German Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader, advocates political initiatives at the national and European level that links financial support for Palestinian education to concrete conditions under a continuous monitoring process.
    English Translation

  • New Palestinian Authority Textbooks Teach ‘Martyrdom as a Life Goal’

    Miriam Elman — Legal Insurrection — Nov. 12, 2017
    Like earlier textbooks that were used to teach “over one million impressionable children,” a new report finds that the new textbooks—recently released as part of the PA’s first full reform of the educational curriculum since 2000—are still promoting the demonization of Israel. The study, by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), documents how kids in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas are being further indoctrinated to hate through their schoolbooks…

  • ‘Palestinian Textbooks Promote Martyrdom: Belgium Involved’

    La Libre (Belgium) — Nov. 8, 2017
    Generalized radicalization, call to martyrdom, promotion of hatred and jihad … The latest official Palestinian textbooks make up a picture that can not be more black. This is at least the portrait of the Israeli research institute IMPACT-se, after having scrutinized the manuals published since last year by the Palestinian Authority. These concern some 1.2 million primary and secondary students in all Palestinian territories (West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem)… La Libre Article

  • IMPACT CEO Interview with EU Reporter: ‘Textbooks Can be a Fantastic Barrier against Radicalization’

    EU Reporter Interview — Nov. 6, 2017
    “EU Reporter spoke to Marcus Sheff, CEO of IMPACT-se, evaluating Palestinian Authority educational materials with a focus on the new Grades 5-11 textbooks. The first full reform of Palestinian textbooks since 2000 was recently completed. The IMPACT-se assessment found that radicalization is pervasive across this new curriculum, to a greater extent than before…”

  • REFORM or RADICALIZATION: PA 2017 Curriculum -- A Preliminary Review

    By Eldad Pardo, Arik Agassi and Marcus Sheff, IMPACT-se – October 2017

    With the first full reform of the Palestinian curriculum since 2000, IMPACT-se, in its second of three reports, covers sixty-six textbooks from the new PA curriculum of 2017–18 for Grades 5–11. Further research will provide a full assessment of the new curriculum covering Grades 1–12. The crux of this report is education for war and against peace with Israel, demonstrating that the curriculum has further distanced itself from our UNESCO-derived standards of peace and tolerance.

    Full Report   Exec Summary   Selected Examples (Updated)

  • IMPACT-se Turkey Report Featured in NYT Article

    The New York Times — September 18, 2017
    Following a report last year by Impact-se, which analyzed 117 school textbooks in Turkey and concluded that the curriculum taught human rights, was open to Darwin, gender equality, the protection of the environment, compassion toward AIDS patients and various lifestyles, critics have now challenged the overhaul of more than 170 curriculum topics by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “representing a frontal assault on the country’s already fragile tradition of secularism.” The author of the IMPACT-se report, Dr. Hay Yanarocak, said the new changes showed, “Turkey is changing its direction and is no longer, by default, a Western state.”

  • Haredi Curriculum: Spanish Judaism Virtually Ignored

    Kikar Hashabbat (Hebrew) — June 28, 2017
    A study that examined dozens of books studied in the ultra-Orthodox school system revealed that Sephardic institutions are almost completely oblivious to the Sephardi tradition and cultural experience.

  • Fact Checking the PA Minister of Education

    Marcus Sheff’s TOI Blog — June 20, 2017
    IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff’s response to Times of Israel Interview with Sabri Saidam, who gave assurances about significant improvements in the PA curriculum despite having “no room for standards of peace and tolerance” in his proposed educational technology revolution.  IMPACT-se Report

  • JP Editorial: Cited IMPACT Report Contrasts with Empty Abbas Promises

    The Jerusalem Post — June 3, 2017
    Contrary to Abbas’s claim to President Trump that Palestinians were raising their children and grandchildren on a culture of peace, a report last month by the NGO, IMPACT-se,  found an “alarming deterioration in the PA’s textbooks, which continue to demonize Israel and glorify martyrdom.”

  • Abbas Admits Trump Yelled at Him over PA Incitement

    Times of Israel — June 1, 2017
    Article points to IMPACT-se’s 2017 report on PA curriculum, citing an “alarming deterioration” in content since the group’s previous study by further “demonizing Israel and glorifying ‘martyrdom.’”

