Archive – 2017

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.

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.”

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.”

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.”

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

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…

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

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…”

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)

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.”

i24News — June 28, 2017
IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff i24 interview on Haredi curriculum. Report

YNET (Hebrew) — June 28, 2017
An IMPACT-se study has surveyed dozens of textbooks from the ultra-Orthodox educational system, and the findings show attitudes toward the various sectors inhabited by the Jewish people—and outside it.

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.

Voice of Israel (English) — June 26, 2017
“The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) has issued a report, which for the first time evaluates Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) textbooks in Israel.” (Begins @18:02)

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

The Meir Amit Intelligence & Terrorism Information Center — June 6, 2017
Study cites recent IMPACT-se report on PA Curriculum to support the idea that Palestinian hostility toward Israel is ingrained through education.

Times of Israel — June 3, 2017
Saidam’s comments in contrast with recent IMPACT-se  reports on the PA Elementary School Curriculum and Palestinians in  Israeli Textbooks.

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.”

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.’”

The Jewish Chronicle (UK) — May 30, 2017
Curricula were found to oppose modernity, instead promoting “a separate cultural identity,” which ignores trends in general society, according to a new survey by Israel-based IMPACT-se.

Times of Israel — May 29, 2017
Recent IMPACT-se report on PA Curriculum cited along with Trump’s admonishment that Abbas must curb anti-Israeli incitement in the Palestinian education system.

The Meir Amit Intelligence & Terrorism Information Center — May 16, 2017
Despite numerous reports (including recent IMPACT-se study) citing PA’s education of violence and struggle against Israel, UNRWA leadership caves to Palestinian pressure.

Marcus Sheff’s TOI Blog — May 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.

i24NEWS — May 12, 2017
A study by IMPACT-se, a Jerusalem-based organization that monitors school curricula, revealed that textbooks used in Haredi Orthodox schools in Israel, despite promoting insularity, were also encouraging of peaceful conduct and coexistence within Israeli society.

Jewish Telegraphic Agency — May 11, 2017
Textbooks used in Haredi Orthodox schools in Israel promote the community’s insularity as well as peaceful conduct and coexistence, according to a study by education watchdog IMPACT-se, which studied 93 textbooks for grades 1–12.

The Jerusalem Post — May 9, 2017
A comprehensive study by the education watchdog organization IMPACT-se of textbooks used in Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) schools has found that they teach a worldview that is isolationist, contemptuous of secular society and instills hatred of Reform Jews.

An IMPACT-se Report — May 2017

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)

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.”

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.”

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

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)

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.

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.”

The Jerusalem Post — April 3, 2017 — The latest Palestinian Authority elementary school textbooks are even more radical than previous editions, according to a report just issued by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se).

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)

Channel 2 (Israel, Hebrew) — February 20, 2017
IMPACT-se study on PA Textbooks featured in Channel 2 report on what Palestinian children really learn.

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.

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.”