The Palestinian Authority Continues to Teach Hate and to Reward Terror

Since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 and Israel’s invasion of Gaza, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has frequently been mentioned as a good candidate to govern Gaza when the war ends. In a Washington Post editorial published November 18, 2023, President Biden wrote that a “revitalized Palestinian Authority” should govern both the West Bank and Gaza. The term “RPA,” standing for “revitalized Palestinian Authority” or “reformed Palestinian Authority” became common.

Unfortunately for anyone who supports that option, there is no evidence of reform or revitalization when it comes to the PA’s attitude toward terror or toward hatred of Jews and Israel.

FIRST: Start with the latter, teaching hate. The invaluable organization IMPACT-se, which studies and reports on textbooks, issued a new report on PA textbooks in March, 2025 The 2024-2025 academic year in Gaza began officially in February and there is a new curriculum for schools run by the PA in Gaza. As IMPACT-se wrote, this 

provided an ideal opportunity for the PA to conduct its long-awaited revision of its curriculum, aligning it with the commitments it made to the European Union (EU) in July 2024—pledging to reform its educational content in full adherence to UNESCO’s standards of peace and tolerance.

Alas, “these newly created materials contain antisemitic content that encourages students to acts of violence, justified on both nationalistic and religious ground….”

As the report says,

blackboard notations, classroom posters, and graffiti openly glorify terrorism, celebrate the October 2023 massacres and honour Hamas terrorist figures killed in the war. Documented evidence from these classrooms confirms that incitement remains a core pillar of Palestinian education in Gaza, despite the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis.

It's worth noting a few examples:

A Grade 11 lesson within the History package implies that Jews control the world, using classic antisemitic iconography of a hand bearing a Star of David gripping a globe….An Islamic Education textbook further reinforces antisemitic tropes, portraying Jews as deceitful manipulators who attempted to lead the Prophet Muhammad away from his faith….Jihad, terrorism and martyrdom are romanticized and encouraged. Terrorists and other Palestinian martyrs killed in the conflict are described in a poem as embracing their “rebirth” and “new dawn” as “they join the earth and the sacred homeland to the heavens.” Graphic wording in the poem describes these martyrs as climbing up a “mountain of their gushing blood”…. Terrorists responsible for attacks on Israeli civilians, such as Dalal Mughrabi, who took part in the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre that killed thirty-eight Israelis, including thirteen children, are celebrated as national heroes….One reading comprehension exercise tells the story of a "Zionist officer" who shoots a fisherman in Gaza before unjustly arresting his son (example 23). Another describes an Israeli sniper deliberately blinding a Palestinian boy, accompanied by an image of an armed IDF soldier standing beside a one-eyed child….Israel’s existence is entirely erased from regional maps. The name "Israel" does not appear in maps across the newly published educational packages….A striking example comes from Al-Nasr Elementary School in Gaza City, where students recite a poem glorifying the October 7th Hamas-led massacre….

Unfortunately there are plenty of other examples throughout the 99-page report. As it concludes, “In July 2024, the Palestinian Authority signed a Letter of Intent with the European Union, committing to curriculum reform and the removal of inciting content to align with UNESCO standards of peace and tolerance. However, the materials published for the 2024-2025 school year demonstrate a complete absence of such reforms.”

“Complete absence.” Donors to the PA’s educational programs should take a closer look at what they are supporting. PA schools are teaching another generation to hate Jews and Israelis and to become terrorists. And this is against the background of significant textbook reforms in numerous other Arab and Muslim countries, also reported by IMPACT-se.

SECOND: There is another test of the “RPA” and whether there have indeed been reforms. The PA has for decades made special payments to terrorists and their families, a practice known as “pay for slay.” These payments include money to Hamas terrorists, and they take a big chunk of the PA budget—hundreds of millions of dollars each year. These payments give the lie to PA protestations that they oppose terrorism. They are not apportioned on any humanitarian basis, such as the number of children the family has. Instead, they depend on the number of years of the prisoner’s sentence: in other words, on the seriousness of his (or her) crime.

Direct U.S. economic support funds for the PA were halted in 2018 by the Taylor Force Act, named after an American servicemember killed by a Palestinian terrorist in 2016. Until such payments to terrorists are halted, no more economic support for the PA. One might have thought the PA would move to a welfare system, basing support for prisoners and their families on something other than the gravity of their crime. No dice—until PA President Mahmoud Abbas claimed in February that he had done just this. There were many news stories like this one from Axios: “Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has issued a decree on Monday revoking the system of payments to families of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails or to families of Palestinians who were killed or wounded during attacks against Israelis.” The New York Times even headlined an article “In Overture to Trump, Palestinian Leader Ends Payments for Prisoners.”

Big move, because Abbas had said repeatedly he would never do this. On February 23, he told the Fatah Revolutionary Council:

We [the PA] again emphasize that we are proud of the sacrifices made by the Martyrs, prisoners, and wounded... I told you once and I stand by my word: Even if we have [only] one penny left, it is for the prisoners and Martyrs. I will not agree, and you will not agree, to reduce any obligation, any interest, or any penny given to them. They must receive everything, as it was in the past, and they are more precious than all of us!

So what was the truth? Abbas said in that same speech that “We have established a comprehensive protection and welfare system and have amended several laws to ensure the needs of all the groups that were harmed among the Palestinian families who need strengthening and assistance in Palestine. This system will work to maintain their dignity and material needs. We ask everyone to trust us."

Now it is April, and now it seems clear that those news headlines were wrong: there has been no reform. In February, Sen. Tom Cotton said that “It would be naive to think that after years of facilitating terrorism against Israelis and Americans the Palestinian Authority would suddenly have a change of heart.” He was right. In March, payments for February were made as usual. I am reminded of a Politico article headlined “US says Palestinians are close to changing ‘pay for slay’ program.” That article was dated March 29, 2024.

The PA may have changed the agency that pays terrorists, or the bank account, but there is zero evidence that the evil practice has been stopped. So as with textbooks, the PA has given new and convincing evidence that it does not seek and will not undertake reform. Those who believe there is now, or soon will be, a “reformed Palestinian Authority” are kidding themselves. The PA today continues to teach and to reward hate and violence. There has been no change of heart.