In the world according to Hamas, it's okay to teach kids that killing yourself in a terrorist attack is a good thing, or that a loveable Mickey Mouse knock-off was really knocked off by "the filth of the criminal Jews."
But when it comes to teaching children the history of the Nazi Holocaust of 6 million Jews, Hamas draws the line. According to Haaretz, Hamas condemned a United Nations book used in curriculum for 13-year-olds in Gaza that it believes will contain a chapter on the Holocaust.
"Branding the Nazi genocide of the Jews 'a lie invented by the Zionists,' the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip wrote in an open letter to a senior UN official that he should withdraw plans for a new history book in UN schools."
The United Nations Relief Workers Agency (UNRWA) told the newspaper that the Holocaust curriculum wasn't part of the coming school year.
A Hamas spokesman ducked questions about the Holocaust itself, but said "we oppose forcing the issue of the so-called Holocaust onto the syllabus, because it aims to reinforce acceptance of the occupation of Palestinian land."
Perhaps. Or, it might be that Hamas realizes Palestinian children might ask questions whether their conflict with Israel, which has a death toll in the thousands, merits the same label of "holocaust," as the systematic extermination of millions of people.