The Hon. Mike Pompeo
After your visit to Jerusalem.

Dear Mr. Pompeo,

As a US citizen who lives and works in Israel as an analyst and researcher of some of the most sensitive areas of US and Israeli foreign policies, I welcome you to Jerusalem and wish you well in your new position as the US Secretary of State.

A focus of our research for 30 years has been UNRWA reform, with a focus on UNRWA schools, which have been a prime recipient of US foreign aid for many generations.

http://israelbehindthenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Scope-of-Our-Work-UNRWA-Reform-Intiative-2003-2018.pdf

Over the past two years, the Center for Near East Policy Research translated all Palestinian Authority School books used in UNRWA schools, with the assistance of two PhD’s and the partial sponsorship of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and published by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.

This study can be viewed in two parts at;

  1. http://israelbehindthenews.com/full-study-school-books-now-used-unrwa-palestinian-authority/16438/

2. http://israelbehindthenews.com/israel-jews-peace-new-pa-textbooks-used-unrwa-schools-today-final-study/16903/

We have shared the results of this study with the White House, The US Congress, the US Embassy, and the US State Department, which prompted US Senator James Risch (R-Idaho) , chairman of the US Senate Near East Subcommittee, to authorize the conduct of a GAO investigation of the UNRWA educational system.

The monumental GAO study of the UNRWA school system will be completed this week.

However, GAO spokesperson, Mr. Chuck Young, announced on April 13 that “…the State Department indicated the report will need to be classified and cannot be released publicly”

The question remains; Why does the State Department not want to disclose what half a million students study in the UNRWA schools that have received substantive funds from the US for 68 years?

As of now, the US donates 30% of the $1.2 billion UNRWA budget. 54% of that UNRWA budget is allocated to UNRWA education

Perhaps, Mr, Pompeo., one of your first acts as US secretary of state will be to ask for full disclosure and lift the veil of secrecy from the GAO report on the PA school books which are now used by UNRWA.

Once again, with best wishes to your new challenge ahead.

David Bedein
Director
Israel Resource News Agency
Center for Near East Policy Research

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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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