School in Sweden Teaches Pupils Israel Doesn’t Exist

Margot Wallstrom

A commentary in Arutz Sheva, Israel National News, “Indoctrinating Swedish children” (Jan. 28 2016) charges a Swedish school with attempting to teach children anti-Israel bias and hated. Author Tobias Petersson, chairman of the Swedish pro-Israel organization Perspective on Israel (PPI), warns of textbooks that have been distributed in the city of Malmo, Sweden by a non-governmental organization.

Petersson says the “Swedish pro-Palestinian NGO Palestinian Centre for Justice (PRC) recently began to educate children in one or more schools” in the city.

In 2006, PRC arranged a conference in which Ismail Haniyeh spoke. Haniyeh is the leader of Gaza Strip-based Hamas, a U.S-designated terrorist group. According to Petersson, the PRC is slated to hold another of these conferences, entitled “Palestinians in Europe” in 2016.

In June 2015, the PRC vice chairman held a meeting with Margot Wallstrom, currently Sweden’s foreign minister. Wallstrom has been criticized for her Jan. 12, 2016 remarks which falsely alleged that Israelis shooting Palestinian attackers were potentially guilty of “summary executions.”

The textbook distributed by the PRC is called “To Palestine I Belong.” Written entirely in Arabic, the book shows a map that depicts all of Israel and territories ruled by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas as Palestine. Some Israeli cities are still shown—however Tel Aviv, is not.

Jewish history in the land of Israel before the 1917 Balfour Declaration is completely erased, whereas Muslim activity in the region is depicted. The book refers to Jewish presence in Israel as “the occupation” and accuses the country of harboring a “dangerous plan” to destroy the “Palestinian cause” via “war crimes against the land, the people and the holy shrines.” Israel is also falsely charged with preventing Palestinian Arabs from working, stealing land and enacting “Judaization” projects to erase Islamic history in Jerusalem.

In what Petersson calls the “most controversial part of the textbook,” the 1987-1994 intifada in which Palestinian Arabs attacked Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, is described as brave children fighting the “Zionist machines and soldiers with their bare chests.” Petersson notes that this language directly mirrors that of Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. Terrorist attacks against Israelis are praised in the book as a “heroic saga.”

According to Petersson, in November and December 2015, the PRC Facebook page displayed photographs of teaching sessions with this textbook—only to remove them after journalists started asking questions. Other images show PRC rallies at which the Jewish Star of David is depicted—but made of barbed wire.

Swedish Foreign Minister Wallstrom has cited her government’s unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state as proof of “consideration and solidarity” with Muslims. Sweden recently has accepted thousands of Muslim immigrants, some of whom were fleeing the Syrian civil war. In a Jerusalem Post Op-ed, Petersson notes that Wallstrom’s statements on “solidarity” with the Islamic world (a notional concept for a divided, violence-torn region) frequently begin with an emphasis on her government’s recognition of a Palestinian state—to “show how good Sweden is for Muslims (“Wallstrom has to resign,” Nov. 21, 2015).”

According to the terms of the 1990s Oslo peace accords—which Sweden supported—recognition of a Palestinian state must be the result of bilateral negotiations with Israel. U.S. and Israeli offers for a “two-state solution” in exchange for peace with and recognition of Israel made in 2000, 2001 and 2008, were all rejected by Palestinian Arab leaders, without any counter-offers. This may render Wallstrom’s recognition of a Palestinian state when none exists and may not be the main goal of Palestinian leaders, premature at best, an obstacle to peaceful coexistence at worst.

What the Palestinian leaders rejected in favor of launching and continuing the anti-Jewish violence of the second intifada, the Swedish foreign minister and an anti-Israeli NGO also apparently reject: a peaceful “two-state solution.” Instead they take Palestinian rejectionism as a given, implicitly treat anti-Israeli, anti-Jewish terrorism as acceptable and seek to indoctrinate Swedish children in those views. By erasing Israel from the map, the PRC and its supporters are doing more than just echoing the rhetoric of groups like Hamas or Fatah’s al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades—they’re serving the strategic aims of terrorist groups.

By using text books that advance that line, Sweden’s second largest city—from which many members of its 700-strong Jewish community fled because of antisemitic harassment half-a-dozen years ago—supports efforts to make not only itself, but also the Middle East, judenrein.