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	The B'nai Brith Canada Institute for International Affairs has a mandate to protest the abuse of human rights throughout the world and advocate on behalf of worldwide Jewish communities in distress. The Institute has a special focus on pro-Israel advocacy and education.
Rochelle Wilner President	Frank Dimant Executive Vice President	Amos Sochaczevski National Chair	Ruth Klein National Director

TORONTO STAR, Opinion Page, March 14, 2000

NOT ALL POETS ARE PEACEMAKERS

By Ruth Klein

There has been much discussion over whether Israel was correct in deciding not to include the work of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish in its high school curriculum. Those who criticize this decision seem to equate the yearnings of a poet with the inclinations of a peacemaker, as if poetry can indeed bring peace. Would that this were so.

There are some who describe the debate within Israel on this issue as, in effect, a litmus test of how serious Israelis are about making peace. What is usually omitted in the equation, however, is that respect for such ‘cultural symbols’ has to be mutual.

The key to a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians is certainly the attitude of the next generation in terms of establishing mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual understanding. That is why educating for peace is so crucial. The Constitution of UNESCO sums this up appropriately: “Since war begins in the hearts of men, it is in the minds of men that the defence of peace must be constructed.” Including Darwish’s poetry in Israeli schools, however potent the symbolic value, would be ineffectual in terms of building any tangible “defence of peace” in the absence of even the most basic of reciprocal gestures.

Far from including poetry suggesting the yearnings or aspirations of Israelis, the Palestinian Authority (PA) uses its educational system to indoctrinate youngsters with the messages of the PLO Covenant. This manifesto, which calls for the destruction of Israel as the ultimate aim, was supposedly revoked as part of Palestinian obligations under the peace process. However, schoolbooks are still rife with references to anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish prejudices that are often reminiscent of age-old antisemitic stereotypes. These messages of hatred and contempt, which glorify violence and bloodshed against Israel as the only solution to conflict in the area, demonstrate a lack of commitment to the ideal of building meaningful structures that will support and sustain peace.

The abuse of the PA educational system as a vehicle for propagating hatred and incitement has been precisely documented by the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (http://www.edume.org), which has undertaken a review of 140 texts. The PA Ministry of Education, which has the sole responsibility for selection, content and editing, published all but one of these texts officially. The Center’s report looks at PA controlled television as well as school books, documenting numerous attempts to delegitimize Israel, deny any Jewish religious or historical links to the land, denigrate Jews as “evil”, and advocate jihad. Certainly, no State of Israel - of any dimensions - is ever depicted on the maps studied by Palestinian schoolchildren.

“One must beware of the Jews, for they are treacherous and disloyal” states one such text, Islamic Education for Ninth Grade (page 79). Or, according to The New History of the Arabs and the World (page 123), “The clearest examples of racist belief and racial discrimination in the world are Nazism and Zionism.” Perhaps this passes for eloquence in some circles, but presumably no-one would attempt to justify this type of rhetoric while at the same time placing such misplaced emphasis on what poetry Israeli schoolchildren should read.

These themes of rejectionism and calls for jihad run concurrently through the press, state television and sermons delivered at mosques by PA appointees, in direct contravention of Palestinian obligations under the 1995 Oslo Accords. In Article 22 of this agreement, the PA pledged to “abstain from incitement, including hostile propaganda” and even to “take legal measures to prevent such incitement by any organizations, groups or individuals within their jurisdiction”. The Palestinians reaffirmed this commitment in the Hebron Protocol of January 15, 1997 and again in the Wye River Memorandum of October 23, 1998.

Israel has already changed its schoolbooks in order to accommodate Palestinian sensibilities in the context of what is meant to be a mutual search for reconciliation and rapprochement. However, whenever Israel requests modifications to PA Ministry of Education texts that undermine peace, it is decried as an assault that seeks to dictate Palestinian national consciousness. On the other hand, attempts to enhance Israeli national consciousness in its own school system are portrayed as somehow threatening to the search for peace. Perhaps we should listen carefully to the words of the poet at the centre of the current furor as expressed in his 1987 work, Those Who Pass Between Fleeting Words: “It is time for you to be gone. Live wherever you like, but do not live among us... Die wherever you like, but do not die among us.” Do the words of the poet indeed reflect the resolve of a peacemaker?

Ruth Klein is National Director of the Institute for International Affairs of B’nai Brith Canada.