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Item D-2: Misinforming Students On The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Item D-2: Misinforming Students On The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
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June 17, 2013
by Steven Stotsky
state of Israel." The perpetrators of the Munich massacre are "Palestinian gunmen"
and those who carried out the Entebbe hijacking are just "Palestinians."
The Oslo Accords, students are told, meant that "the two sides were no longer
claiming that the other did not have the right to exist as a state of peoples on that
land." Yet students are not informed about the Fatah Party Congress in 2009 where
participants cheered as Palestinian Authority officials vowed to never recognize the
Jewish State and reaffirmed their commitment to armed struggle. In addition, the
messages emanating from Palestinian media, mosques and officials exhorting the
public to oppose coexistence and to destroy Israel are ignored.
A complete and accurate account should not be sacrificed on the altar of
evenhandedness and not taking sides. In light of the current challenges we face
from upheaval in the Middle East, parents should object to their children being fed
Pollyannaish revisions of reality.
The Newton School Committee needs to stop circling the wagons, admit there is a
problem and start to address it with school administrators. Most of all, parents
whose children attend the Newton public schools need to awaken to the seriousness
of the problem and start demanding accountability.
Steven Stotsky is Senior Research Analyst at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle
East Reporting in America (CAMERA).