"Palestinians teach their children to hate."

Argument

Supporters claim that “Palestinians teach their children to hate,” pointing to examples from Palestinian school curricula, UNRWA-run summer camps, and children’s TV programming, where lessons allegedly encourage martyrdom, glorification of violence, dehumanization of Jews, and rejection of coexistence.

Counterpoint

While some PA and Hamas-affiliated sources contain explicit references to martyrdom and resistance, independent reviews offer a more nuanced picture. A joint Israeli–Palestinian study of nearly 10,000 textbook pages found that explicit dehumanization was “extremely rare” and: “no general dehumanising characterisations of personal traits of Jews or Israelis.”

Furthermore, scholars note that nationalist education, common worldwide, can include references to sacrifice without constituting systematic hate education. The 2020–21 EU-funded IMPACT-SE review acknowledged challenges in some textbooks, but did not conclude that Palestinian education indoctrinates children to hate Jews.

Spin

  • Overgeneralization: Suggests widespread indoctrination based on isolated examples of violent or martial themes.
  • Moral panic framing: Uses fear of youth education to justify punitive policies against Palestinian institutions, like school closures.
  • Double standard: Israeli textbooks also exhibit bias, yet are rarely held up for scrutiny with the same alarm.
  • Political weaponization: Labels education for resistance as “hate,” while ignoring how occupation shapes children’s experiences.

Sources