UNRWA SPOKESMAN CHALLENGES OUR CREDIBILITY: WE RESPOND by challenging the credibility of UNRWA

Following publication of “The role of UNRWA in preparing their students for war” in the April 4^th edition of Israel Resource Review,

http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=7223&q=1

The UNRWA press spokesperson, Christopher Gunness, issued a statement that challenge to the credibility of our research on UNRWA.

What follows is the statement issued by Gunness and our response which calls into question the credibility of UNRWA.

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From: GUNNESS, Christopher <C.GUNNESS@unrwa.org >
Date: Apr 7, 2014

Allegation 1. UNRWA is “using textbooks and employing teachers that encourage children to revere and engage in violence”

As agreed upon when the United Nations first established the UNRWA education program, UNRWA uses the textbooks provided by the governments where they were located. The rationale was that by following the host country curriculum, the children would be able to take state examinations at the end of each cycle and thus be able to transition to upper secondary and university education provided by the host government.

The curricula and the textbooks in all countries where UNRWA operates have been reviewed and reformed often with the support of major donors including the US and EU.

The Government of Israel approves the use of the PA curriculum in the Arab schools in East Jerusalem that fall under Israeli administration – the same curriculum used by UNRWA in the West Bank and Gaza.

UNRWA is not complacent as to the potential of bias in host country curricula and remains proactive in this regard. In 2013, UNRWA launched a “Curriculum Framework” that is designed to enhance host country curricula and establish standard criteria for analyzing and assessing all textbooks for issues related to bias, neutrality and in general to ensure they reflect UN values and UNRWA expectations. It also provides overall guidance to make sure that the students’ classroom experiences overall promote those values and principles.

To further strengthen human rights education and a culture of peace in all of its schools, UNRWA has launched a Human Rights, Conflict Resolution and Tolerance (HRCRT) program in all UNRWA schools since 2000 with generous funding from the US government. The HRCRT program directly empowers teachers to address these issues within the clear framework of international human rights law and UN values.

Allegation 2. UNRWA is “providing material support for, and working with, designated foreign terrorist entities such as Hamas”

As a United Nations agency, UNRWA adheres to a very strict code of neutrality that prevents any employee from supporting or otherwise being involved with the activities of outside entities, including becoming involved in the activities of any political party.

UNRWA is in full compliance with all requirements of Section 301(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and regularly provides certification reports to the United States Government on the implementation and enforcement of regulations and policies relating to neutrality and 301(c).

Through a program funded by the United States Government, UNRWA also deploys international staff members to ensure the sanctity and integrity of UNRWA installations and programs through regular and unannounced inspections of facilities and interviews with staff, focusing primarily on the neutrality of facilities and personnel.

In addition to very comprehensive background checks prior to hiring employees, UNRWA also provides regular checks of existing staff, contractors and beneficiaries against the UN’s lists of terrorists and terrorist entities as well as providing the names of all staff members and contractors to host governments and donor countries on a regular basis, including to the United States.

Allegation 3. UNRWA is “promoting the principle of the ‘right of return’ through the ‘armed struggle'”

As laid out in the Refugee Convention of 1951, refugees maintain the right to return to the homes from which they fled unless and until an alternative is selected by both the refugees themselves as well as the governments which will integrate them.

However, as a humanitarian aid organization, UNRWA conducts no political activities and therefore does not undertake activities that would promote any specific solution to the refugee issue, including the “right to return” or any other potential options.

As a matter of principle and as an Agency of the United Nations, UNRWA does not promote or condone armed conflict or violence of any kind. On the contrary, UNRWA opposes all use of violence and advocates on behalf of a just and durable solution for Palestine refugees achieved through peaceful means such as negotiations.

Allegation 4. UNRWA should “ascribe to the accepted, legal UNHCR definition of a ‘refugee'”

This allegation is based upon the widely misconceived notion that the children of refugees should not be considered refugees. In fact, under official policy and practice of UNHCR, the children of refugees are treated as refugees until there is a solution to their temporary displacement.

