Report: Anti-Semitism Keystone of Belgian School Curriculum
by JNS.org
JNS.org – The Belgian Ministry of Education has been supplying primary school teachers with anti-Semitic material through the state-funded Special Committee for Remembrance Education, which provides teachers with ready-made templates for their history lessons, the Gatestone Institute reported Sept. 16.
The teaching material includes cartoons like “Never Again, Over Again” from political cartoonist Carlos Latuff, who is known for anti-Semitic, pro-Palestinian motifs in his artwork. The cartoon, taught at to schoolchildren ages 6 -12, equates Palestinians to the Jews under Nazi tyranny.
The educational material also includes a “role play” in which children are given a role as either a Palestinian or an Israeli. The Israelis are almost always depicted negatively, with the exception of an Israeli character with many Palestinian friends.
“You have sympathy for the radical group Hamas. You live in Gaza and go to work every day in Israel… the death of a Palestinian girl shot by Israeli soldiers in the school playground has shocked you deeply. Israel denies having shot the children, but according to representatives of the United Nations in Gaza everything indicates that she was killed by the Israelis,” describes the Palestinian cue in the role-play exercise.
Belgium’s Special Committee for Remembrance Education curriculum also does not include information on Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East, according to the Gatestone Institute.