The media universally reports that US Presidential envoys Kushner and Greenblatt are currently “expected to discuss only the economics of the Palestinian Authority at this time”.

There is a danger that their singular focus on economics will allow the Palestinian Authority to continue to operate a school system based on war indoctrination – without any constraints.

With the genesis of the nascent Palestinian Ministry of Education, the Center for Near East Policy Research, which I direct, took upon itself the responsibility to examine attitudes to war and peace which appear in Palestinian Authority schoolbooks used by the PA and UNRWA, ever since the PA issued its new school books in the August 2000

We gained access to new PA school books after I politely asked permission of PLO leader Yassir Arafat to examine these texts.

Yassir Arafat, who always reminded the world that he was a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, assured me that new PA textbooks would promote peace and reconciliation.

And on August 1, 2000, on the very day that the first new PA school books began to come out, I met with the PA Minister of Education at the time, Nayim Abu Hummus who sent me to the PA school book stores, with Arafat’s permission.

Since that time, my staff has met with all three subsequent PA ministers of education, and, with the authorization of the PA, we purchased all 364 PA schoolbooks used by the PA and by UNRWA.

We commissioned Dr. Arnon Groiss, a 42 year veteran of the Voice of Israel Arab language Department to examine the PA school books.

And over the past 19 years, all 364 were examined and found to be devoid of any hint of education for either peace or co-existence.

Quite the opposite. Most recently, a new PA textbook for Grade 3 glorifies the necessity of “exterminating” foreigners and “scattered remnants”, namely, the country’s Jewish inhabitants, following the removal of Israel (the “ usurper” is the terminology used for Israel in PA textbooks )

Another new PA textbook, for Grade 5, presents a portait and profile of an Arab terrorist Dalal al- Mughrabi, who led a terrorist attack with a team of five killers on the coastal road in March 1978.

After they murdered the first Jew they met on the beach, American photographer Gail Rubin, niece of Senator Abe Ribicoff (D-Conn) Dalal and her gang commandeered a civilian bus and murdered 38 people, including 13 children.

In a three page lesson plan, Dalal is presented as a role model for the Palestinian Arab children to emulate.

Such “education” represents the vile indoctrination which should first be addressed – before economics, if any semblance of peace is to be achieved.

White House sources confirm that President Trump saw the new PA school books which we sent him, and that their content outraged him.

That is where Kushner and Greenblatt must first place their attention.

If they do, they will earn the respect of the President of the United States, who delegated them on a mission of peace in the Middle East

SOURCETimes of Israel

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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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