REPOST: Various stories on hate being taught
When I see people radicalized by hate towards Jews, Israel and/or Zionism (a philosophy the haters should actually read), I remind myself about the Cycle of Violence. Abusers go through four main stages — tension, incident, reconciliation and calm — each taught by their surroundings. Today, people are more often taught about Jewish Supremacy and blood libel from their parents or online hate communities, not door-to-door salesmen. In much of the world antisemitism is perpetuated by schools.
The calm has a time limit. If we continue to let education fail, teaching hate instead of tolerance, tension will rise.
Though it seems obvius to me that the more educated countries tend to be favoratable towards Israel and Jews, I would need to do some research to provide the casual link. We don’t know what causes the relationship between the two, and I feel more comfortable preaching issues related to economic conditions over issues related to religion.
In 2017, leaked documents showed Saudia Arabia was beginning to make ties with Israel. By 2018, they legalized women driving. Saudia Arabia is now discussing partnerships with Israel, which will inevitably lead to better education in their schools. For Jews at least. Hell, maybe Saudia Arabia will finally let male doctors work with female patients freely!
Australia already has a ton of Israel supporters in politics (including Warren Mundine, a famous indigenous advocate), but suffers from antisemitism. It’s as if their festivals can only get world wide recognition if they’re hosting someone calling to murder the {{Zionists}}. It does not seem there are attempts to change this behavior, though I pray there is.
Qatar teaches their own to hate Jews, then waters it down for the world. We just look away. Like we do with their funding of terrorist orgs and human rights abuses. But hey, the Millions who are critical of Israel for having basic rights for LGBT+, champion Qatar. And the world has accepted a “boys will be boys” mentality with their violent calls.
Original link 1: i24, "Saudi Arabia removes 'most' hateful content toward Jews and Israel in textbooks" https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/middle-east/culture/1685003961-saudi-arabia-removes-most-of-the-hateful-content-toward-jews-and-israel-in-latest-textbook-update
Original link 2: ynet, “Australian schools facing pandemic of institutionalized antisemitism”
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/byqfrgu7n
Original link 3: Jerusalem Post “Foreign Ministry slams Qatari paper for urging terror attacks against Israelis - exclusive”
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-744740
For some reason, JPost did not link to ADL when citing the antisemitic cartoons of Qatar. So here is that link, which I recommend perusing to see how anti-Israel violence is based largely on antisemitic beliefs: https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/anti-semitic-cartoons-hallmark-qatari-newspapers
Saudi Arabia removes 'most' hateful content toward Jews and Israel in textbooks
i24NEWS
May 25, 2023 at 11:39 AM; latest revision May 25, 2023 at 01:46 PM
(AP Photo/Amr Nabil)In this photo, a Saudi girl waves a national flag with a picture of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during celebrations marking National Day to commemorate the unification of the country as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The changes in the Kingdom's curricula continue a positive trend of toning down harmful material, in a move heralded as promoting peace and tolerance
Saudi Arabia made significant improvements to their K-12 textbooks with the removal of most of its hateful content. The changes continued a positive trend of toning down harmful material, in a move heralded as promoting peace and tolerance.
The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), an international watchdog that analyzes worldwide curricula according to UNESCO standards. The institute examined 301 textbooks, including 80 for the current 2022-23 school year.
“Practically all the previously identified antisemitic material in Saudi Islamic Studies textbooks has now been removed,” said Marcus Sheff, IMPACT-se CEO, and remarked on “the clear trend of moderation in relation to Israel.”
”While all textbook reform is important, Saudi Arabian textbooks are particularly consequential,” highlighted Sheff, and concluded that “kudos is due to the Saudi government for this multi-year and systematic removal of Jew hate.”
Entire chapters were removed, practically all previous antisemitism could not be found, and “just a few negative examples” remain, nearly all the examples of violent jihad were removed. The report mentioned that “most remaining examples of hostility toward Israel are found in a single social studies textbook.”
Instead, peace and tolerance were promoted, and the harmful ideologies of extreme terrorist organizations like the Iranian-backed Hezbollah were criticized. The report also commended the “considerable improvement in gender issues” and the removal of “much homophobic content.”
However, while negative portrayals of infidels were toned down, “problematic” examples remained, such as a first-grade textbook that teaches that “any other religion [than Islam] is false,” and another that describes atheists as “souls that the devil has taken over.”
Meanwhile, another effort took a look at incitement and violence in the curriculum taught to Palestinian schoolchildren through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Israel has been pressuring the EU to ensure that its funding for UNRWA is not misused to indirectly promote terrorism, and to obligate reports and oversight on “educational materials” produced by the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA.
Australian schools facing pandemic of institutionalized antisemitism
Swatiskas, harassment and a knife to the throat - this is how Jewish students in Australia are growing up, while being told their persecution isn't real; 'Antisemitism most dangerous when not spoken about, soft-pedaled, whitewashed and justified,' expert says
Emily Schrader | 05.26.23 | 23:38
Much has been said and written about rising antisemitism in Europe and the United States, including in public schools. The situation for the Jewish community in Australia is also extremely grave and trending in the wrong direction, especially for students.
