Israeli, Palestinian schoolbooks flawed: Study

JERUSALEM (AP) - A new study weighed in on one of the hot-button subplots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Monday, saying schoolbooks of both sides largely present one-sided narratives but rarely resort to demonisation.

Palestinians embraced the findings as a rejection of Israeli claims that their schoolbooks incite hatred of Israel, while Israel's Education Ministry denounced the three-year United States (US) State Department-funded review of 20,000 textbook pages as politically motivated "libel".

Israeli, Palestinian and American academics who conducted the study said it set a new standard for objective textbook analysis. However, some Israeli textbook scholars said the interpretation of the data was skewed, letting Palestinian books off lightly.

Underlying the textbook debate are mutual fears and suspicions.