In practice, the operational definition of a refugee used by UNRWA is more rigid than the UNHCR definition, meaning that if
UNRWA were to adopt the UNHCR definition, it is quite likely the number of Palestine refugees registered could significantly increase.

It is also important to note that UNHCR actively promotes three options for refugees populations. The first, which is strongly promoted by UNHCR in the vast majority of cases, is to return the refugees to their country of origin. The second is to integrate them into the locations to where they fled. The third is to resettle them in a third country. However, under any of these options, both the refugees themselves as well as the countries where they will ultimately reside must agree with the plan.

The following is our agency’s response to to Gunness’ attempt to rebut the allegation that UNRWA is “using textbooks and employing teachers that encourage children to revere and engage in violence”:

The professional who formulated the response: Dr. Arnon Groiss:

It might be important that children and grandchildren of 1948 refugees be able to get secondary and university education in their respective countries through the use of local curriculum and textbooks.

But such books must not propagate anti-peace and pro-violence notions that, in their turn, contribute to the perpetuation of the conflict – in total contradiction to UN principles to which UNRWA, as a UN agency, should be committed.

Furthermore, such books must not present a UN member state (Israel) as a heavily demonized illegitimate state. So long as they do, UNRWA should not use them in its schools because peace and non-violence are higher values than preparing schoolchildren to continuing their studies.

The curricula and textbooks in all countries where UNRWA operates may have been reviewed and reformed often, but the latest textbooks of which we have got hold (published mostly in 2013) still contain significant improper material that UNRWA must not teach (de-legitimization of Israel and the presence of its 6 million Jewish citizens and their holy places, severe demonization of Israel without any objective information that would balance the hateful language, non-advocacy whatsoever of a peaceful solution to the conflict and, instead, the promotion of a violent struggle for the liberation of Palestine without restricting that struggle to the West Bank and Gaza alone). That means that the process of revision and reform has so far been clearly futile.

The UN principles of a peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict and the UNESCO guidelines of non-hateful education should prevail under all circumstances. Israel’s current policies cannot relieve UNRWA of its commitments as a UN agency.

The problem is by no means restricted to “potential bias”. According to the well-documented findings we have presented in our reports (of which the general features are mentioned above), the books used by UNRWA make up a war curriculum.

Consequently, they should undergo a thorough revision – in line with the suggested list I have submitted – so that they indeed “reflect UN values” and “make sure the students’ classroom experience promote those values and principles”, because they presently reflect and promote exactly the opposite.

The problem with the UNRWA Human Rights, Conflict Resolution and Tolerance (HRCRT) Program, of which the books for grades 1-6 we have seen, is that it solely deals with Palestinian society and almost never refers to the conflict with the Jewish/Israeli “other”.

The two references to the conflict I have found in these 12 books are of a demonizing character: one is a sentence saying that the children of Gaza fly kites in spite of the [Israeli] siege and the other features a photo of a Palestinian family in a tent and explains that its home was demolished [by Israel, presumably].

To sum up: UNRWA, being an international body, must not let hateful language and advocacy of violence into the textbooks it uses.

Such books should be immediately discarded and wholly replaced by other ones, or else, UNRWA should cease all its educational activity and pass its facilities and work force over to the local governments. It has been a negative element in the region’s educational history for too long.

REBUTTING SPECIFIC TALKING POINTS IN THE UNRWA STATEMENT

FORMULATED BY DAVID BEDEIN

The UNRWA quotes are in italics: our response is in CAPS

Curricula and the textbooks in all countries where UNRWA operates have been reviewed and reformed often with the support of major donors including the US and EU.

AT NO TIME HAVE THE US OR THE EU OR ANY OTHER DONOR NATIONS CARRIED OUT A STUDY OR REFORM OF UNRWA CURRICULA.

OUR AGENCY ASKED “US AID”, THE MOST GENEROUS DONOR TO UNRWA EDUCATION, AS TO WHETHER US AID CONDUCTS ANY STUDY, FOLLOW UP OR INQUIRY INTO THE UNRWA CURRICULM, WE RECEIVED A CLEAR “NO” FROM USAID, IN WRITING, ON MORE THAN ONE OCCASION

UNRWA has launched a Human Rights, Conflict Resolution and Tolerance (HRCRT) program in all UNRWA schools since 2000 with generous funding from the US government.