In the past two years, there has been a 41.9% increase in antisemitic activity nationwide in Australia, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. Many of those incidents have involved not just college students, but elementary and high school students as well.
Jewish teen forced to kiss foot of Muslim student in bullying incident (Photo: Screenshot, Twitter)
In 2019, an Australian Jewish 12-year-old was filmed being forced to kiss a Muslim student's foot “because he is a Jew” in a viral video uploaded to TikTok by the perpetrators, and threatened with violence if he did not comply. The Muslim children bullying the Jewish teen were his classmates at Cheltenham Secondary College in Melbourne, but since the incident occurred immediately after school hours the school refused to take action. The Jewish child had also received text messages telling him he would be “slaughtered,” which were being handled by the police.
For more than a year, the Australian Jewish community also has been dealing with a major lawsuit against the state itself over its mishandling of antisemitism. The case, which only recently heard closing statements and is expected to receive a formal judgment in the coming months, involves multiple Jewish students who were harassed for years with antisemitism from their peers, while the school administrators did nothing – despite knowing about the problems.
A daily hell for Jewish students at school
Five former students at the Brighton Secondary College, a public high school, sued the state and the school in the Federal Court of Australia for negligence and failing to protect them from racial discrimination over the time period of 2013-2020. Among the examples described in the lawsuit are speeches against racism by principal Richard Minack which included references to Jews being “subhuman” and praise of Minack’s own father, who was a Nazi.
In response, the state of Victoria has denied all allegations of negligence, bullying and discrimination.
The students at Brighton also were targeted with antisemitic graffiti, including “Heil Hitler'' written on a locker and drawings of swastikas on an ongoing basis. One of the Jewish students involved in the lawsuit reported that he was pushed into the toilet cubicles by a group of students, punched and had a knife held to his throat.
(Photo: AP)
For years, the former students endured antisemitic physical attacks, and one student was even told that he could not wear a kippa in the school. The antisemitism was coming from both administrators and fellow students, the students say, creating an unbelievably hostile environment for young Australian Jews.
Yet when the issue was made public, nothing changed.
Institutionalized antisemitism
Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), spoke to Ynetnews about the case, since the families involved are not permitted to comment. “I was obviously horrified and appalled by what was happening,” Abramovich says.
He explains that children have experienced numerous incidents of horrific antisemitism that the larger Jewish community worldwide simply isn’t hearing about. For example, at Hawthorn West Primary School in Victoria, a 5-year-old Jewish student was called “Jewish vermin” because he was circumcised. When the bullying was brought to the attention of administrators, “the suggestion from the school was that he use the staff bathroom (which he did) only to have the staff tell him he isn’t permitted, and so he went back to the regular bathroom.” Abramovich says.
The culture of indifference at the administrative level is one of the most alarming concerns for Australian Jewish students and their families.
“There are principals and teachers who are in complete denial about the scale of the problem. When told of the ordeals Jewish pupils are experiencing, they are either deliberately indifferent to their plight, or they accept, excuse or choose not to act on complaints,” explains Abramovich.
In some cases, victims of antisemitic bullying in Melbourne primary schools – who requested not to be named for their own security – were told flat out by administrators they were lying.
The inability of administrators to see the problem of antisemitism is a byproduct of institutionalized antisemitism, according to experts. “School leadership is not sympathetic to the Jewish parents … and intolerance is spreading like wildfire,” says Abramovich.
Under Abramovich, the ADC is working overtime to push back against institutionalized antisemitism, but it’s an uphill battle. The historic lawsuit against Brighton Secondary College is a major step toward exposing and rooting out antisemitism, but the Australian educational system needs to acknowledge that the problem exists before it can deal with it.
“I think they need to accept the truth that antisemitism in primary schools in Brighton [and throughout Australia] is a crisis. There are weekly reports of Jewish students being bullied and I am deeply concerned we are running out of time,” says Abramovich, who added that “antisemitism is at its most dangerous when it is not spoken about, soft-pedaled, whitewashed and justified.”
Foreign Ministry slams Qatari paper for urging terror attacks against Israelis - exclusive
The Middle East Media Research Institute first located and translated the May 14 Al-Watan column from Palestinian journalist Samir Al-Barghouti.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL; Published: MAY 31, 2023 16:51; Updated: MAY 31, 2023 19:35
Foreign Affairs Minister Eli Cohen seen before the arrival of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, January 30, 2023. (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday blasted a Palestinian columnist for the Qatar daily paper Al-Watan who authored a commentary in May calling on Palestinians to carry out terror attacks on Israelis, including calls for Arab countries to go on war footing against the Jewish state. The Middle East Media Research Institute first located and translated the column from Palestinian journalist Samir al-Barghouti.
According to MEMRI, Barghouti wrote “Hit [them] in the depth of the Jerusalem settlements, in Tel Aviv and in all parts of the land they stole and whose people they expelled, from Ras Al-Naqoura [in the North] to Rafah [in the South]. Hit [them], and may your hands be blessed. Even if you do not hurt a single one of them, it is enough to terrify them and sow fear among them.”
