Uri Avnery: Israelis and Palestinians Raise Another Bloody Generation

[Uri Avnery is a journalist, peace activist, former member of the Knesset and leader of Gush Shalom.] Incredible! In Palestinian schoolbooks, there is no trace of the Green Line! They do not recognize the existence of Israel even in the 1967 borders! They say that the"Zionist gangs" stole the country from the Arabs! That's how they poison the minds of their children!

These blood-curdling revelations were published this week in Israel and around the world. The conclusion is self-evident: The Palestinian Authority, which is responsible for the schoolbooks, cannot be a partner in peace negotiations. What a shock!

Truth is, there is nothing new here. Every few years, when all the other arguments for refusing to speak with the Palestinian leadership wear thin, the ultimate argument pops up again: Palestinian schoolbooks call for the destruction of Israel!

The ammunition is always provided by one of the"professional" institutions that deal with this matter. These foundations of the far right, disguised as"scientific" bodies, are lavishly funded by Jewish-American multimillionaires. Teams of salaried employees apply a fine-toothed comb to every word of the Arab media and schoolbooks, with a preordained objective: to prove that they are anti-Semitic, preach hatred of Israel and call for the killing of Jews. In the sea of words, it is not too difficult to find suitable quotes, while ignoring everything else.

So now it is again perfectly clear: Palestinian schoolbooks preach hatred of Israel! They are breeding a new generation of terrorists! Therefore, of course, there can be no question of Israel and the world ending the blockade on the Palestinian Authority!

Well, what about our side? What do our schoolbooks look like?

Does the Green Line appear in them? Do they recognize the right of the Palestinians to establish a state on the other side of our 1967 borders? Do they teach love for the Palestinian people (or even the existence of the Palestinian people), or respect for the Arabs in general, or a knowledge of Islam?

The answer to all these questions: Absolutely not!...

I remember giving a lecture in one of the kibbutzim in the late '60s. After I explained the need for the establishment of a Palestinian state next to Israel (a fairly revolutionary idea at the time), one of the kibbutzniks stood up and asked:"I don't understand it! You want us to give back all the territories that we have conquered. Territories are something real, land, water. What shall we get in return? Abstract words like"peace"? What shall we get -- tachles (Yiddish for practical things)?"

I answered that from Morocco to Iraq, there are tens of thousands of classrooms, and in every one of them hangs a map. On all these maps, the territory of Israel is marked"occupied Palestine" or just left blank. All that we need is that the name Israel should appear on these thousands of maps.

Forty years have passed, and the name"Israel" does not appear in Palestinian schoolbooks, nor, I assume, on any school map from Morocco to Iraq. And the name"Palestine" does not appear, of course, on any Israeli school map. Only when the young Israeli joins the army, does he see a map of"the territories," with its crazy puzzle of Zones A, B and C, settlement blocs and apartheid roads.

A map is a weapon .....