Dismantling the Most Dangerous Weapon

Since October 2023, the Middle East has witnessed a range of weapons and violent acts, from small arms used by terrorists on the battlefield and in civilian areas, to powerful and complex military equipment like tanks, fighter jets, and rockets. 

 Yet, the most dangerous weapon deployed against Israeli civilians was not manufactured by any state. This weapon wasn’t produced in a Middle Eastern factory or anywhere else. 

It developed in plain sight over the years, and despite knowing of its existence, its full destructive potential was underestimated—perhaps even willfully ignored. 

That weapon is hatred.

Hatred has fueled acts of violence and terrorism like the horrific October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, marked by unprecedented brutality and savagery that shocked Israelis and even some Palestinians.

A Territorial Conflict at Its Core

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, at its core, resembles other territorial disputes where ethnic groups struggle over resources, particularly land. In such conflicts, hostility arises when one group’s rights are perceived as threatening the other’s claims. 

However, not all territorial disputes involve the dehumanisation of the other side. This is where a critical distinction emerges between Israeli and Palestinian societies, particularly in their educational systems.

Education Systems: Israeli vs. Palestinian

In Israeli society, hostility toward Palestinians exists in certain segments, and nationalist rhetoric can sometimes be heard from politicians.  However, Israel’s public education system does not institutionalise such hostility. 

While it may downplay Palestinian narratives and hardships, it stops short of dehumanising Palestinians as a national group.

The reason for this is that education in Israel (at least the public education system) is fundamentally Western. Like other reputable Western education systems, it does not include content that could be associated with hatred and incitement.

By contrast, the Palestinian education system is structurally different. For decades, Palestinian school curricula have contained incitement against Israel—not only in Hamas-controlled Gaza but also within the Palestinian authority’s jurisdiction. 

Textbooks often omit Israel from maps, referring to its territory as “occupied” Israeli towns are labelled as “occupied Palestinian villages” Even when Israel appears in Palestinian textbooks, it is often framed as a colonial oppressor, with its legitimacy denied. 

This narrative extends to denying the historical Jewish connection to the land of Israel, despite overwhelming archaeological and historical evidence.

This can lead to seemingly absurd situations, where a Palestinian child sees an Israeli settlement nearby that does not exist on the map he studies at school. It is a short step for him to conclude, that the Israeli settlement has no right to exist

Hamas-run schools in Gaza took this a step further, adding radical religious and jihadist messages, including glorification of “martyrdom” and military-themed activities in youth camps.

And to top off all this ‘goodness,’ Hamas also ensures the production of extreme religious content that encourages hostility and dehumanisation towards Jews in general – Why limit hatred to the local level when it can be spread globally through antisemitic content? 

The outcome of the indoctrination

This indoctrination has bred generations exposed to extreme narratives. On October 7, these narratives culminated in a horrific wave of brutality that shocked the world.

This intense wave of hostility did not spare non-Jewish residents either, including the kidnapping, killing, and abuse of foreign workers who had no connection to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict other than coming to work in Israel

Hamas militants also harmed, killed, and kidnapped Israeli Arab citizens, who, according to the Palestinian perspective, are part of the Palestinian nation. 

However, in the wave of hatred during the October 7 attack, they too were seen as collaborators with the enemy, deserving similar treatment.

After understanding the cause, the question is how to neutralise this dangerous weapon. The answer is to start with education.

Neutralising Hatred through Education

After decades of reality showing that neither the Palestinians nor the Jews are going anywhere (on the contrary, the populations of both sides have grown in recent decades), the need arises to understand how to neutralise the hatred.

As you can infer, the expected answer is changing through education revision.  

The Palestinian education system must undergo comprehensive reform. It need not become ‘pro-Israeli,’ but it must adopt international educational standards promoting tolerance, critical thinking, and recognition of a shared, complex reality, including the Israeli narrative.

There are examples that this is possible. For instance, the research institute IMPACT-se, which examines tolerance in textbooks, shows the changes made by the United Arab Emirates in their educational content and the negative content that was previously directed towards Israel. 

Similarly, though more modestly, Saudi Arabia has also improved its attitude towards Jews in their textbooks in recent years.

Historical examples such as post-World War II Germany and Japan demonstrate how education reforms emphasising peace and historical accountability can reshape national consciousness.

What about the Israeli education system? It would be beneficial to add content that addresses Palestinian perspectives, even if one does not agree with them, it is worthwhile to be aware of them.

Practical Steps Forward

A permanent ceasefire in Gaza must include explicit requirements for educational reform, backed by international oversight involving, for instance,  Israel, the Palestinian Authority, the EU, and the US. 

In addition, any international aid to the Palestinian Authority should be conditioned on meaningful curriculum reforms. 

This benefits not only Israel, but also Palestinians, fostering future generations with better educational and sustainable economic prospects.

While educational reform alone won’t resolve the conflict, it is a critical pillar alongside security measures, internal Palestinian national introspection, and appropriate agreements.

Only through such efforts can the region begin to dismantle the world’s most dangerous weapon.