Ramallah: Palestinian youth are largely unaware of the Sykes-Picot Agreement and its drastic effects on the entire Palestinian cause as the school curriculum only briefly touches upon it.
The agreement is taught largely “for the record”, to show how Britain and France carved up the region after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
However, it does not teach students the significance or the consequences of the agreement.
Amazingly enough, Palestinian factions do not refer to the agreement anywhere on their official websites. It is as if it’s been totally forgotten and buried in the Palestinian memory.
“Because it is not taught in detail at school, Palestinian students understand that the agreement was not so important,” Hamza Al Fayomi, a university student told Gulf News.
Nazmi Zoabi, a history professor at Beir Zeit University, said that the Palestinian curriculum has lost its purpose; it is drifting without coherent direction and that it is no wonder academics often complain about the lack of material on the Sykes-Picot agreement.
“The curriculum is being used as a tool in the hands of Palestinian leaders who use this curriculum to justify their existence in the first place,” he told Gulf News.
“It is not surprising that these ruling elite, who derive their legitimacy from Sykes-Picot, choose not to highlight the agreement in the Palestinian curriculum,” he said.
Baha Hilal, a young Palestinian man, explained that while he may not have detailed knowledge about the agreement, he was fully aware of the injustice his people have experienced for decades.
“We feel the results of Sykes-Picot, we are living them daily,” he said.
As a result, Palestinians are raised to be very suspicious of the world around them, as they feel they have been abandoned, Hilal explained.
“Palestinians believe there is a conspiracy against them,” he said.
“The entire world joined forces to pave the way for the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people on Palestinian land, and since 1948 the world remains the devoted guardian angel of that entity,” he said.
