The UAE and Palestinian Education: Dismantling National Identity in Service of the Occupation

In the name of “educational reform” in the occupied Palestinian territories, diplomatic sources have revealed the UAE’s persistent push to reshape the Palestinian curriculum under the guise of combating so-called “hate speech” and “incitement against Israel.”

While framed in the polished language of “tolerance” and “coexistence,” this campaign advances a far more dangerous objective: the slow erasure of Palestinian national identity and a strategic alignment with Israeli narratives of normalization and control.

From Normalisation to Narrative Erasure

Since signing the Abraham Accords in 2020, the UAE has evolved from a regional normalisation partner to a full strategic ally of Israel, extending cooperation across intelligence, economics, and media. Now, its influence has penetrated the heart of Palestinian society: the education system, a cornerstone of national consciousness.

But what the UAE seeks is not mere “curriculum improvement.” It is a reengineering of Palestinian awareness, recast through a lens that aligns with Zionist historical revisionism.

Informed sources confirm that Abu Dhabi has been pressuring international donors to tie future aid to the removal of content it deems “incendiary” — which often includes references to the Nakba, Israeli occupation, refugee rights, and even the right to resist oppression.

Education as a Soft Weapon

This UAE push dovetails neatly with long-standing Israeli goals: to delete the Palestinian narrative from collective memory and replace demands for justice with promises of “economic peace.”

The Emirati role here is not limited to echoing Tel Aviv’s language. Rather, it now implements Israel’s agenda by proxy, using soft-power influence and donor leverage to reframe Palestinian education in its image.

In the West Bank, the UAE is promoting a “modern” education model that mirrors the approach it sponsors in East Jerusalem schools — one that deliberately excludes words like “occupation,” “resistance,” or “liberation.” Instead, it pushes depoliticised concepts like entrepreneurship and innovation, severing the younger generation from their historical and political roots.

Financial Blackmail as Policy

The use of financial aid as a political weapon is not new. But what is new is Abu Dhabi’s role as Israel’s surrogate enforcer, exploiting the Palestinian Authority’s fiscal crisis to impose conditional “reform.”

Under the pretext of “modernisation,” the UAE seeks to rewrite textbooks, offer “neutral” teacher training programs, and institutionalise a sanitised version of history devoid of any anti-colonial or resistance-based content.

The ultimate goal? A generation of Palestinians taught to accept the occupation — not confront it.

A Strategic Threat to Palestinian Memory

This is not just a matter of curriculum reform. The UAE’s intervention is part of a broader strategy to fragment the Palestinian cause into isolated humanitarian and developmental issues, detaching them from the political struggle for sovereignty and justice.

In effect, Palestinian identity is being depoliticised. The UAE, under the banner of “peace,” is working to foster a generation that is less rooted in their national history and more open to coexisting with occupation as a permanent reality.

This strategy poses a threat no less serious than settlement expansion or the Judaization of Jerusalem — and potentially more dangerous in its long-term consequences.

Covert Alignment in a Colonial Framework

Despite all its public rhetoric about “peace” and “coexistence,” the UAE’s role is increasingly exposed as part of a regional counterrevolution, aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause through polished language and strategic influence.

What began as normalisation between states has now evolved into a project of social and cultural engineering, threatening to strip Palestinian education — and by extension, Palestinian identity — of its soul.

Make no mistake: the classroom is not a secondary front in the conflict. It is a central battlefield in the war for memory and meaning. And when that space is manipulated by foreign actors parroting Israeli talking points, the danger becomes existential.

The UAE’s aggressive alignment with Israeli policy in the education sector is a clear example of how deeply embedded it has become in the machinery of narrative suppression. This is not reform. It is a systematic attempt to dismantle Palestinian resistance from the inside out.