The Palestinian Arab Quds News Network reported that the Palestinian Arab local authorities have made substantial changes to school textbooks following pressure from the European Union and the State of Israel.
According to the report, the changes focused on content dealing with "Palestinian national memory," discussion of Jerusalem, security prisoners, and refugees. The revisions were made with the aim of removing messages perceived as encouraging violence and introducing messages that promote coexistence between peoples.
Among the notable changes was that the "Palestinian national anthem" was removed from the Grade 1 culture textbook, and an image was removed from a Grade 2 textbook that depicted a prison, an escape attempt, and instructions to memorize the names of prisoners. In addition, a nationalist song emphasizing the importance of defending the homeland and sacrificing oneself for it was omitted.
At the same time, the description of Jaffa as a "Palestinian city" was removed. Regarding Jerusalem, the wording “Al-Quds, the capital of Palestine" was changed to: "Al-Quds is the capital of the monotheistic religions and the capital of Palestine."
It was further reported that the term "Zionist" was removed from all textbooks, the word "mujahid" (jihad fighter) was replaced with "mudafi’" (defender), and a question that previously appeared - "What message would you send to our people in Jerusalem to support their steadfastness and resistance to the occupation?" - was deleted.
The prayer, "Oh Allah, protect Al-Quds and Palestine from the Jews" was also changed and now reads: "Oh Allah, protect Al-Quds and Palestine in peace, far from hostility among the residents."
Finally, changes were reported in the chapter dealing with the Holocaust, including the addition of content promoting Arab-Israeli cooperation and presenting Islam as a religion opposed to extremism.