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Education to Peace Is Crucial in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
(EU Reporter) Long-term education to peace is crucial to reaching an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, Palestinian and Israeli experts told a seminar for journalists organized by the Europe Israel Press Association (EIPA) in Brussels. "This dimension was always neglected by both sides and the moderator," said IDF Brig.-Gen. (res.) Michael Herzog, who took part in every round of peace negotiations since the nineties and the Oslo agreements. "We had then an agreement called 'people to people,' which never materialized because the Palestinians didn't want to normalize relations with Israel before any solution. This culture of peace is the critical issue. It is not only about signing an agreement between two governments. You need to educate the people," he stressed. Bassem Eid, founder of the Palestinian NGO Human Rights Monitoring Group, said, "If the European Union, who is funding the education system and the schools under the Palestinian Authority, is not going to evaluate their curriculum, which is not educating to peace, it means that Europe becomes part of the conflict rather than part of the solution." "The Palestinian leadership is holding its own people as hostages for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As long as Fatah and Hamas are divided from each other, forget any kind of opportunity for resuming peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. That's because of the Palestinians, not the Israelis."