First it was an Israeli flag on a Qatari school campus, and now it's a book.
Private schools in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are under fire for including a textbook that refers to Palestinians as terrorists in the students' school curriculum.
In Qatar, the International School of Choueifat in Onaiza (part of the Sabis global education network) was found to be using the textbook. The school has since removed all copies of the book, reimbursing all costs associated with its purchase.
"Sabis will be scrutinizing its screening system in order to avoid such mistakes in the future," said Joseph Salameh, director of ISC, according to Doha News .
Qatar's Ministry of Education and Higher Education issued a statement on Twitter following the incident, assuring the people that the book has been removed.
"The school has received a warning and has since withdrawn the book and reimbursed fees for all students. The Ministry's approval is required before a school includes any book."
One page in the textbook, "Technology, War and Independence," directly accuses Palestinians of historically engaging in "terrorist acts," which have continued till this day, according to Doha News .
"Palestinian terrorists took over several airlines in 1970, including two American, one Swiss and one British. They targeted American planes because they felt the USA always helped out Israel, a country that occupies land that the Palestinians claim is their own. They wanted their own country – Palestine – and wanted land that Israel occupies. Terrorist acts continue to this day in the Middle East."
The textbook was also making the rounds in the Bahrain and Dubai-based Choueifat schools, but it has been pulled there as well.
"They are feeding the kids wrong information and developing this hatred between kids in other nations. We pay tons of money for this school and it is ridiculous we pay this much to teach our kids something stupid and untrue," Abdul Hafeez, one of the parents, told 7DAYS .