Response of the EU Dept of Foreign Affairs and Security Affairs
Regarding your questions, the EU is firmly committed to promote inclusive and quality education for the Palestinian people, including to ensure full adherence with the United Nations values and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) standards and norms in the field of education and in all education material.Since 2021, the EU has stepped up its engagement with the Palestinian Authority in this regard. The Palestinian Authority must ensure the highest standards in fostering a culture of peace and coexistence paving the way for a future where the conflict can be solved through negotiations leading to a two-state solution.
The EU has no tolerance for incitement to hatred and violence, as means to achieve political goals, the glorification of ‘armed resistance’ and antisemitism in all its forms. Any material that goes against these principles risks undermining peace and coexistence and has no place in textbooks or classrooms. This position was reiterated recently in the statements published following the latest events in Jenin and Jerusalem.
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The EU and other European donors collectively support the Palestinian education sector and the provision of quality services in a wide range of ways. The EU does not fund any textbooks. There are no UNRWA textbooks. UNRWA always uses the textbooks of the host in question. It regularly reviews the textbooks and learning materials used in UNRWA schools under its Curriculum Framework, which aims to ensure that the curriculum is in line with UN values….
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My response to the EU Dept of Foreign Affairs and Security Affairs
*Concerning the claim that UNRWA “aims to ensure that the curriculum is in line with UN values”:
*Is the presentation of a woman who murdered more than 30 people as a role model in a PA/UNRWA text book in line with UN values?
*Is the eradication of every Jewish community on both sides of the 1949 UN armistice lines in line with UN values?
*Is there evidence that UNRWA actually reviews texts taught to their students?:
No EU answer to my response.
1388 words, incl. illustrations
Concrete examples of undesired material that the EU might address
- The total absence of the State of Israel – a fully recognized sovereign state world-wide – from all maps. Instead, the whole country is presented as “Palestine” politically. Israel’s pre-1967 territory presented as “Palestinian territories occupied in 1948”, which insinuates the goal of total annihilation of Israel, rather than peaceful co-existence with it.
- De-legitimization of the presence of Israel’s 7 million Jewish citizens, as their cities – including Tel Aviv – do not appear on the map, which insinuates the desire to make them “disappear” eventually and contradicts the ideal of peace and co-existence.
- Denial of Jewish history in the country, including the existence of archaeological relics that prove that.
- Denial of the Jews’ historical and religious ties to their ancient-modern capital Jerusalem, including the “neglect” to mention the very name “Jerusalem” (Urushalim in Arabic) in a brief review of the city’s names throughout history.
- Non-recognition of the Jews’ holy places in the country, chief among them being the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, which is presented as an exclusively Muslim holy place.
- Falsification of an historical item by erasing the Hebrew inscription from it.
- Demonization of Jews by describing them as “the Devil’s aides” in the context of Al-Aqsa Mosque, or “enemies of God’s prophets”, which is tantamount to incitement to murder within a traditional society from which most of the Palestinian school students come.
- Instilling in the children’s minds the obligation to free Palestine in its entirety, not just the areas of the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinian cities within Israel’s pre-1967 territory should be returned to Palestinian rule: Jaffa in this example.
- “Armed resistance” is the way of the full liberation of Palestine. The female-commander of the most ferocious terrorist attack on an Israeli civilian bus in 1978, which ended in the murder of over thirty Israeli civilians – men, women and children – is made a role-model for Palestinian children.
These specific examples are taken from schoolbooks that were published by the Palestinian Authority in 2020 and are in use today, also in the UNRWA schools.
Some of these examples were not noticed by the Georg Eckert Institute researchers.
Others were duly addressed by them and appeared in their report, while still others were explained away in one way or another. We, on our part, tend to view these examples as indications of a comprehensive indoctrination trying to negate the “other” to the point of extinction.
Either way, our question remains: Will the EU indeed implement its own policies and demand the removal of the following incitement from the PA/UNRWA educational system that it finances:.
Asking the European Union About Funding Palestinian education
David Bedein, MSW, Director
As the head of the Nahum Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research, have covered the Palestinian Authority school system since the very first day that the PA began to issue its own textbooks on August 1, 2000. Having met with and received personal authorization from Yassir Arafat to receive and review all textbooks issued by the Palestinian Authority and used by UNRWA schools in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and Gaza, the center engaged Dr. Arnon Groiss to review more than 1,000 school books issued by the PA.
Dr. Groiss, fluent in Arabic, holds a Phd in Islamic Studies from Princeton University, and a masters degree in public administration at Harvard, and served as the deputy director of Arab language services at the Israel Broadcasting Authority. In that context, asked the EU spokesman if the EU would take proactive steps to remove incitement from PA and UNRWA schools.
This is the EU response: “The 2022 assistance package in support of Palestine was adopted on 16 December 2022. Education was not included in the incentive‐based tranche of the PEGASE mechanism. The EU remains firmly committed to promoting inclusive and quality education for the Palestinian people, including to ensuring full adherence with the United Nations values and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) standards and norms in the field of education and in all education material. The Palestinian Authority must ensure the highest standards in fostering a culture of peace and coexistence paving the way for a future where the conflict can be solved through negotiations leading to a two-state solution. The EU has no tolerance for incitement to hatred and violence, as means to *achieve political goals, the glorification of ‘armed resistance’ and antisemitism in all its forms. Any material that goes against these principles risks undermining peace and coexistence and has no place in textbooks or classrooms.
The paragraph in the EU letter saying: “The EU has no tolerance for incitement to hatred and violence as means to achieve political goals, the glorification of ‘armed resistance’ and antisemitism in all its forms” was really encouraging.