Barghouti added that “had there been someone to hit [them] inside the 1948 territories, the Apartheid State [i.e. Israel] would not have continued to exist on our soil to this very day. Had it not been for the Camp David Accords and the Oslo Accords, not a single Zionist would have remained in Palestine [today]…”
In an exclusive statement to The Jerusalem Post, the Foreign Ministry said it “strongly condemn[s]” the article “calling for Palestinians to carry out terror attacks against Israelis. Such inflammatory rhetoric and glorification of violence are deeply disturbing and contribute to the perpetuation of the hatred and hostility in the region.”
"Make it so that they will never be safe – not in Jerusalem, not in Tel Aviv, and not in their settlements."
Samir al-Barghouti
An IDF sniper is seen following a ramming attack in Jerusalem on April 24, 2023 (credit: MICHAEL STARR)
The ministry added that “Israel remains committed to the unconditional fight against terror and calls to end any manifestation of this kind of unproductive incitement” and “will continue to work towards meaningful dialogue and cooperation in the region in order to achieve a peaceful and secure future for all people in the Middle East.”
Required government approval for publishing
The head of Muslims Against Antisemitism in the United Kingdom, Ghanem Nuseibeh, told the Post that “Qatar media is heavily censored and such extremist incitement would not be published without government approval.”A Qatar expert, Nuseibeh added that it has been “the most virulent spreader of antisemitism in Arabic-speaking communities and there are no signs this has stopped.
Qatari media says one thing in its English language outlets but in Arabic it continues to incite violence against Jews and those who disagree with it. It is vital that Western nations understand the threat and block such websites from poisoning the minds of Muslim communities in Europe and the US.”
A recent BBC overview of the Qatar media cited Al-Watan, which means “The Homeland,” as a “privately-owned, pro-government daily.” The Doha-based paper was founded in 1995 and, according to its Wikipedia page, it is owned by Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani from the ruling Al Thani family in Qatar. It has been cited by the BBC in its coverage of Middle East affairs.
Press queries by the Post to Qatar’s Foreign Ministry and embassy in Washington, about the commentary by Barghouti and the ownership of the paper, went unanswered. The Post also queried the paper’s editor-in-chief Mohamed Hamad al-Marri, who declined to comment.
Barghouti aligned himself with terrorist movements in the Gaza Strip, including Hamas and the Iranian-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Memri noted in its analysis of Barghouti’s article that he “called on the Palestinians of all factions to carry out terror attacks throughout Israel, from the North to the South, in order to inflict blows on the Israelis and terrify them. He also urged the Arab countries to open up the fronts against Israel and expel the Israeli ambassadors from their territory, lest it become too late for them to repent. ‘The historical and religious promise regarding Palestine will soon be realized,’ he stated, and therefore it is necessary to keep up the attacks on Israel.”
The media watchdog also located a column by Barghouti in Al-Watan from March 12, titled “The Time Has Come For You To Get Out.” In it, he argues that it is time to expel the Israelis “from Huwara to Tel Aviv... from the river to the sea,” and to fight them in brigades and with lone attackers. “Make it so that they will never be safe – not in Jerusalem, not in Tel Aviv, and not in their settlements,” he wrote.
Al-Watan gears its articles toward Palestinian readers and devotes coverage to the Palestinians.
The religious essence of the Israeli Palestinian conflict
Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s chief Nazi hunter and an expert on modern antisemitism, told the Post that “what people have to understand [is that] the essence of the Palestinian conflict with Israel is religious. In other words, it is fueled by Islam, which is the most prevalent religion of Palestinians in Israel and in Diaspora.” Zuroff added that “when a conflict is fueled by religion, there is practically no room for compromise. These articles reflect the desire of Palestinians to murder innocent civilians, which of course, only makes the conflict worse and is a tremendous obstacle to peace. Qatar is not concerned about the prospect of peace in the Middle East.”
While the Sunni Gulf countries Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates normalized diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020, Qatar refuses to follow suit.
The US-based Anti-Defamation League has chronicled antisemitic cartoons that Al-Watan has published over the years, including a 2018 cartoon showing a swastika with a Star of David imprinted on a kind of bulldozer crushing Arabs. The cartoon was by Salman al-Malik. The ADL titled its article, “Anti-Semitic Cartoons: A Hallmark of Qatari Newspapers.”
Zuroff said that “there should be no room for articles and cartoons like this.”
The BBC said that “most media outlets are owned by the state, members of the royal family or figures aligned with them. Most outlets take a pro-government stance. Journalists practice self-censorship, avoiding critical reporting on domestic and foreign affairs.
The absence of opposition media has left social media as the only space for expressing discontent. Many outlets are sympathetic to Islamist groups, whose figures maintain a significant media presence.”
The Post has reported over the years on allegations that Qatar’s regime funds the following terrorist entities: Islamic State, Hezbollah, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
