Parents for Excellence in Newton Schools

February 10, 2015

Perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - Altered Primary Sources

Below is a brief analysis of four primary source documents included in the packet titled Perspectives on the
Israeli-:Palestinian Conflict. The Perspectives handout is distributed to students in World History II classes
(a requiread sophomore course) in Newton, MA high schools. The documents are analyzed in Section F of the
Verity Educate report and on the website of Parents for Excellence in Newton Schools.
It is important to note that there is no notation on any of these documents which indicates that they are
shortened, edited, or altered in any way.
1. Speech by Yasar (sic) Arafat: We Recognize Israel
a. The purported title of the speech, We Recognize Israel, is NOT part of the original speech but
has been placed there by an editor. In reality, the speech has no title.
b. The words We Recognize Israel do not appear anywhere in the speech
c. In fact, nothing in the speech even remotely implies that the PLO agrees to recognize Israel. The
only mention of U.N. Resolution 181 is in references to Palestinian, not Israeli, rights and recognition
d. President Abbas has clearly stated that the P.A. STILL does not recognize Israel
e. Commontary by the editor, who claims that Arafat recognized Israel in a speech the previous
day (December 13, 1988) is inaccurate. The only mention of Israel in that speech were complaints
about her behavior and demands on her sovereignty. There is no mention of recognizing Israel in that
speech; Arafats citing of U.N. 181 are was made with respect to Palestine, not Israel.
f. The meaning of U.N. Resolution 242 set forth in the comments is inaccurate, as is the use of the
term Occupied Territories which was not in use at the time the resolution was made, and which even
today is not ordinarily capitalized.
2. Speech by Ariel Sharon: Program for Dealing with the Palestinians
a. Commentary falsely states that Sharons visit to the Temple Mount was instead a famous visit to the
Muslim shrine Dome of the Rock during which Sharon was accompanied by hundreds of armed
Israeli soldiers. This claim removes all Jewish historical connection, as well as Judaism itself,
from the site of the Temple Mount.
b. Why is the word armed included, as soldiers by definition are expected to wear arms? This
promotes bias by presenting Israel as an armed and presumably violent nation.
c. The purported title of the speech, Program for Dealing with the Palestinians, is NOT part of the
original speech but has been placed there by an editor. In reality, the speech has no title.
d. No wording even remotedly similar to the phrase dealing with the Palestinians appears in the
speech
e. In fact, the speech itself is not concerned with dealing with the Palestinians. The speech
nderlines the need for a broad national concensus about Israels security and the status of Jerusalem.
f. The phrase dealing with the Palestinians implies a nefarious plan by Israel. The term dealing
with a person or situation is usually used to either connotate a hostile or violent response, or a
` response to a difficult (often hostile) person or situation.
g. The editors comment that Sharons proposal would the West Bank [presumably meaning a
future Palestinian state] entirely within the state of Israel implies that this situation is novel
and/or unacceptable. In reality, the existance of such an enclave, while not common, is neither
unheard of nor a barrier to establishing independence. The nations of Lesotho, San Marino, and
Vatican City are all enclaves; there are also enclsaves of extranational territories in Europe, Africa, and

Parents for Excellence in Newton Schools

February 10, 2015

Asia. In addition, several nations would be considered true enclaves (nations entirely surrounded by
another nation) but for the presence of a water boundary.
h. The comments section misstates how the Israeli political process works
3. Speech by Yitzhak Rabin: The Price of Occupation
a.
Yet again, the editor supplies a title to Rabins speech which does not exist
b.
The speech is misleadingly edited. The editing creates the impression that the IDFs
estimate of
Palestinian injuries discussed in the speech is 25,000. In reality, Rabin first set forth the (actual) IDF
estimate of 18,967 injuries and later states that his own estimate is at leasat 25,000. Although this may
seem like a relatively minor matter, it illustrates the disregard for factual accuracy, which is present in
much more serious claims and deceptive editing elsewhere.
c.
The comments imply that the 1994-1995 agreements between Israel and the PLO,
commonly
known as the Oslo Accords, was a great achievement. There is no mention of the fact that
twenty years later, the Accords are widely considered to be a failure and believed by many to be
responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people.
d.
The comments imply that the election of Arafat as President of the Palestine Authority
was a
great achievement. There is no mention of the fact that both Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, the
current P.A. President, both remained in office illegally after their terms expired, and that it is
generally acknowledged that one of Arafts most important legacies was a culture of corruption
and millions of dollars donated by Western nations which went to Arafats bank accounts, not
for their intended purposes.
4. Hamas Covenant
a. The version given to students is a non-standard translation from a radical Islamist cleric instead
of the translation commonly used by academics and political commentators. Students are not told they
are utilizing a litte-used and discredited translation.
b. The version distributed to students is not only translated in a non-standard manner, it has
undergone two separate occurrances of deceptive editing. The first was by the editors of the
sourcebook from which the text was taken; the second was by the teacher of other individual who
copied and pasted the text from the sourcebook into the form in the handout given to students.
c. Verity Educate: The editing of the Hamas Covenant is so extreme that in some cases sentences
from different articles of the Covenant are fused together...the extreme edits, from both the
sourcebook and whoever created the handouts, have so altered the original primary source as to
create an entirely new meaning.
d. The title of the Covenant is mistranscribed. The word Palestine is not part of the Arabic phrase
from which the acronym Hamas is derived; and the proper (English) name of the document is
Covenant, not Charter.
e. The comments state that Hamas considers itself to be the Palestinian branch of the Muslim
Brotherhood, implying that this may not actually be the case. In fact, Hamas is closely connected with
the Brotherhood and was founded as an ofshoot. The comments inaccurate claim mnimizes the close
connection between the two groups.
f. The comments imply that America cutting off aid was one of the reasons Hamas took over Gaza
instead of taking over both Gaza and the West Bank was the withdrawl of American aid. In fact, not
only the U.S. but the U.N., E.U., and Russia also imposed foreign aid sanctions.. The intent of of

Parents for Excellence in Newton Schools

February 10, 2015

the U.S. wihdrawal of aid was not to allow Hamas to only take over Gaza instead both Gaza and the
West Bank, but an attempt to stop Hamas from seizing power at all.
g. There is no mention that the Covenant references The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a discredited,
anti-semitic hoax from the early 1900s.