Siege Of Gaza Forces Palestinian Schools To Reuse Old Dehumanization Of Jews

“Our UNRWA school administrators have been unavailable – something about ‘bad reception underground.'”

Rafah, February 19 – When fourth-grader Wafa Zahri did her homework last night, her mother noticed that the materials she took out of her backpack consisted mostly of worn-out slogans comparing Jews to vermin, and not the spanking new analogies of Jews to manipulative, tentacle-spreading octopodes aiming to control the world and subject the goyim to oppression – images and terminology that has run short since Israel began its operations inside this coastal territory.

Maryam Zahri told reporters today that before October 7, her child had access in school to a plentiful array of antisemitic, dehumanizing depictions and characterizations of Jews, both explicit and implicit. But now, with Israeli troops working to root out Hamas from Gaza and, as a result, disrupting the flow of goods through the territory, as well as destroying stockpiles of materiel that Hamas and other armed groups have assembled, Wafa’s school, like many others even in areas of Gaza that have seen less fighting, struggles to obtain fresh stereotypes of Jews and new ways of implying or stating that Jews must be violently evicted from Palestine, of not the world, by any means necessary, the more brutal the better.

“It’s concerning,” acknowledged Maryam. “Certainly when I grew up, our UNRWA school had a plethora of dehumanization materials available. Every math problem involved Jewish perfidy or calculating how to kill Zionists. Reading comprehension exercises ensured the right anti-Jewish attitude in the questions that followed the text, if not in the text itself. But I haven’t seen a new map that shows only Palestine, and nothing about Israel, since the beginning of this school year.”

“Our UNRWA school administrators have been unavailable – something about ‘bad reception underground’ or what have you,” she continued. “I’d ask my husband, but he also hasn’t been home since October. He’s a journalist – no, wait, this time I’m supposed to say he’s a medical relief worker. He’s a medical relief worker, and he has so much to do that he hasn’t even been home to collect the crucial humanitarian supplies of bullets and grenades from under Wafa’s bed. At least I have some neighbors with whom to commiserate, plus my sister-wives.” Maryam gestured to a group of nanny goats in the front yard.

Observers remain pessimistic about the availability of new dehumanization-of-Jews educational materials in Gaza. “It’s not just the siege,” explained UNRWA representative Yahya Sinwar. “Remember, we were claiming there was a siege long before October., but we still had plenty of fresh antisemitic materials with which to educate the next generation. I think it’s also significant that there’s a lot more demand overseas, in places such as London, Toronto, New York, and at all levels of education, for the same materials, and demand far outstrips supply.”

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