Response to Jpost interview with the head of UNRWA

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

The interview conducted of UNRWA Director General Pierre Krähenbühl by Tova Lazaroff in the Jerusalem Post of Sept. 12, entitled “UNRWA HEAD APPEALS TO ARAB LEAGUE, SAYS REGIONAL STABILITY AT STAKE*, HTTPS://WWW.JPOST.COM/ARAB-ISRAELI-CONFLICT/UNRWA-HEAD-APPEAL-TO-ARAB-LEAGUE-SAYS-REGIONAL-STABILITY-AT-STAKE-566990 was characterized by questions that the interviewer neglected to ask.

When Krähenbühl speaks proudly of the 526,000 pupils educated in the organization’s schools, why did the interviewer not ask the commissioner general about the UNRWA curriculum, whose school books are dedicated to the “right of return by force of arms”?

Why did the interviewer not ask how it is that a school which operates under the auspices of the UN would use maps that delete Israel, a member in good standing of the UN, in all of its school books?

Why did the interviewer not ask the UNRWA commissioner general whether it was appropriate that maps in UNRWA school books would eradicate all names of Israeli cities and substitute the names of Arab villages in their place?

In terms of Hamas presence on the UNRWA premises, why did the interviewer not ask the UNRWA commissioner general about the Hamas takeover of the UNRWA workers union and UNRWA teachers union, which has been a fact of life since 1999?

Instead, the interviewer lets the UNRWA commissioner general get away with his mention of e “two staff members” affiliated with Hamas. And why did the interviewer not ask about the AL Kutla Hamas terror youth clubs that UNRWA allows in their schools?

Yes, there are UNRWA books which deal with human rights.

Our agency examined all 10 UNRWA human rights books. Not one word about human rights for anyone except for the residents of the UNRWA camps.

Perhaps the interviewer should have asked to peruse the UNRWA human rights curriculum, which is devoid of universal human rights.

Krähenbühl seems to have a memory lapse. He does say that there was supposed to be a “five to 10 year handover plan that foresaw the transfer of UNRWA… to the nascent Palestinian Authority. Krähenbühl forgets that the PA and UNRWA held a conference in May 2004 in which both parties decided to prolong the UNRWA mandate and to assure that the ‘right of return” would be carried out”

Perhaps the unkindest cut of all is that Dalal al-Mughrabi killed in a terrorist attack she had led a terror squad against a civilian bus on the Tel Aviv Coastal Highway in 1978 where she murdered 38 civilians, including 13 children, is gloried mentioned in four books, all studied in UNRWA schools.

In all of these UNRWA textbooks, Dalai al-Mughrabi, is glorified by UNRWA education as a “heroine and martyr of Palestine”.

The interviewer could not have asked how it could be that a UN school system would enshrine the legacy of Dalal al-Mughrabi?

It would therefore sound rather strange that the interviewer would let the UNRWA Commissioner General get away with saying that “The World Bank has described our education system as a global public good”

The interviewer could ask the World Bank if they have perused the UNRWA textbooks or vetted the UNRWA teachers.