The doors of the Ramallah office of Palestinian Authority Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh are constantly revolving with visits by Western diplomats and heads of state, as political moves are prepared toward ending the war in Gaza. Al-Sheikh, a kind of crown prince to Mahmoud Abbas, the aging and almost perpetually ruling PA president, is firmly managing efforts to bring the Palestinian Authority into control of the Strip and, beyond that, to advance the establishment of a Palestinian state. The horizon for such a state has already been set out in the Trump plan that was endorsed by the UN Security Council, and Israel did not oppose it.
There is, however, a crucial caveat: reforms within the Palestinian Authority, including the payments to terrorists that continue even now, and the critical reform of the PA education system.
The Oslo Accords themselves included the requirement to instill content of peace, acceptance of the other and tolerance within the Palestinian education system. Yet no one ensured that any of these topics were implemented, including all Israeli governments to date. The European Union, the main funder of this education system, has repeatedly rejected Israeli demands to condition its funding on the necessary changes. The required change is dramatic: from kindergarten onward, Palestinians undergo an educational indoctrination that teaches them to hate Israel, Zionists and, above all, Jews, with antisemitic motifs and direct incitement to terrorism. Every few years, under international pressure, the Palestinian Authority announces changes, but those that are made are only cosmetic in nature.
In his talks in Ramallah and meetings in Gulf states, Hussein al-Sheikh has been trying to argue that over the past year there has also been a change in this area and that education officials are working on a new program. With the Saudis, this seems to have worked, or perhaps they care less. Last week, Israel Hayom reported on the Saudi move to assume supervisory responsibility over these reforms, in exchange for the release of tax revenues that Israel is withholding.
The Israeli and international Left, including groups such as J Street and Peace Now, is also helping the Palestinian Authority market the story of educational reform, even though the lie is a massive obstacle to genuine peace. The reforms, in fact, never occurred. Israel Hayom has learned that during Hussein al-Sheikh's visit to the United Arab Emirates, examples of incitement in the current textbooks were presented to him, and his request for financial assistance for the Palestinian Authority was rejected.
Israel Hayom has also learned that during 2025, Mahmoud Abbas' office examined the possibility of a comprehensive change in the education system and sought assistance from international organizations involved in such efforts, even receiving examples of textbooks. Abbas, however, demanded that changes be introduced into those books that ran counter to principles of tolerance and the aspiration for peace, and the initiative did not move forward.
Dr. Arnon Groiss, who has been researching attitudes toward Israel, Jews and peace in Palestinian Authority textbooks for a quarter of a century, says that even now, in the current textbooks that were supposedly revised, their principles are indistinguishable from those of the Hamas terrorist organization. He says that the treatment of the conflict in these textbooks is based on three core principles: opposition to the existence of the State of Israel anywhere in the land and to the very presence of its seven million Jewish citizens; harsh demonization of Israel and of Jews, including on religious grounds; and a call for violent struggle for total "liberation," which at times hints at the need for their destruction. "The State of Palestine" is presented as the sovereign state over the entire land in place of Israel, both in text and on maps, and the name Israel is replaced with the term "the Zionist occupation."
According to Groiss, there is a complete denial of Jewish history in the land and of the existence of Judaism's holy sites, foremost among them the Western Wall. Demonization is carried out by portraying Jews as "infidels, helpers of Satan and enemies of God's prophets," who in the past betrayed Muhammad and who today pose an existential threat to the Palestinians. Jews are also accused of being driven by Jewish religious thought to commit massacres with the intention of exterminating Palestinians. The educational ideal promoted is jihad and "istishhad" (martyrdom for the nation and Islam) in order to "liberate" the land.
In Palestinian textbooks, including the current ones, terrorism—illustrated by examples such as the 1978 Coastal Road bus attack—is presented as an integral part of the "struggle for liberation", as is the "return of refugees."
The Palestinian Authority's textbooks are mandatory in all schools in Judea and Samaria and Gaza, including UNRWA schools and private schools. Many schools in east Jerusalem also use these books.
A pilot for change
Yet, it is precisely the education system in the Gaza Strip that could serve as a pilot for the change so desperately needed in the education of Palestinian youth and in halting the institutionalized incitement of the Palestinian education system.
Since the start of the ceasefire in October, various bodies have been trying to renew schooling in the Strip. Most schools were destroyed, and international organizations are organizing makeshift classrooms. In the absence of a functioning governing authority, most of the material is not based on the Palestinian Authority curriculum with its Hamas flavor, as it was previously. At the US headquarters in Kiryat Gat that is preparing for "the day after," there is an entire department dealing with the rehabilitation of education infrastructure, including future curricula. Two countries stand out in these preparations: the United Arab Emirates and Morocco. Innovative curricula that omit the familiar incitement against Israel and Jews are being prepared, ahead of the establishment of a governing body that will take responsibility from Hamas, if and when that happens.
In the meantime, in areas controlled by clans opposed to Hamas, makeshift schools have been established that require curricula, textbooks and other materials. The most prominent is in the territory of the al-Shabab clan in the southern Strip, where several hundred children are studying in temporary structures according to an advanced education program run by one of the international organizations operating in the area. The program was written by education experts from across the Arab world and is now being examined by additional clans seeking to adopt it.
Hamas, meanwhile, is still trying to operate primarily academic institutions, and last month its education ministry announced that 230 students had successfully completed medical studies.
