The Palestinian Authority (PA) established the Curriculum Development Center (CDC) in 1994. It was commissioned with formulating a Palestinian vision of a national educational policy and of a national curriculum. Work on a comprehensive framework was completed in 1996. Shortly after that, the PA’s Ministry of Education (MOE) established a new curriculum center commissioned with writing new school textbooks. The curriculum plan assumed concrete form during the 2000-2001 school year.

In the past three years, the Palestinian MOE introduced a number of new textbooks and a few teachers’ guides for grades 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8. The production of these textbooks involved hundreds of authors, reviewers, supervisors, teacher trainers, illustrators and technical support personnel.

The present investigation is an earnest attempt to present a professional analysis/evaluation of the new Palestinian curriculum, especially as it relates to the principles of civil society, peace, tolerance and diversity. It covers all textbooks that relate to the objectives and tasks of the investigation. However, a special focus is placed on language arts, religious education, history, civil education, and national education curricula.