New York and Texas schools feature map of Arab world without Israel

New York and Texas public schools are displaying maps in classrooms that replace Israel with a a united Palestine . One map, hanging on a classroom wall at PS 261 Zipporiah Mills in Brooklyn since at least April, is a colorful display of the Arab World with popular landmarks. However, where Israel and Palestine would usually be is one shaded area labeled ‘Palestine’, with no mention of Israel at all.

The classroom is used by Palestinian-American teacher Rita Lahoud to teach pre-kindergarten to fifth grade students about Arabic culture and language. She teaches a program funded by the Qatar Foundation International, a nonprofit owned by the Qatari Government, which posted a photo of the map to social media ‘We love seeing Arabic classroom decorations! Here are some from the Arab Culture Arts classroom at PS 261, a QFI-supported program in New York,’ it wrote.

Lahoud said lessons were about the art and culture of the Arab world and instructions were given in Arabic. ‘It’s a unique, multidisciplinary, project-based program that teaches the Arabic language through art,’ she said in a profile on the QFI website. The program covers 1,000 years of Islamic art, 20th Century Egyptian singer and actress Umm Kulthum, and present day art and culture.

‘This is so important in today’s political and social climate. Education programs like ours can go a long way in changing perceptions, and in giving children the necessary tools to refute stereotypes,’ she said. QFI funded the program as part of more than $1 million given to the NYC Department of Education over the past four years, public records show. The foundation donated about $241,000 in 2019 and 2020, $275,000 in 2021, and $513,000 in 2022. Records for 2023 are not yet public.

The map was an English-label version of one produced by United Arab Emirates-based education company Ruman. Ruman’s website sells three versions – for children, middle school, and adults – all of which do not include Israel and have the whole area labeled ‘Palestine’. The company’s website said the map ‘include all the Arab countries with each country labeled using its short name, the names of the capital and major cities in each country’ along with top tourists sites and geographical features.

A different map that also labeled the Near East area as ‘Palestine’ with no mention of Israel was on a wall at Manara Academy in Irving, Texas. Photos posted by QFI last month show a teacher wearing a hijab hand-painting the map and then the finished version hanging on the wall. ‘Students from Manara Academy in Texas #CelebrateArabic by ‘traveling’ around the Arab world, right from their classroom!,’ it wrote.

Manara is a free public charter school teaching children up to grade six ‘with a welcoming community of diverse educators, learners and parents’. Andrés Spokoiny, president of the Jewish Funders Network, shared the Brooklyn school map on Twitter, writing he was concerned about the QFI funding.

‘I love Arabic culture and I think it’s great that it’s taught in schools. But this program is funded by Qatar, the main sponsor of Hamas. Is it okay to have foreign govts putting programs in public schools?’ he wrote. ‘NYC Schools do parents know that this is a Qatar funded program?’

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