‘Our role model, our president’

A booklet promoted by the Palestinian education ministry hailing president Mahmud Abbas has received criticism and mockery online, prompting the government to stress it is not an official text.

The booklet, titled “Our role model, Our president,” has a picture of Abbas on its cover and was said to contain quotes and thoughts of the 84-year-old leader.

A number of top Palestinian officials attended an event for its launch last week, and the education ministry had initially said it planned to distribute it to schools.

Critics mocked it and expressed fear it would become part of the Palestinian school curriculum.

Officials have since insisted it was the work of pupils at a school in the occupied West Bank and would not be added to the curriculum.

AFP was not able to obtain a copy of the booklet, despite requests to both the education ministry and the school where it was launched.

The booklet gained prominence when pictures were widely circulated of Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and a longtime Abbas ally, presenting it.

Its cover includes a picture of Abbas giving a speech at the United Nations.

In response Khaled al-Hroub, a Palestinian writer based in London, lined up a list of Palestinian literary figures and journalists opposed to the wider dissemination of the book.

“The publication of a book with a title like this implies paternalism regardless of the content,” he said on his Facebook page.

“We want to build a society and a civil state based on freedom and the critical mind, not on paternalism.”