Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2001 11:14 PM
Subject: Who is Teaching School Children Hatred and Racism?

Canada Palestine Association
POBox, 1085,
Halifax,NS, B3J 2X1
 
The Hon. Mr. Stockwell Day, MP
The House of Commons.
 
15 May, 2001
 
Dear Mr. Day:
 
Further to my letter of May 13, and in reference to your recent address to the Canadian Jewish Congress, I would like to refer further to one of the many falsehoods in your address.
 
You spoke of : "Palestinian schools still teach their children from textbooks that can only be described as being overtly antisemitic". I described, in my earlier letter, this statement as totally false. Palestinians, like other Arabs, are Semites and have lived in peace with Jews for centuries in peace and tolerance. Their antipathy is against Zionism and not Jews. Furthermore, I challenged you to look at what racism Israeli leaders propagate against Palestinians and Arabs, and I challenged you to look at what they teach their children in their textbooks. To assist you in this endeavour, I am forwarding to you[ separately] a study carried out by Professor Daniel Bar-Tal, of Tel Aviv University in Israel, and published in The Washington Report for Middle East Affairs, in Sep. 1999. His study details the abusive offensive language used in Israeli textbooks against Palestnians and Arabs in general, indoctrinating children with racism and hatred against Arabs; true antisemitism, to use your expression.
 
I call on you to withdraw your statements and apologise for the offensive charges against an innocent people who have suffered dispossession and ethnic cleansing, that have been neglected by the nations of the world, that claim to have concern for human rights.
 
Yours sincerely
Ismail Zayid, MD
President, Canada Palestine Association