ith the launch of the new school year in the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA education system, it pains me to report that US funds flow to these schools, without constraints to UNRWA/ PA schools – funded in great part by US AID , which allocates $359 million a year to UNRWA, representing thirty percent of the $1.2 billion UNRWA budget. which emanates from 68 donor nations.  54% of these donor funds educate 492,000 students in UNRWA schools in Judea, Samaria, Gaza & Jerusalem.

Considering the fact that President Trump was the first US President to personally see and react to the PA/UNRWA textbooks, it is even more disturbing that the US would simply fund the books as a matter of business as usual.

President Trump saw the PA textbooks and gave Israel a green light

As the director of the agency which conducted the first comprehensive study of Palestinian Authority text books used by UNRWA, underwritten by Simon Wiesenthal Center, it is imperative to address a false statement issued by UNRWA that the U.S. and EU approved text books which  “made significant updates in 2016 to address concerns” raised by these text books. This UNRWA statement provided the basis for a positive NSC  (National Security Council) assessment of UNRWA education.

National Security Council (NSC) issues statement on UNRWA. We offer to brief the NSC

Having covered UNRWA education for thirty years, at no time have the US or the EU ever been given the opportunity by UNRWA or the PA to review or approve textbooks used in any PA or UNRWA school. We have received letters on record from US AID, which reports that, as a matter of policy, US AID will not examine texts in PA or UNRWA schools.

After a Year of Misinformation from the Obama administration – US AID ADMITS: “WE DO NOT INTERFERE WITH THE PALESTINIAN CURRICULUM”

The following points address the issues that UNRWA raised concerning the first comprehensive study of PA/UNRWA textbooks.

  1. This is the new study:

Executive Summary:

Schoolbooks of the Palestinian Authority (PA): The Attitude to Jews, Israel and Peace

Full report:

Full study of school books now used by UNRWA & the Palestinian Authority

  1. Newsworthy items taken from those new PA/UNRWA textbooks:

Items Taken from the New PA Schoolbooks used in UNRWA schools, August 2017

  1. Analysis of the UNRWA role in the education of Palestinian Arab children

UNRWA’s Problematic Educational Role in the Middle East Conflict

 

  1. UNRWA dismissed the study out of hand:

https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/textbooks-used-unrwa-schools-occupied-palestinian-territory

  1. Refutation of UNRWA statement by author of the study of PA/UNRWA texts.

UNRWA Spokesperson Christopher Gunness Refuted

 

  1. Statement from The Center For Near East Policy Research to the UNRWA response

Don’t believe what your UNRWA Spokesperson tells you

 

  1. Short Investigative films of UNRWA, filmed on location:

http://tinyurl.com/lxc6xvs

Where do we go from here? Urge donor nations to adopt the “UNRWA Reform Initiative” to condition funds on reforms consonant with UN values:

Don’t Dismantle UNRWA; Reform Its Policies

 

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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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