The Jerusalem Teachers' Association, a Palestinian Arab teachers' organization, is actively spreading anti-Israel incitement in Arab schools in Jerusalem, according to comments translated by Palestinian Media Watch Monday, after its chair called Israel an "Islamic Palestinian Arab" country.
"In our schools, we teach what our religion and conscience dictate: That Jerusalem is Arab and that Palestine - from north to south, from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea - is Islamic Palestinian Arab, and will remain so in spite of the damned occupier," Issa Salman, head of the Association, stated on official Palestinian Authority (PA) television in an interview two weeks ago.
Public Arab schools in Jerusalem are under the direct supervision of the Israeli government, PMW revealed - as they are supervised by the Education Administration of Jerusalem, which is under the Ministry of Education.
The revelation surfaces as Arab terrorism in Jerusalem has risen dramatically in the past several months, and intensified particularly in October and November - which saw two "car rampages" near Light Rail stations, the attempted assassination of Temple Mount rights activist Yehuda Glick, and a massacre at a synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood.
68% of Israeli Arabs still prefer to live under Israeli rule and not under the PA, according to a poll conducted by Channel 10 a few weeks ago. Despite this, nearly one in three Israeli Arabs did not condemn terrorism against Israelis - a far cry from the optimistic estimate offered at the end of November by Economics Minister Naftali Bennett, who asserted that 99.9% of Arab Israelis are "loyal" to the country.
But the revelation that the incitement, which is the norm in official PA schools, raises questions over Israeli Arabs in Jerusalem just as tensions have peaked in the capital. At least one set of remarks by an MK recently indicated that the law is not enforced in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem.