An aside: These new PA textbooks were financed by Ireland, Holland, Belgium and Finland. Italy had initially committed itself to help finance the new PA school books.
However, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, of blessed memory, who served as the Papal Nuncio, the Vatican ambassador in Jerusalem, between 1998 and 2006, reviewed the new Palestinian Authority school books and described them as “anti-Israel war manuals” and asked the Italian government to withdraw support for the new Palestinian school book project. Italy, indeed, cancelled its sponsorship of the publication of the new Palestinian Authority school books, at the request of the Vatican.
When I showed the new school books of the Palestinian Authority to Ehud Olmert, when he was Mayor of Jerusalem, he said, curtly, that we will teach what we want and they will teach what they want”
======== Research for this article was done by Dr. Arnon Gross. Dr. Gross holds a PHD in Islamic Studies from Princeton, and has worked as senior correspondent for the Arabic language service of the Israel Broadcasting Authority for the past forty years.
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