1. Last July, our agency met with U.S. State Dept officials who supervise school books for the PA and UNRWA, who assured us that new PA/UNRWA school books will now reflect principles of peace, tolerance and UN values.​ Our agency has covered the new Palestinian ​Authority curriculum since its inception on August 1, 2000. (1)

2.​ To verify these U.S. State Department assurances, our agency acquired all ​​240 new PA/UNRWA school books and hired two ​journalists with ​PhD’s in Islamic studies to evaluate the new books & translate them.

3. On January 6, our experts presented interim findings for U.S. embassy officials who came to the Knesset to meet our researchers, whose conclusions were that the incitement to war in the new PA/UNRWA text books is worse than ever. (​2)

4. U.S. embassy personnel said that they were impressed with our findings and called back to inform members of the Knesset that they would soon send a follow up letter.

5. When no follow up letter appeared, we asked a U.S. journalist whom we know to file an inquiry with the U.S. government to ask about the U.S. view of the current PA/UNRWA curriculum.

6. On March 18, the journalist received a response – in writing – from the White House that school books used by PA and UNRWA now meet proper standards. (3)

In their March 18, 2016 email, the WH official stated, “While there is still work to be done, the Palestinian government has made significant progress in reducing inflammatory rhetoric and revising official textbooks. Over the past few years, the PA has helped improve the Palestinian curriculum, including textbooks that discuss human rights and the Holocaust, which has contributed to a better education for young Palestinians. The Palestinian curriculum is transparent, and all textbooks are available for review in Arabic on the website of the official Palestinian Curriculum Development Center. The Government of Israel even approves of and utilizes the Palestinian texts for schools in East Jerusalem.“

7. The WH letter mentions the fictitious statement that the PA and UNRWA “discuss” the holocaust, which is categorically denied by UNRWA, which has adopted the PA curriculum. ​(​4)

8. The WH letter also made the fictitious claim that the government of Israel encourages use of the PA books in their current form in the schools of Jerusalem.

​9. On March 22, our agency briefed staffers of the U.S. House ​Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, in a closed briefing, where our experts presented the findings of the recently published 2014-2015 PA school books now used in the UNRWA schools. (​5)

10. Also on March 22, I met with U.S. ​​Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chair​ of the​ subcommittee, who ​confirmed that reps of the U.S. administration have approached her with misleading information that new PA school books used in UNRWA schools now meet proper standards.​ Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen​ said that she would therefore like to conduct open briefings ​with experts who have actually translated​​ and evaluated the PA school books used in UNRWA schools.

The challenges of our agency:

1. Finish our comprehensive report on the most recent PA school books published in 2014-2015.
2. Complete our new film: ‘UNRWA Schools in Jerusalem.’
3. Arrange for our experts to meet elected officials of UNRWA donor countries, beginning with Washington, Ottawa and London.

To accomplish these three goals, our agency seeks support.

How to support these efforts:

Sponsorship Opportunities

We are ready to present films and speakers at any appropriate venue.

==================
​(1) http://israelbehindthenews.com/with-encouragement-from-a-vatican-official-israeli-government-finally-denounces-a-palestinian-school-system-that-was-introduced-more-than-13-years-ago/10617/

(​2​​) http://israelbehindthenews.com/israel-and-jews-in-the-newest-palestinian-authority-pa-schoolbooks-taught-in-pa-and-unrwa-schools-de-legitimization-demonization-advocacy-of-violent-struggle-rather-than-peace-of-jihad-martyrdo/14346/

(​3) “Tiantawach, Dew” <Yodchiwan_D_Tiantawach@nsc.eop.gov>

Date: Mar 18, 2016 3:56 PM

While there is still work to be done, the Palestinian government has made significant progress in reducing inflammatory rhetoric and revising official textbooks. Over the past few years, the PA has helped improve the Palestinian curriculum, including textbooks that discuss human rights and the Holocaust, which has contributed to a better education for young Palestinians. The Palestinian curriculum is transparent, and all textbooks are available for review in Arabic on the website of the official Palestinian Curriculum Development Center. The Government of Israel even approves of and utilizes the Palestinian texts for schools in East Jerusalem.

(​4) http://israelbehindthenews.com/there-is-not-and-has-never-been-a-plan-for-a-holocaust-curriculum-in-any-unrwa-school/7025/

(​5) http://israelbehindthenews.com/members-center-near-east-policy-research-will-briefing-concerning-policies-unrwa/14521/

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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