OUR AGENCY ACQUIRED THE UNRWA “HUMAN RIGHTS” CURRICULUM AND COMMISSIONED A TRANSLATION AND ANALYSIS OF THE UNRWA HUMAN RIGHTS CURRICULUM AND FOUND THAT IT WAS DEVOID OF HUMAN RIGHTS TOWARDS “THE OTHER”, AND MOST CERTAINLY DEVOID OF ANY MENTION WHATSOVER OF HUMAN RIGHTS FOR JEWS AND/OR CITIZENS OF ISRAEL

As a United Nations agency, UNRWA adheres to a very strict code of neutrality that prevents any employee from supporting or otherwise being involved with the activities of outside entities, including becoming involved in the activities of any political party.

OUR AGENCY DOCUMENTED THE PRESENCE OF HAMAS IN THE OPERATION OF THE UNRWA CAMPS AFTER HAMAS WON THE UNRWA UNION ELECTIONS IN 1999, 2003, 2006, 2009 AND 2012. IN ADDITION, OUR AGENCY HAS DOCUMENTED THE ACTIVITY OF HAMAS YOUTH CLUBS, KNOWN AS “AL KUTLA” YOUTH CLUBS, IN THE UNRWA FACILITIES. HOW DOES UNRWA NOT KNOW THAT?

UNRWA is in full compliance with all requirements of Section 301(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and regularly provides certification reports to the United States Government on the implementation and enforcement of regulations and policies relating to neutrality and 301(c). Through a program funded by the United States Government, UNRWA also deploys international staff members to ensure the sanctity and integrity of UNRWA installations and programs through regular and unannounced inspections of facilities and interviews with staff, focusing primarily on the neutrality of facilities and personnel. In addition to very comprehensive background checks prior to hiring employees, UNRWA also provides regular checks of existing staff, contractors and beneficiaries against the UN’s lists of terrorists and terrorist entities as well as providing the names of all staff members and contractors to host governments and donor countries on a regular basis, including to the United States.

THE US CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE HAS PROVIDED DOCUMENTATION WHICH SHOWS THAT AT NO TIME HAS UNRWA EVER VETTED EMPLOYEES WHO WORK IN UNRWA FACILITIES IN JUDEA, SAMARIA, JERUSALEM AND GAZA TO DETERMINE IF THEY ARE MEMBERS OF HAMAS.

HOWEVER, UNRWA OFFICES IN LEBANON, SYRIA AND JORDAN DO VET EMPLOYEES TO DETERMINE IF THEY ARE MEMBERS OF HAMAS.

FOR WHATEVER REASON, THE US STATE DEPARTMENT AND THE US AID REPRESENTATIVES WHO WORK WITH HAMAS IN JUDEA, SAMARIA, JERUSALEM AND GAZA DO NOT HOLD UNRWA TO BE ACCOUNTABLE FOR THOUSANDS OF UNRWA EMPLOYEES WHO ARE OPENLY ACTIVE IN HAMAS,

UNRWA opposes all use of violence

IN THAT CASE, WHY DOES UNRWA USE SCHOOL BOOKS WHICH OPENLY ADVOCATE WAR, JIHAD AND MATYRDONM.

UNHCR actively promotes three options for refugees populations. The first, which is strongly promoted by UNHCR in the vast majority of cases, is to return the refugees to their country of origin.

WHAT UNRWA NEGLECTS TO SAY IS THAT UNHCR MENTIONS THE OPTION OF THE RIGHT OF RETURN WHILE UNRWA MANDATES THE RIGHT OF RETURN AS THE ONLY OPTION

All textbooks reflect UN values and UNRWA expectations.

INDEED, “Peace begins here” is the UNRWA theme. A more accurate description of the UNRWA school system would be: ”War begins here”.