Legislators who Fund UNRWA Confronted with Reality of… UNRWA Education for War

11 December 2014

 

To: Ms. Imogen Atkinson
Office of David Burrowes MP, Member of Parliament for Enfield Southgate

From: David Bedein, Director, Israel Resource News Agency & Center for Near East Policy Research

Thank you for your kind words about our briefing at the Henry Jackson Society

The theme of UNRWA is “Peace Starts Here”. Accountability for UNRWA policies, which do not promote peace, rests with donors to UNRWA.

The UN does not fund UNRWA activities. Donor nations do.

Our published piece in today’s Jerusalem Post speaks for itself.

http://israelbehindthenews.com/rising-personal-attacks-time-come-examine-unrwa-policy/12236/

There are numerous indiscretions in UNRWA education policy which members of Parliament could question.

We suggest that MP Burrowes begin by asking six questions concerning Western-funded UNRWA education policies which affect the minds and hearts of 492,000 students who now study in UNRWA schools:

 

1. Why is Israel not mentioned in textbooks used by UNRWA?

EXAMPLE

 

The land of the Levant [Bilad al-Sham in Arabic] presently comprises the following states:

1. Palestine
2. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
3. The Republic of Lebanon
4. The Syrian Arab Republic

(History of the Ancient Civilizations, Grade 5 (2004) p. 30)

Note: Later editions feature “Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria” only, with no titles. The State of Israel is missing in both versions.

 

2. Why does Palestine replace Israel on maps of textbooks used by UNRWA?

EXAMPLE

Lesson 4: Palestine is Arab and Muslim

The Palestinian people is part of the Arab-Muslim nation

(National Education, Grade 2, Part 1 (2007) p. 16) [Latest edition of this book so far]

 

3. Why does the very creation of Israel in 1948, by virtue of the 1947 UN partition resolution, defined in UNRWA textbooks as “occupation”?

How can a UN body object to the existence of a nation that is a member in good standing of the United Nations Organization?

EXAMPLE

Israeli Occupation:

A disaster fell upon Palestinian society in 1948 at the hands of the Zionist organizations as most of the Palestinians were forced to emigrate from their land and the State of Israel was established on part of Palestine…

(National Education, Grade 5 (2013) p. 30)

 

4. Why does the UN allow textbooks used by UNRWA education to advocate war?

EXAMPLE

A language exercise indicating the liberation of Palestine by a violent struggle:

I will reconcile the following poetic lines with the feelings they express:

A morning of glory and red liberty watered by the martyrs’ blood… [Bottom right]

– The hope for the liberation of Palestine [Second item on the left]

(Reading and Texts, Grade 9, Part 1 (2013) p. 12)

 

5. Why does UNRWA use textbooks which emulate martyrs who kill themselves while committing acts of murder?

EXAMPLE

The Martyr [Excerpts]

I will carry my soul in my palm and toss it in the abyss of destruction

[Let it be] either a life that delights a friend or a death that infuriates the enemies

[Verses 1&2]

Hearing [weapons’] clash is pleasant to my ear

And the flow of blood gladdens my soul

As well as a body thrown upon the ground

Skirmished over by the desert predators

[Verses 6&7]

By your life! This is the death of men

And whoever asks for a noble death – here it is!

[Verse 10]

(Our Beautiful Language, Grade 7, Part 1 (2013) p. 75) [The piece here is taken from an older edition, p. 97]

 

6. Why does UNRWA use textbooks to indoctrinate students to engage in the “right of return” by force of arms?

EXAMPLE

We Are Returning

Returning, returning, we are returning

Borders shall not exist, nor citadels and fortresses

Cry out, O those who have left:

We are returning

Returning to the homes, to the valleys, to the mountains

Under the flag of glory, Jihad and struggle

With blood, sacrifice, fraternity and loyalty

We are returning

Returning, O hills; returning, O heights

Returning to childhood; returning to youth

To Jihad in the hills, [to] harvest in the land

We are returning

(Our Beautiful Language, Grade 5, Part 1 (2013) p. 50)

 

These examples represent only some of the issues ignored in the studies of UNRWA/PA education that were presented to DFID and the British government  by organizations that whitewashed the current “spirit” of the schools in the UN refugee camps.