  • Haredi Textbooks in Israel: Reinforcing the Barricades

    Marcus Sheff’s TOI BlogMay 14, 2017
    “As IMPACT-se researchers worked through the Haredi curricula, a pattern emerged of a society that at every teachable moment, reinforces the barricades of separation, advocates the community’s exceptionalism and re-creates a milieu of pre-Shoah Europe and 1950s Israel.”
    The full report an be found here.

  • Haredi Textbooks in Israel: Reinforcing the Barricades

    An IMPACT-se Report — May 2017
    Haredi Family
    Textbooks used in the Haredi curricula promote a unique and separate cultural identity while generally keeping recognition and contact with mainstream Israeli culture to a minimum. While it fails to meet all of the UNESCO standards, Haredi education as a whole offers some unique characteristics and advantages that are worthwhile examining, with certain aspects potentially even offering a model for other education systems.
    Full Report (pdf, 4.3 mb)

  • Op-ed: Why Are Palestinian Kids Being Taught To Hate?

    Newsweek — May 3, 2017
    “A new study of Palestinian textbooks finds that Palestinian children are being taught to glorify and value terrorism and violence. The study, called ‘Palestinian Elementary School Curriculum 2016–17: Radicalization and Revival of the PLO Program,’ was conducted by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (in Jerusalem) and can be found here.”

  • CFR: Teaching Palestinian Children to Value Terrorism

    Council on Foreign Relations (Elliot Abrams ) — May 1, 2017
    Citing the violence and hatred taught to Palestinian children from a recent IMPACT-se report on the PA’s  Curriculum, Elliot Abrams, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies,  said, “That is not the way to prepare children for peace.”

  • Oslo Doubled Israel’s Terror Toll

    Commentary — May 1, 2017
    Both the PA and Hamas “indoctrinate their children to believe that Israelis are evil people with no connection to the land and no rights to a state.” To quote the textbook monitoring organization IMPACT-se, Palestinian textbooks promote the “demonization of Israel and Jews, including the characterization of Israel as an evil entity that should be annihilated.”  2017 Report

  • Palestinian Elementary School Curriculum 2016-2017: RADICALIZATION AND REVIVAL OF THE PLO PROGRAM

    By Eldad J. Pardo, IMPACT-se – April 2017

    This IMPACT-se report examines the 2016–17 Palestinian Authority school curriculum, focusing on elementary school grades 1-4. There is a comparison with upper grade student learning. The results point to instruction that is significantly more radical than previous curricula. To a greater extent than the 2014–15 textbooks, the curriculum teaches students to be expendable martyrs, rejects negotiations, demonizes and denies the existence of Israel and focuses on a “return” to an exclusively Palestinian homeland.

    2017 Report  (pdf 4.3 mb)

  • TOI: PA Suspends Ties with UNRWA over Planned Curriculum Reform

    The Times of Israel — April 13, 2017
    Proposed changes to textbooks by the UN agency, with schools teaching the PA curriculum to over 312,000 students, was welcomed by Israel and reportedly includes revised maps, a “balanced representation of Jerusalem,” and excision of messages seen as incitement. Cited is IMPACT-se’s latest report on the PA curriculum.

  • TOI: New Palestinian Textbooks ‘Teach Students to be Martyrs’

    The Times of Israel — April 3, 2017
    Citing “alarming deterioration” since a previous study, an IMPACT-se report published Sunday says PA’s elementary school textbooks deny Israel’s existence and urge a “return” to an exclusively Palestinian homeland.The new textbooks for grades 1-4 demonize Israel and glorify “martyrdom.”

  • NEIGHBORS AND RIVALS: China in Turkey’s Educational System


    IMPACT-se  Report  February 2017

    In July 2015, protesters throughout Turkey burned China’s flag, along with effigies of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong. On the same day, a group of Turkish Ultra-nationalists and Islamists gathered in central Istanbul to protest the alleged restrictions on Uyghur religious freedom in China.             Report  (pdf 1.4 mb)

  • A Worrying Ideological Direction for Turkish Education

    Hurriyet Daily News-– Jan. 26, 2017
    The Education Ministry’s draft for changes in the Turkish curriculum for the coming 2017-18 academic year, is set to reverse positive observations and conclusions found by IMPACT-se (report), in favor of enhanced Islamic education.

  • New Palestinian Textbooks Encourage Violence: IMPACT Report

    Fast Forward — Dec. 4, 2017
    According to an analysis by a watchdog group, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), new textbooks issued by the Palestinian Authority for grades 5-11 encourage violence against Israelis and the PA curriculum “exerts pressure over young Palestinians to acts of violence in a more extensive and sophisticated manner.”