11 December 2014

 

To: Ms. Imogen Atkinson
Office of David Burrowes MP, Member of Parliament for Enfield Southgate

From: David Bedein, Director, Israel Resource News Agency & Center for Near East Policy Research

Thank you for your kind words about our briefing at the Henry Jackson Society

The theme of UNRWA is “Peace Starts Here”. Accountability for UNRWA policies, which do not promote peace, rests with donors to UNRWA.

The UN does not fund UNRWA activities. Donor nations do.

Our published piece in today’s Jerusalem Post speaks for itself.

http://israelbehindthenews.com/rising-personal-attacks-time-come-examine-unrwa-policy/12236/

There are numerous indiscretions in UNRWA education policy which members of Parliament could question.

We suggest that MP Burrowes begin by asking six questions concerning Western-funded UNRWA education policies which affect the minds and hearts of 492,000 students who now study in UNRWA schools:

 

  1. Why is Israel not mentioned in textbooks used by UNRWA?

EXAMPLE

 text-book-1

The land of the Levant [Bilad al-Sham in Arabic] presently comprises the following states:

  1. Palestine
  2. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
  3. The Republic of Lebanon
  4. The Syrian Arab Republic

(History of the Ancient Civilizations, Grade 5 (2004) p. 30)

Note: Later editions feature “Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria” only, with no titles. The State of Israel is missing in both versions.

 

  1. Why does Palestine replace Israel on maps of textbooks used by UNRWA?

EXAMPLE

text-book-2

Lesson 4: Palestine is Arab and Muslim

The Palestinian people is part of the Arab-Muslim nation

(National Education, Grade 2, Part 1 (2007) p. 16) [Latest edition of this book so far]

 

  1. Why does the very creation of Israel in 1948, by virtue of the 1947 UN partition resolution, defined in UNRWA textbooks as “occupation”?

How can a UN body object to the existence of a nation that is a member in good standing of the United Nations Organization?

EXAMPLE

text-book-3

Israeli Occupation:

A disaster fell upon Palestinian society in 1948 at the hands of the Zionist organizations as most of the Palestinians were forced to emigrate from their land and the State of Israel was established on part of Palestine…

(National Education, Grade 5 (2013) p. 30)

 

  1. Why does the UN allow textbooks used by UNRWA education to advocate war?

EXAMPLE

text-book-4

A language exercise indicating the liberation of Palestine by a violent struggle:

I will reconcile the following poetic lines with the feelings they express:

A morning of glory and red liberty watered by the martyrs’ blood… [Bottom right]

– The hope for the liberation of Palestine [Second item on the left]

(Reading and Texts, Grade 9, Part 1 (2013) p. 12)

 

  1. Why does UNRWA use textbooks which emulate martyrs who kill themselves while committing acts of murder?

EXAMPLE

unwra-text1

The Martyr [Excerpts]

I will carry my soul in my palm and toss it in the abyss of destruction

[Let it be] either a life that delights a friend or a death that infuriates the enemies

[Verses 1&2]

Hearing [weapons’] clash is pleasant to my ear

And the flow of blood gladdens my soul

As well as a body thrown upon the ground

Skirmished over by the desert predators

[Verses 6&7]

By your life! This is the death of men

And whoever asks for a noble death – here it is!

[Verse 10]

(Our Beautiful Language, Grade 7, Part 1 (2013) p. 75) [The piece here is taken from an older edition, p. 97]

 

  1. Why does UNRWA use textbooks to indoctrinate students to engage in the “right of return” by force of arms?

EXAMPLE

unwra-text

We Are Returning

Returning, returning, we are returning

Borders shall not exist, nor citadels and fortresses

Cry out, O those who have left:

We are returning

Returning to the homes, to the valleys, to the mountains

Under the flag of glory, Jihad and struggle

With blood, sacrifice, fraternity and loyalty

We are returning

Returning, O hills; returning, O heights

Returning to childhood; returning to youth

To Jihad in the hills, [to] harvest in the land

We are returning

(Our Beautiful Language, Grade 5, Part 1 (2013) p. 50)

 

These examples represent only some of the issues ignored in the studies of UNRWA/PA education that were presented to DFID and the British government  by organizations that whitewashed the current “spirit” of the schools in the UN refugee camps.

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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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