Sunday, November 03, 2013

New Gaza textbooks focus on resistance


Maan News
The new textbooks in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip include details about
Palestinian militant groups, armed resistance (MaanImages)
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip has introduced amended textbooks for grades eight, nine and 10, adding lessons about various methods of Palestinian resistance, a Ma'an reporter said.

The first three chapters of the books focus on pre-1948 Palestine, overviewing major Palestinian cities now under Israeli control.

They also include a history of the 1929 Buraq Uprising in addition to Izz Addin al-Qassam's armed resistance movement against Zionism and the British Mandate for Palestine.

In the new eighth grade textbook, students are taught about the Israeli occupation and everyday methods of resistance. A later chapter focuses on military resistance - including details about rockets fired into Israel from Gaza - and illustrates that modern weaponry has become capable of "confusing the occupation."



Grade nine's textbook includes an even more detailed account of Palestinian reactions to Israeli military aggression, covering Gaza's militant response to Israel's Operation Cast Lead and Operation Pillar of Defense, which, using language from the Quran, the textbooks dub the Battle of the Criterion and Operation Stones of Shale.

Another chapter is dedicated to the cross-border military operation by three Palestinian groups in 2006 as a result of which Israel agreed to release Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit in exchange for 1,024 Palestinian prisoners.

The textbook also includes a chapter on the Palestinian national movement, discussing non-negotiable Palestinian principals such as the right of return and the importance of Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.



In the tenth grade textbook, Palestinian factions such as Hamas, Fatah, the Islamic Jihad movement and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine are discussed. The text book also documents the history of Palestinian leaders such as Yasser Arafat, Ahmad Shuqiri and Ahmad Yasin.

Gaza schools run by the United Nations will not use the amended textbooks.

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