The UAE, ​the United Arab Emirates, an Arab nation strategically located between Saudi Arabia and Iran, signed a solid peace accord with Israel which featured unprecedented clauses of rapprochement and clear commands against any form of incitement:

Peace and Stability: The Parties shall attach profound importance to mutual understanding, cooperation and coordination between them in the spheres of peace and stability, as a fundamental pillar of their relations… to take the necessary steps to prevent any terrorist or hostile activities against each other on or from their respective territories… as well as deny any support for such activities abroad or allowing such support on or from their respective territories.

Cooperation and Agreements in Other Spheres: As an integral part of their commitment to peace, prosperity, diplomatic and friendly relations, cooperation and full normalization, the Parties shall work to advance the cause of peace, stability and prosperity throughout the Middle East…

Mutual Understanding and Co-existence: The Parties undertake to foster mutual understanding, respect, co-existence and a culture of peace between their societies in the spirit of their common ancestor, Abraham, and the new era of peace and friendly relations ushered in by this Treaty, including by cultivating people-to-people programs, interfaith dialogue and cultural, academic, youth, scientific, and other exchanges between their peoples… The Parties shall work together to counter terrorism …by preventing radicalization and recruitment and by combating incitement.

What We Are Up Against in the PA Curriculum Used by UNRWA

Examples of Severe Anti-Israeli, Anti-Jewish and Anti-Peace Items Found in Schoolbooks Currently Used in UNRWA Schools in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem

  1. UNRWA uses schoolbooks that replace the State of Israel – a full member state of the United Nations Organization – with Palestine as the sovereign state in the region. Following is a lesson titled “Palestine is Arab and Muslim” which features a “Map of the Arab Homeland” presenting the whole country in one color with the name “Palestine” next to it under the Palestinian flag:

(National and Social Upbringing, Grade 4, Part 1 (2020) p. 8)

  1. Books used in UNRWA schools often replace Israel’s name with the term “Zionist Occupation”, as shown in the following example saying: “…The Arab armies withdrew from Palestine and the Rhodes Armistice was signed in 1949 separately between the Zionist Occupation and each of Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon…” (Geography and Modern and Contemporary History of Palestine, Grade 10, Part 2 (2019) p. 7)
  2. Israel’s pre-1967 territory is referred to as “the territories occupied in 1948”:

“The following chart clarifies the numbers of Palestinians in the year 2015 according to the Palestinian Statistics Center:
Region                                                                         Number of Inhabitants
The West Bank and the Gaza Strip                             4,750,000
Inside the territories occupied in 1948                   1,470,000
In the Arab states                                                        5,460,000
In the foreign states                                                       685,000
I will organize the regions where the Palestinians are found in a descending order according to the numbers of inhabitants:
[4 empty squares]”
(Mathematics, Grade 4, Part 1 (2020) p. 22. Emphasis added)

  1. According to textbooks used in UNRWA schools, Jewish history in this country is denied and archaeological evidence in this respect is considered a fake:

“…[The occupier] has built for himself an artificial entity that derives its identity and the legitimacy of its existence from fairy rales, legends and phantasies and tried in various methods and ways to create living material evidence for these legends, or archaeological [and] architectural proofs that would attest to their correctness and authenticity, but in vain.”
(Arabic Language – the Academic Path, Grade 10, Part 2 (2019) p. 68)

  1. Moreover, UNRWA schoolbooks deny the existence of Jewish holy places in the country, including the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the last remnant of the Jews’ ancient Temple. The following piece uses a Muslim tradition related to this place in order to deny the Jewish one. Please note that the accompanying photograph has been cut in a way that “hides” the Jews who pray underneath:

“Al-Buraq Wall
Illumination: The Al-Buraq Wall is thus named after Al-Buraq [the divine beast] that carried the Messenger [Muhammad] in the Nocturnal Journey [from the Mecca mosque to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem according to Muslim belief]. Al-Buraq Wall is part of the western wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Al-Aqsa Mosque, including the wall, is a Palestinian land and the Muslims’ exclusive right.”
(Islamic Education, Grade 5, Part 1 (2020) p. 63)

  1. Having been considered foreign settlers, the Jews in the country are not counted among its legitimate inhabitants and the cities they built, including Tel Aviv, are absent from the maps appearing in the textbooks that are used in UNRWA schools. The map shown here, titled “Map of Palestine”, does not show these cities at all, except for Eilat that appears under the Arabic name of the desolate place where it was later built – “Umm al-Rashrash”.


