A senior official from the UAE Teachers Association has demanded that heavy penalties be imposed on anyone handling publications that promote the normalization of ties with Israel.
Ali Al Naboodah, director of the association's main branch in Sharjah, stressed the need for tighter censorship of imported publications that carry the Israeli name or flag, according to the Gulf News on Sunday.
"Censorship is required particularly in children's books, which often carry such violations," he told the Gulf News. He recalled parents complaining of teaching materials with content related to Israel. A passage in one book describes the Dead Sea as "falling between Jordan and Israel.”
Naboodah said anyone who finds such publications should take them to the authorities immediately so that they can be confiscated and an investigation undertaken.
"Tearing the book or one of its pages will not do any good, since there will be other copies out there," he said. Naboodah also proposed penalties for anyone selling these publications.
A source at the ministry of information and culture was quoted as saying that all imported publications were checked thoroughly to ensure that they did not contain information that distorted Arab and Islamic values.
"But in rare cases, an offensive publication might slip through unnoticed, and it is the duty of the public at this stage to report any such violations," the source said.
Among the Gulf states, Qatar and Oman have commercial ties with Israel – Albawaba.com
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