The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) issued school textbooks in the Palestinian Authority (PA) are among the most antisemitic and inciting in the world.
No discipline is untouched by the problem. From math to theology, to literature and science, their content promotes blistering hatred for Jews and Israel, indoctrinating school students as young as six years old to commit their lives to “martyrdom” and inter-generational war. Compromise with Israelis is described as betraying Palestinian identity, and suicide bombings as a prerequisite for entry into heaven.
Changes promised by UNRWA have not been made
The Israeli IMPACT-se research and policy institute, which analyzes educational curricula around the world for compliance with UNESCO benchmarks, submitted an extensive 245-page dossier in 2023 detailing the glorification of terrorism and antisemitism that is still rife within UNRWA educational facilities.
The organization said that the large body of textbook evidence in the Palestinian curriculum still contradicts promises made by UNRWA to donor nations that it is working to prevent hate teaching and the glorification of terrorism in its schools and that its “neutrality officers” prevent such teachings. UN Watch and the IMPACT-SE report in March 2023 showed that 133 UNRWA educators and staff were also found to be promoting hate and violence on social media.
The European Parliament condemns the material but offers little oversight
Such antisemitic incitement and glorification of terrorism in Palestinian textbooks issued by UNRWA was also a substantial cause of Hamas’ October 7 massacre across Israel, the European Parliament declared in a series of resolutions passed in January 2024.
The European Parliament reaffirmed in the context of the despicable terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on 7 October 2023, that education to hatred has direct and dramatic consequences on the security of Israelis as well as on the perspectives of a better future for young Palestinians.
UNRWA meanwhile has received nearly $1 billion from the U.S. over the past 5 years, and similar amounts from the UK, EU, and others, whilst continuing to use textbooks written by the Palestinian Authority, which consistently promote Jihad, antisemitism, and suicide attacks against Israelis.
The European Parliament in January rued the possibility that European tax dollars were being funneled for this purpose and called for a complete restructuring, as well as increased oversight, of the Palestinian education system for antisemitic themes to be purged from the curricula whilst these academic institutions receive European aid.
UNRWA-issued textbook material is blatant in its violent content against Israelis
This education to hatred is taught in UNRWA schools, not only through textbooks but also through institutional teaching materials self-produced by the UN agency’s education departments.
IMPACT-se’s report includes documentation from UNRWA’s Al-Zaytun Elementary School in Gaza showing how infamous Palestinian terrorist Dalal al-Mughrabi was glorified in class, her picture posted on the classroom chalkboard alongside text celebrating her as “the fighting leader,” and referring to her terrorist accomplices as “heroes.”
Al-Mughrabi and eight accomplices had perpetrated the Coastal Road Massacre in 1978, in which they murdered 38 Israelis, including 13 children. Grammar exercises in another Palestinian textbook include the sentence, “I will commit jihad to liberate the homeland”.
Another such example is an Arabic-language study card produced by UNRWA’a Al-Maghazi Middle School for Boys in Gaza that contained a reading comprehension story that celebrated an attack on Israeli passengers traveling on a bus, describing it as a “barbecue party.” It remained present in the school’s educational materials as of 2022.
Education indoctrination was a major cause of the October 2023 Israel massacre
The October 2023 massacre in Israel was the result of many years of this indoctrination of the Palestinian people. More than 500,000 students study at schools in the Gaza Strip, with over half attending UNRWA-operated schools.
The end result of that radicalization is that among the thousands who went over the border on October 7 and committed acts of murder, rape and abduction, it is statistically probable that the majority went to UNRWA’s schools.
The IMPACT-SE report focuses on matters that directly connect UNRWA’s education system to the October 7 attacks. It lists over 100 UNRWA school graduates who carried out the attacks and are recognized by Hamas as “martyrs.”
An UNRWA diploma was indeed found in the car of one of the terrorists. The report also shows that UNRWA staff and teachers joined the massacre celebrations, saying that at least 14 UNRWA school staff members publicly praised the attacks on social media.
In conclusion
Given that the education is geared towards inciting whole generations of Palestinians to commit the kind of unspeakable acts of terror that we saw, there needs to be a direct link between international funding of UNRWA and not just a guarantee, but concrete evidence, that once and for all, UNRWA stops teaching this curriculum.
Jennifer TealeSchool textbooks are key to creating a tolerant society of the future. They are uniquely authoritative. They carry the values and the identity of the government. For these reasons, we desperately need a new Palestinian curriculum.