Zionism has sought to distort information related to the history of Palestine, Arabs, and Muslims.
……. pressured Arab governments to adopt educational policies that align with their interests.
& worked to manipulate public awareness in the Arab world on the Palestinian issue.
It is necessary to enhance curricula that reflect historical truth and support the rights of Arab peoples.
It seems that Arab educational curricula no longer write about the Arab-Zionist conflict except from the perspective of the international community and the United Nations, following the financial blackmail practiced by Western supportive countries and Zionist pressure on Arabs. As a result, international criticism was limited to the absence of the entity from the map of the Arab world and recommended its inclusion in the map of the region; essentially erasing historical Palestine's geography and replacing the entity with it.
It also recommended the removal of any expression describing Zionism or the entity as racist, and prohibiting mention of resistance and liberation, while encouraging praise for peace agreements, normalization, cultural exchange, and intellectual diversity with the occupying Zionist entity. It is evident that Western powers, through various mechanisms, have indirectly influenced educational systems in the Arab world, such as promoting certain values or imposing educational curricula that are not always compatible with Arab culture or identity.
Cultural and historical war
Zionist strategies in controlling education in the Arab world are of great interest because they represent one aspect of the cultural and historical war through which the Zionist movement seeks to achieve its political, economic, and social goals in the Arab region by:
- Influencing curricula:
Curricula are considered one of the main means of influencing the Arab mind, where Zionism sought to change or distort information related to the history of Palestine, Arabs, and Muslims, such as depicting the Arab-Zionist conflict in a way that ignores the rights of Palestinians and diminishes the importance of the Palestinian issue. It rewrote history by reducing the role of Arabs and Muslims in the region's history, presenting the Zionist narrative as the only narrative, and attempting to promote the idea of normalization and cooperation with the entity through educational programs that claim to promote peace among peoples.
It also sought to write and study Arab curricula from the perspective of the Arab-Zionist conflict according to the colonialist and Zionist Western view of the concept of "terrorism" formulated by the West, which regards any Arab people or revolutionary movement trying to liberate themselves from colonialism and intellectual invasion as terrorists. The "axis of resistance" is the enemy that must be confronted, viewing the entity as a democratic and tolerant state that must be dealt with as part of the Arab region, removing the concepts of colonialism and occupation from it.
The Palestinian people and their land, upon which the entity was established, have committed the worst massacres against them, displacing them from their land and homeland. They are deemed to have no legitimate or essential reasons or fate to defend themselves and fight the Zionist occupation, their rights and will being marginalized and stripped from the political map of the region and the world by colonial countries advocating for recognition of the other.
- Pressuring Arab governments:
Through Western support and diplomatic influence, Zionism sought to pressure Arab governments to adopt educational policies that align with its interests, such as supporting educational initiatives calling for peace with it, enhancing student exchange programs or educational conferences portraying the democratic peaceful entity in the minds of Arab students. Additionally, funding and supporting non-governmental organizations or educational institutions that can disseminate educational curricula that formulate history in a way that suits the Zionist narrative.
- Impact on educational institutions:
Zionism has worked to influence Arab educational institutions by cooperating with universities and establishing partnerships with them to offer graduate programs or academic conferences that promote Western values, or contribute to spreading Zionist ideas, and benefit from educational lobbies by using academic institutions and research centers close to Zionist thinking to expand the influence on the educational process.
- Exploitation of religious education:
Religious education in the Arab world is considered one of the important areas that can be influenced by Zionism, whether directly or indirectly, and in this context, the Zionist movement sought to influence the religious interpretation of the Palestinian issue by promoting a religious understanding that may align with Zionist political orientations in the region, and promoting the Zionist vision that sees Jerusalem as their capital instead of considering it the capital of Palestine.
- Teaching the language and culture of the enemy:
Zionism has made efforts to introduce the Hebrew language into school curricula and spread it among students in some Arab countries; this contributes to understanding Zionist culture and indirectly engaging with it, exploiting tourism and cultural activities to teach Arabic youth the Hebrew language and attract them to visit the state of the entity, or participate in cultural or sports events supervised by Zionist institutions; this enhances acceptance of its culture.
- Support for non-governmental organizations:
Some non-governmental organizations, supported by Zionist entities, work to implement educational programs that aim to spread ideas in line with Zionist policies in the Arab region. These organizations seek to offer scholarships to Arab students in the entity with attractive study programs; this contributes to changing the Arab youth's perception towards it, and providing cultural exchange programs that aim to promote dialogue with Arab youth, focusing on highlighting certain aspects of Zionist culture.
- Reducing awareness of the Palestinian issue:
Through this strategy, Zionism works to reduce popular awareness in the Arab world of the Palestinian issue, and to distract public opinion from the practices of Israeli occupation in Palestine, as well as reduce interest in the issue in the minds of the new generations.
It can be said that Zionism seeks to influence Arab education at multiple levels, whether through curricula, media, or even through academic and cultural cooperation. These strategies aim to shape a positive image of the Zionist entity in Arab minds, while reducing focus on the Palestinian issue and its struggle.
In order to confront these malicious policies and deceptive Zionist strategies, they must be countered by practices to deter them through awareness and cultural consciousness in the Arab world on the importance of the Palestinian issue as an Arab issue that cannot be erased or forgotten, and that its land is occupied by the colonial state of the entity that occupied the land, usurped the right, killed the Palestinian people, and displaced them. It is also through promoting true education and sincere curricula that reflect historical truth and support the rights of Arab peoples, especially the Palestinians.
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