(Social Studies, Grade 6, Part 1 (2020) p. 6)

  1. Hebrew – the language of the Jews living in the country – is erased, literally, from a British Mandate coin reproduced in a mathematics textbook used by UNRWA:
    (Mathematics, Grade 6, Part 2 (2019) p. 75, and see the original coin below)

  2. The Jews’ historical and religious ties to their ancient capital and holiest city, Jerusalem, are completely ignored in UNRWA’s schoolbooks:
    “Jerusalem is an Arab city built by our Arab ancestors thousands of years ago.
    Jerusalem is a holy city for Muslims and Christians.”
    (National and Social Upbringing, Grade 3, Part 1 (2020) p. 29)

And a brief historical description of the city “jumps” from the Canaanite period to the Roman one, thus obliterating a thousand years of Jewish history there:

“The city of Jerusalem was known by the name Jebus, after the Arab Jebusites who built it 5,000 years ago. When the Romans occupied it, they called it by the name Aelia. Later, it came to be known as Al-Quds and Bayt al-Maqdis, after the Muslims conquered it at the hands of [Caliph] Umar Bin al-Khattab in the year 637…”
(Geography and Modern and Contemporary History of Palestine, Grade 10, Part 1 (2020) p. 43)

  1. Jews are demonized as enemies of Islam from its very beginning:
    “Let us watch the video clip from the accompanied disc about the Jews’ attempt to kill God’s Messenger [Muhammad].”

    (Islamic Education, Grade 5, Part 2 (2019) p. 65)
  2. Jews are demonized as infidels and as the Devil’s aides:
    “Where are the horsemen [who will ride] to Al-Aqsa [Mosque] to liberate it
    From the grip of infidelity, from the Devil’s aides?”

    (Arabic Language, Grade 7, Part 1 (2020) p. 67)
  3. Zionists and their “entity” – that is, Israel – are demonized and accused of genocidal intentions towards the Palestinians. The student in UNRWA school is required to elaborate on that:
    “1. The Zionists have founded their entity on terror, extermination and colonialism. Let us explain that.”

    (Arabic Language – Academic Path, Grade 10, Part 2 (2019) p. 28)
  4. With such a delegitimized and demonized adversary, peace is inconceivable. Indeed, none of the textbooks used in UNRWA schools does advocate peace with Israel or foresees the solution of the conflict to be peaceful. Instead, they advocate a violent struggle for liberation which is not restricted to the 1967 lines. In free Palestine, there is no room for Israel:


(Sciences and Life, Grade 3, Part 1 (2020) p. 65)

The “territories occupied in 1948” are targeted, Haifa and Jaffa specifically, as mentioned in the following piece:

“Let us sing:
Children of Palestine
I am a lion cub*; I am a flower**
We have given the soul to the Revolution***
Our forefathers built houses
For us in our free country [in the past]
I am a lion cub; I am a flower
We have carried the ember of the Revolution
To Haifa, to Jaffa
to Al-Aqsa [Mosque], to the [Dome of the] Rock”

*Lion cub – Male member of the Fatah youth movement
**Flower – Female member of that movement
***Revolution – Fatah terrorist activity that began on 1.1.1965
(Our Beautiful Language, Grade 2, Part 1 (2020) p. 44)

And a language exercise says it very clearly:

“It is appropriate for Jaffa that it return to our bosom.”
(Arabic Language, Grade 8, Part 2 (2019) p. 102)

  1. The perceived “right of return” – a central pillar in UNRWA schools that serve the young descendants of the 1948 refugees – is made part of the violent struggle, in sharp contrast to the relevant UN resolution No. 194 that refers to those of them who would like to live in peace with their Israeli neighbors:

“We shall return; we shall return with the soaring eagles; we shall return with the fiercely blowing wind; we shall return to the vineyard and the olive trees; we shall return in order to hoist the flag of Palestine next to the anemone flower on our green hills.”
(Arabic Language, Grade 5, Part 1 (2020) p. 84)

  1. Terror is part and parcel of the liberation struggle, as has been taught in UNRWA schools. Following is the first page of a 4-page lesson that exalts the female commander of the terrorist attack on a civilian bus on Israel’s Coastal Highway in 1978 in which more than thirty Israelis – men, women and children were murdered:

    “Dalal al-Mughrabi
    In front of the text
    Our Palestinian history is replete with many names of martyrs who have given their soul in sacrifice for the homeland. Among them [is] the martyr Dalal al-Mughrabi who has illustrated with her struggle a picture of challenging and bravery that have made her memory eternal in our hearts and minds. The text in front of us speaks of one aspect of her struggle path.”
    (Arabic Language, Grade 5, Part 2 (2019) p. 51)

  2. The question that arises in this context is: What should be done with the surviving Jews after the liberation of Palestine? The following poem that is sung in class by third graders gives the answer:

“We will sing and learn by heart: The Land of the Noble Ones
I swear, I shall sacrifice my blood
in order to water the land of the noble ones
And to remove the usurper [Israel] from my country
and to exterminate the foreigners’ [defeated] remnants
O  land of Al-Aqsa [Mosque] and the sanctuary
O cradle of dignity and nobleness
Patience, patience, for victory is ours
and dawn is peeping from the darkness
(Our Beautiful Language, Grade 3, Part 2 (2019) p. 66. Emphasis added)  

UAE & UNRWA – IN $

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